"Hello all,

I've been running a pot still for a little while now with success. I am also a wine maker of many years & feel I have the wash / mash under control. Just a few questions about the new essential extractor tweeks. I've attached a picture of the set up for critiques

When I received the new column, I ran a vinegar / water solution to clean.

My water pump is a cheap ($14) 120 gal/ hr. I've decided this is may not be enough, so I've ordered another & will run one to the partial / column condenser & one to the total / product condenser. Using a beer keg & propane cooker. I have a very sensitive dial for controlling the gas flow & feel good about temperature control. I have the lower section of the column packed with copper mesh.

I've ran two small runs. one with two gallon of old bad wine a friend gave me, the second with old beer that didn't turn out well.

1. the old wine run. 2 gallons in a 15 gallon keg pot. top column temp hovered around 165 F (top of column) for most of the run - I thought it would be higher. Production slowed & I didn't push it much past 175. Felt it was a waste of time. Took off 50 ml of heads, took 3/4 of a qt of heart. 173 proof product. Don't know much about the wine, but the product had a bad odor & not really drinkable even when cut to 80 proof. still had a bad odor.

2. Old beer. about 3 gallons to start. cook temp (top of column) 175F up to 195 toward end. only 1/2 qt of heart. which makes sense due to not much alcohol in the wash. 160 proof hearts. Smelled like crap & not drinkable.

Here's my questions. Was it due to my poor cooling water that my proof was lower ? was it the wash quality or quantity? I'm currently making 12 gallons of corn mash that has proven to make good tasty product in my old pot still. Will improving my cooling up my proof? so I can run crap wines & beer to make tastless product?

I am planning on using a cooler for my cooling water instead of the bucket in the picture & changing out ice bottles to keep the water cool. Also will be monitoring temp of this cooling water. What's the ideal temp of cooling water? [ATTACH=CONFIG]836[/ATTACH]

With this old wine / beer I was hoping to get upwards of 180-190 proof to achieve the tasteless / odorless product from what I knew wouldn't have good taste.

I appreciate any constructive criticism.

Thanks,
CT"