I'm brand new to this hobby. a friend asked me to make him a still so I did. I just researched it on the internet and made him a 62" high reflux column out of 2" copper reducing to 1 1/2" at the tee and then reducing to 1" through the condenser, which is parallel to the column. he consistently gets 92% abv and is very happy with the results. The rum he made was so good that I made my own reflux column out of 2" copper, 72" to the tee with the condenser on a 45 degree angle to the column. I packed the bottom 42" with the copper mesh, then the next 25" with rashig rings and finally another roll of copper mesh on top. my pot is a beer keg and I used a propane burner for heat. For cooling I used a 1/6 hp submersible pump in my swimming pool with 100 feet of garden hose each way. I put a ball valve on the inlet to control the flow. I found a recipe for a simple rum wash on the internet, three liters of molasses, six and a half pounds of sugar, five tablespoons of Red Star yeast, and a teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Add water to make 5 1/2 gallons. the fermentation was smooth and at the end I ended up with a wash that was 15% abv. So I started up the still, it was over an hour before the first drops appeared and I collected the foreshots. Then I attached the parrot and started collecting in pint mason jars. Amazingly I collected 95% abv for thirteen pints, the next half pint was at 90% and the following half pint at 89%. Then the still slowed down considerably. The final half pint took 30 minutes and was reading 80% abv. Then it just stopped producing altogether. The temperature at the top of the column climbed to 195 degrees so I turned the heat down. I was already running the cooling water wide open so there wasn't a lot to do there and I could still hear the wash boiling. As this was my first time running a still I got nervous and shut the still down. I realize I was very successful at extracting the alcohol but my concern is how the flow stopped altogether. Is this normal?
BTW. It took 4 3/4 hours from the first drop to when I shut the still down.