I have a quick question I've been meaning to ask and keep forgetting about. My still produces decent likker the best being about 65-70 percent and I stop collecting once its under 50 as it starts with the tails. I get a few jars per run and for a 12qt pot seems fine to me. Now I don't ever get my first drip until the temp at the top of the lid where the vapor is until its 195F. I keep the good stuff till about 203F or so I forget and thats before the stinky tails come in. This works for me but I am just curious why mine takes such higher temps to operate.. just bad design or what? Here is an image of my setup.

The past few batches I have added about 2 jars of 35-45% stuff from previous batches ya... I allow my pot a good hour to come up to temp and once its there and starts dripping I turn it down so the flame is just barely on. It takes awhile but my drip rate stays pretty consistent at about 1-2 a sec. I've never got a whole jar of 70% my highest is 66% for a jar but if I collect the first half cup or so after the heads I've just hit70 before.. it's usually 60's though. My run last night wasn't 66 like I said above I just checked my papers.. My first jar was 63 and 56 for the next cup and 53 another cup later.. after that I just collected tails as it was getting to stinky to drink. And uh I just wasted my two jars of stinky stuff on the apple pie. Made it drinkable that way :)

I actually am just finishing up a run right now.. I'll have to try this next time and let you know how it works.. My only thing is would this possibly give me a lower proof since it doesn't have as much of a chance to condense and fall back?

Good observations here. On my run day before yesterday got to noticing seepage where the two column segments join. Wasnt real drippy but seemed to be increasing in quantity so shut down a little early but did manage to collect nearly 5 qts. Was sorta shocked when checking the ABV of the finished product it showed 165 proof..which is at least 10 or 15 percent lower than expected or historically typical. It was a good slow run too. After cool down the joint was inspected noticing some loose ends on one of the the recently added copper mesh packing plugs had got between the gasket and the top segment making the joint not fit tightly enough to contain the vapor. Have since resolved the issue. Would anybody care to speculate if the leak in the column was perhaps the culprit on the lower ABV? Now just to cover all the bases the wash may have been inoculated with bread yeast. That was the one where bread and distillers yeast were both used and allowed to fight it out for dominance. Who knows? Thanks.

Ok thanks for the input. At the time did not think of it impacting the proof like that but guess it did. Low ABV washes..screwed up ferments etc..normally influence my gizmo by reduced volume but never lower proof. Got to have been that crazy small nearly undetectable leak. I was expecting great things too. The copper which got trapped in the joint was the last plug physically able to poke in there. Examining all the pertinent factoids of the operation available in hindsight I was convinced to be ready for 190 maybe..lol. There is many a slip twixt cup and lip huh?

"Just for a comparison. When I run my stripping runs I use the temp gauge to tell me when to lower the heat and when to start the condenser water and I get an idea of when the run is complete, usually when it gets above 205. From a 5 gal sugar wash I get 5-6 quarts that will start around 68 ABV and drop about 10 ABV with each quart extracted. From the last 3 stripping runs I had 16.5 quarts that measured 39 ABV when all combined. I measure the ABV as each quart is filled and will stop collecting when it hits 10 which is usually when the temp is between 200-206. At about 1 hour into the run I'll start collecting the 1st quart with temp gauge reading 175-182.

Regards to all.."