"Hello All,
Well I did my first two runs over the last few day's. The first one was just my sacrificial run in which I used a gallon jug of some cheap o wine I got at safe way and also 4 or 5 bottles of too old wine I got from friends and I mixed it all with the same amount of water. I heated up the kettle and after 20 min. or so the temp at the top of the tower started climbing, once it hit 90 to 100*f it took off fast and was at 170* before I knew it, I wasn't ready for that but grabbed the water valves and opened them fully as fast as I could and lowered the temp on my control box and got things to stabilize and then adjusted the column flow and pulled off about 150ml of fores and then turned the flow back up and held it in total reflux for 20 min. I then cut back the water flow again and started to collect at about 3 drops a second the heads came off and the tower temp hit 173.3 and stayed there for about 3 hrs . I did play with the water flow to the tower some just to see the effects on the flow. I had the heat set on the amp meter to 7.8 amps... It started out at 92% and slowly went down to 89%. In the middle of the run I increased the flow to where I was getting a flow like a string of beads. I collected all jars at 150ml each so I could start learning the different cuts and smells (boy do those tails stink) After about the 3 hours the temps started to climb and I shut it down at 180* cooled it down cleaned it all up and called it a night...

Now on to my first real run. I mixed up a 5g batch of the gerber neutral which finished out at 10.7% abv. By the time I set up everything and was ready to go it was 12:30 when I turned on the power switch and this time I was going to be ready for the fast tower heat up. I used my hands first on the upper part of the kettle and the bottom of the tower. When the bottom of the tower got so hot that I couldn't hold my hand on it any longer I used my hands to climb up the tower as the heat climbed up I could feel it. And it was very fast and a little over half way up I started the tower water and turned down the power but this time to 7.4 amps which was at 12:55. After the first 15 min I started the water flow to the condenser, full flow for the whole run. I pulled off about 100-150ml of fores and a small amount of heads and than turned up the water for full reflux for an hour. Then I cut the water back and started collecting at about 3 drops a sec. I set aside the first 150ml jar and then started collecting in the parrot and numbering the jars. I am subtracting a half % for the liquid that climbs the proofing meter and it started at 95.5% for the first jar. The tower temp hit 173.2 for 2 1/2 hours and them went to 173.5. I collected 150ml in the first 4 jars and jar 4 was down to 94%. Jars 5-8 were 250ml at 93.5 to 93%. During this time the drip rate was from 3 drops a second to a bead like stream. Jars 9-12 I went back to 150ml. I got 92.5% to 92% in 9-11 and jar 12 dropped to 89% and the drips were slowing down and the temp was climbing. I stopped when it hit 180* and was well into the tail's at 6:30. I'm using 2 water pumps with there own containers, a 32g trash can for the condenser and a 55g plastic drum for the tower. The condenser water temp never got above the mid 70's but the tower water got to the mid 80's and I had to add frozen ice bottles that I had ready half way through the run. I covered the jars with coffee filters screwed on the lid's and I'm letting them sit for 2 days. In all from what I can tell so far I think it came out pretty good. I tried to follow every thing I learned from reading a couple of books but mostly from reading and getting advice from the experienced and even the not as experienced members here on this forum, Thank You! I can see this is going to be a fun hobby. Any feed back is welcome...
Captinjack"

Hi Captin, sounds like a great first run, good description also. I'll be interested in seeing what your ABV is after blending your run.

I agree with JB about condenser water on right at the start.

Hi captin, the proper temp for reading the proof is 60 degrees. There should have been a conversion table with the hydrometer that tells the coversions for different temps. If not you can find it on the net.

Hey Capt, Did you toss the sacrificial run of the cheep wine or did you save it for redistilling later?

here ya go http://www.brewhaus.com/Calculators-C108.aspx

Hi TJ,
I'm not going to redistill any of it but I didn't toss it either I'll just use it for fire starter for the outdoor fire pit.

Here you go.. www.brewhaus.com/CategoryGrid4.aspx?CategoryId=142 (http://www.brewhaus.com/CategoryGrid4.aspx?CategoryId=142)

Hi Cap,
This run went fantastic. Using the controller you built for my 110v use I found I have pretty good control over power to the element. I started with a 6 gallon variation of Bushy's "yesterday's run" that was about 12% abv and then added all my heads and tails from my previous run giving me about a total abv of 18% (guesstimate). I got 100mls fores, 250mls heads, 18 cups of 93% hearts, and 350mls of tails. Everything is still in coffee filter covered cut jars airing out. I'll do my dilution to 55% and blends this weekend. I would suggest splitting your double batch. When I did mine it was a long 11 hours before it was done, a 6 gallon run is much faster. I'm planning on doing a review on this run as it was the first one using the controller you built for 110v and the results were much better than my run using an rsc.
Maddawgs

why do you put baking soda in your feints ?

I usually just keep the ends of the heads and tails and then put them in the next run