first spirit run question

[kiwispirit]

Ok so I did 4 stripping runs with my VM still with the packing out no problem. Had about 43lts of 40% to do a spirit run with. The product came out at 95% @ 1.5 to 2lts an hour for most of the run...stoked. After getting 16lts ish the thing was only trickling out in the end for the last litre, say 2 - 4 drops per second and I finished my last cut which was at 88%. I just did the distillate to water calculator and it said I should only get 17.76lts from that run if the average is about 92%. So my question was why did it basically stop collecting except for few drops per second? Am I right in thinking that there wasn't much alcohol left to collect so it slows unless like kiwi says in his VM operation to close the gate and compress the rest of the alcohol in the column and then slowly collect. Does that sound right? other than that quite happy with the run but it does take ages.

[Sam.]

A VM will do that ie stopping once the ABV starts to drop, that's one of the reasons you used to see a lot of VM/LM combos so you could strip the last bit with the LM :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[kiwispirit]

Yeah thanks Sam that does make sense and I'm not to worried about the last little bit as it's tails anyway and building the VM to get neutral was only to get the feel of whats going on and getting into this hobby. I am currently building a modular piece to go on to my column to turn it into a pot still so I an do whiskeys and the odd rum. Cheers

[kiwispirit]

Also kiwi said in the VM operation that it would cut off at about 40% not the high 80% mark thats why I was supprised to only be getting drips then and the percentage not going down to the 40 mark.