wow what a day...
I got up around 8am this morning to get everything setup.
I opened the wash. It hasnt been opened or moved since the 15th of Aug. It still looked good and smelled just like wine. It even tasted pretty good a little sweet. Once I opened the lid it started to bubble then these chunks of idk maybe yeast started floating to the top. I carefully drained the juices into the cooker spilling some. I set my still up in reflux mode connected up the water lines and turned on the burner time is 8:45. at around 9:30 I started seeing the temp rise and it started to drip. I tossed out the first 50Ml of junk and collected the rest at 200Ml at a time.
My first 200Ml came off 186 proof 93% abv, The second 200ml proof was 180 at 90% abv time 10:50, 3rd 200ml 178 proof at 89% abv time 11:30, 4th 200ml came off at 175 proof 87.5 abv at 12:00, 5th 200ml came off at 165 proof at 82.5 abv time 12:40 this mid day sun played havok on the temps and i had to keep adjusting it. make it tough. 6th 200ml came off at 184 proof at 92% abv time 1:10, dont know why this one was higher but it is. 7th 200ml came off at 174 proof 87% abv time 1:45, 8th 200ml came off at 174 proof also time 2:48, 9th 200ml came off at 140 proof 70 abv at 3:30.

Okay so not bad on the proof. The mid day sun wore me out. I shut the operation down just after the 9th 200ml. I was tired hot hungry and it's football time in Tennessee.
I mixed one of those jars with some bottled water to cut it down to 90 proof to which i did now the contents are not clear in fact it's cloudy. what did I do wrong. It still proofs around 96 but its not clear. errr.
I'm so tired of smelling hooch today i think i got a contact high. Once I shut everything down and cooled off the still i poured what was left in the cooker back into my ferment bucket and i have about 4.5 gallons left Could this be possible....
any tips or advice before i continue cooking or drinking for that matter.
thanks
J

Hey Fats, are you telling me you got 4 quarts out of a 2-1/2 gallon run?
That's uuuuuuuuuuum outstanding.........Really?

Oh and Hey Johnny throw the first 50 to 100ml away or save it for cleaning parts or whatever. That stuff is acetone and methel alcohol along with some other nasty poisons.
Do put aside the tails and throw them into your next run.
Sounds like you had a pretty good run for your first one. The 6th jar you got a higher ABV than the prior jar? That leads me to think you added more tower water to compensate for the suns effects, right? If that is true then you were running a little to hot for my style until you put more water through the tower. But to each his own. Running hot will also cause your heads and tails to smear across the hearts and that is what causes cloudiness when you add water to it.
For the cleanest cuts run your heat low and your output slow. Like 3 to 5 drops /second.

Have Fun.

Wow is right! Johnny I don't know but man it sounds to me like you went to work for a construction company today. I'm not sure of the Ml thing, so if I understand you right you ended up with about 1800ml? Whats that break down to in Quarts and pints? What type of hooching machine are you running. Here is what I done today! I put 2.5 Gal of mash in my pot still and got 1.5 pint of 140, one pint of 110, 1 quart of 90 and 1.5 quart of 70. I then shut it down. Time? 3.5 hours. I really don't knock my rocket fuel down because the way I see it when I add my flavor(flavored water, coke, orange juice...etc..) thats my knock down. I can drink about 1/3 of that pint of 140 and be done.....cooked like a goose. Sounds like you had a productive day but were wore out. I am not sure about all the work with a hobby like this. Have fun with it. After a while you will learn to relax. When you start to understand the cuts it will become more clear and a whole lot easier. For example: if you would have taking you first cut at 186 and blended it with your 2nd 180, it should have panned out to be 183. Your 3rd 178 blended would have become approx. 180....... and so on!!!!!! I don't know about the 50ml fores depends on how much you are starting to run with.......and the size of your operation. The cloudy stuff sounds like tails, low in ABV and smells like a dogs ass. Don't pour these back into you mash, but rather save that 1st 50ml and all those stincky tails in a different container until you have enough of them to run by theirself. Then My man you will produce some rocket fuel!!!!! Glad you got some on your first run.....trust me you will gain knowledge with every run and it keeps getting better. For me the run is now easy, being consistant with the mash.....well thats another part of this sport......Happy hooching!