"First off, thanks for all the info. I did a lot of reading prior to my first run. I have a brewhaus pro series essential extractor, the brewhaus fermenting kit and a large propane burner. Now for some details.

First mash- 17# sugar, turbo yeast and distilled water. I had used the cleaner and rinse from brewhaus prior to this. Let it go and watched the bubbling and temp til done. Let it settle a couple of days and then used the sparkeloid to settle. Waited a day and siphoned into pot.

Set up the still per instructions, only using the one column to do a stripping run. Came to temp in about an hour, discarded the first 50ml and then continued collecting until 96 C. Had to turn the burner down as it was running to quickly. Got it down to several drops a second. Got about 5 liters out of this, and took about 7 hours.

By the way, the mash had registered about 18% with the alcoholmeter.
When the distilate was cool, I checked the abv and got about 77%. This seemed low. I took a small sample, diluted to about 40% and did a blind taste test with Pearl vodka, Grey Goose and mine. Had mixed reactions although everyone liked it. One person picked it as the grey goose. I had always intended to do a reflux run, but want to learn along the way.

My observations are that I think I was not getting enough cold water. I used all the hose as instructed, but I think that is too much hose, and not enough lift. Maybe too small a pump. The run did not want to get over 97 C. (I collected a bottle of feints from 96-97)

I plan on doing a reflux run, then taste test, then possibly a carbon filtering.

Any advise is appreciated.
I read that you close off the out take to let the reflux stabilize. I don't have a valve on the essential. Where does this go? I plan to dilute this first run with water prior to the reflux. 40%-50%, discard the first 50ml.

Do you all leave the cooling water off at first and then add it at a certain point? If so what? And I assume you have a valve in line to control this? I think that it is a mix of burner temp and cooling water to regulate the output?

Sorry this is long, but I want to be sure before I run the reflux.

Also, I assume the copper is packed into both columns.

I did not insulate on the first run. Should I have, and should I on the refllux?

Even if my taste is good, I would like to get a higher percentage.

Thanks

Niki"

The nice head honcho fellow who peddles the BH equipment told me..Do Not..insulate anything except the boiler. If the column is insulated it interferes with the reflux action of the unit. As the vapor climbs the column and cools some of it drops back into the boiler aka refluxing. If it cant shed the heat it do not reflux as efficiently as it could if it wasnt insulated. Makes sense to me. He has posted the same info right on here. Know this goes against some of the conventional wisdom on the topic..but I cant help it...lol.

Hey Bigwheel you are right I ment to put pot not tower for insulation, guess I should'nt be trying to do 4 things at once. Niki1, I'm not sure about the Bicarb as I don't use it, but I know there's a thread on here somewhere. If you do a search I'm sure you'll find it.

"Hey thanks Bushy..know that multi tasking can be rough. Aint never tried it personally but it apparently something only wimmen are good at.:)

"

"Thanks. I will insulate the pot, and play around with the pump to try to get more volume, and add a valve to then control it. yeah, i am having fun and do enjoy the analyzing as it is a great learning experience. I will update after the spirit run!!

niki"

"I bought another pump so I could run the water to the tower and condenser as stand alone systems. I like it much more than useing one pump for both.
Having the ball valves Bigwheel mentioned is a must no matter which way you go. It makes controlling the h2o flow much easier."