First time post on here, be gentle if I'm being a Dingus. So I'm not new to distilling but I've always used a pot still and fire heat. I recently built a electrically heated reflux still and I'm having problem. I'll list out the details of my set up then my issues and process.
- 15gal Keg Pot
-single 5Kw heating element. 230v
- 2" reflux column roughly 4ft tall.
- feed and return lines for condenser feed horizontally through the main column to produce the reflux cooling
- cooling water comes in from the bottom and out the top - no packing (yet)
- analog Temp gauge in the boiler - Calibrated RTD at the very top of the column.
- Running 10-12gal of 8-9% sugar wash.
So the problem is that I cannot get any decent proof out of the dang thing. I mean 100proof or less! I see guys on here complaining when they can't get more than 180, so I should by no means be getting the junk output i'm getting. After I get my forshots to run off, I cannot get any output worth a damn until the top of my column hits almost 205F!!! I had it sitting at 170-180F for over an hour and couldn't get more than a few drips. tried 190s barely anything, only after it's over 200 will I start to get steady drip, drip drips. At this point my analog gauge in the boiler is reading 200-210ish. I would have thought that my RTD was out of wack. but the fact that my proof is coming out at 60-100 proof tells me that it's reading correct and that I'm just pulling a ton of water with my ethanol because my temp is too high.
As I mentioned above I'm testing this out with about 10-12gallons of a 8-9% sugar wash that I tested with a hydrometer (I'm not guessing) I would expect to pull at least a gallon of higher proof stuff out. Hell i'm honestly happy with 130-150, let alone what I read these other guys pull out of their reflux stills. I've done 3 runs now and each time I give up after pulling off a quart because after a quart of 70-100proof it drops way down to the floor at like 30 proof :( I've played around with turning my power and water ratios up and down all other the spectrum and I can't get any better results. Any ideas are greatly appreciated. i'm pulling my hair out.
