2" CCVM first run
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2017 8:58 pm
So not long finished a 2" CCVM build & gave it it's first spirit run of 4 x stripped TPW's on the weekend, all went pretty well for a maiden voyage - once on the boil reduced the gas burner to as slow as I could get it to burn, held it in full reflux for 45 mins or so then collected around 300ml of fores, back into full reflux again for 15 min before collecting again. I just let it go slowly (about 1.5l/hr) for the duration of the run, column temp barely moved off 78.5deg & ABV also held content at 92%. Only at the VERYend did temp start to climb & ABV start to drop, take-off rate had slowed markedly so turned up the wick but rate was still only around a drop per second so I shut it down. Odd thing was (to me anyway) that the ABV at this point was still about 86%, I was expecting it to run down to 40 or so before stopping. The last 2 jars certainly smelled & tasted like tails despite being this high. Is this normal behaviour? One thing that may be important is the RC ended up getting stuck in about the half-closed position, so fairly high reflux ratio...