"I dug out my ""Joy of Home Brewing"" book and reviewed the section on mashing. I believe I had either had my temperature too low or there is something I was not understanding about mashing corn. I decided to add in some malted barley (6 row) and malted wheat and do a stepped mash. I kept the mash around 150 - 152 and after 45 minutes, the iodine test went from purple to brownish purple. I then upped the temp to 158 for 30 minutes after a couple hours with no change in the iodine test.

After a couple hours of mashing i cooled it and put it in the carboy. for 5 lb corn, 2 lb 6 row, and 1 lb malted wheat, the final gravity was a whopping 1.030. seems to me that the only thing that converted to sugar was the 6 row and wheat."

No sugar on the first run. After I strain the grain from the wash( start the pot) I add 7 lbs of sugar( melted in hot water) back to the used grain then bring the water level back to the 6 gal mark and pitch yeast . I usually do all this while the still is heating slowly with the first wash. The second run is a lot hotter hooch than the first. However the first has the best taste. All I've ever ran is a pot still so I am after the flavor. I'm sure there are better ways to get the all grain taste but this is what works for me. The cuts have to be right or you get the wet hound dog flavor. Or my least favorite the fingernail polish smell.

"Sixvsix...I'm pretty sure that book you mentioned is a beer book and with that in mind -- when you make a beer wash your gonna drink it just that way so a 4 or 5% wash is fine for a beer.
Now with a likker wash thats gonna be distilled you really should add sugar to your wash. Most use at a minimum 5 pounds. In all my washes I use 10 lbs. If you go through as many likker washes as you can find you'll see that most if not all call for the addition of sugar, or mollasses anyway.
Just food for thought."