"First Wash Run
Wash: 12.5 lbs white sugar, topped to 25 liters with water, turbo yeast. Fermented, racked, cleared and racked again until the color of mountain dew and see through.

SSG 1.080 ESG .990

Apparatus: Brewhaus EE PSII HC with Premium Kettle running in pot mode, only the top column. 2 lengths of copper mesh rolled in the column and another packed loosely around the top by the cooling tubes.

Heat Source: 1500w Hotplate with cast iron heating surface. The Control has not yet been disabled on this device.

Recirculating ice water to the bottom of the condenser and returning from the top.

Digital Thermometer in Celsius mode in the top of the column.

1 Liter of Raschig rings in the kettle.

Charged the apparatus at 10:20AM, Heat on high. It took quite a while for the temperature to rise 1 degree, but by 12:05 it shot up to 78 degrees and the first liquid was flowing.

I used half pint mason jars and collected to 150ml on each one before moving on.

The first 150ml had an acetone like smell as expected.

The next 6 were as clear as could be and no unpleasant smells.

Jar 7 was somewhat cloudy, the temp had gotten away from me and was nearly 92, I dropped the heat and changed jars. Part of jar 8 was cloudy at the bottom 1/4 and clear the rest of the way. The temp dropped back down to under 90.

The next 8 jars were clear and smooth, but the temp was hovering between 88 and 90.

I never got the wet cardboard smell or the greasy feeling on my fingernail as described elsewhere on the forum.

Just for fun I cranked up the heat at the end to see what would happen, Column temp rose to 92 and I was getting a steady stream of cloudy liquid. I collected roughly a half liter just to see what it was. To my surprise it did not smell bad and was also not oily on my fingernail, just cloudy!

I decided that I was done with this run and would ask for opinions form the experts at this point.

I dumped the remaining wash as I have another wash ready to go.

At this point I have nearly 3 liters of crystal clear distillate that when blended back together and uncut measures out at over 70%.

I am trying to get a handle on the mechanics of running a pot still as in the end my real wish is to make a Rum like product using a Molasses wash. I have one that is nearly ready to run but I want to get the process down using a sugar wash first.

I will run all the collected sugar wash distillates later in reflux mode to get a pure neutral some time in the future.

When running as a pot still what should I hope for in regards to column temps?

I am assuming that cloudy is bad.

The cycling of the hotplate did not seem to be a real problem for me. As far as the initial heating time is concerned it would have been a lot quicker if I had allowed the wash to come at least to room temperature. I had racked it into a carboy and stored it in an exterior hallway. The temps have been 32 F or below here lately and the wash was probably at 40-45F when I began.

I don"t really want to get involved in Charcoal filtering for my end product as I will be looking for flavor when I get to the Molasses.

Am I on the right track?

Should I be doing something differently?"

"I spent some time looking for the pukeing and related causes.

I may have packed the copper too tightly in the top of the column. I have removed it and added it back to the bottom of the column rolled loosely.

I have no copper from just below the cooling tubes to the top of the column now.

I may have been too hasty in getting rid of the remains of my first wash, but I have a new wash ready to run. I also have my first Molasses wash clearing right now.

I may do a third sugar wash for practice as I have another pouch of Turbo 48 and can get one ready in a week or less."