low alcohol

[fiddler]

Hi all.. be kind , i'm new here!
First try at distilling.. with a potstill as per the Moonshine book( no thumper)
fermented a wash with a can of hbs malt extract and 2 kg sugar to 20l all bubbled nicely ( in my exitement i forgot to test the specific grav!)
ran it through the still first drips diddnt come out till 90 o C though that could be the meat thermo at fault
150ml forshot alc % was 40 and I ran about 2 1/2 liters after that, down to about 18% I saved each 100 ml seperately and none was over 40%, all up the lot ended up at about 30%
I expected a much higher alc % by what i have read ( starting in the 70s ) so ... poor design, poor running ,poor ingredients ,all of the above ?
have to wait now to make some more so I can second run it
thanks Brett

[Lowndsey]

More info on your still?

Use more sugar mate. Without knowing how much sugar content is in a can of malt ..using 2kg of sugar in 20L wash your alc% wouldn't have been much over 6%. Aim for around the 12% mark. Try doubling your sugar next time.Still got yourself some good practice though.

[fiddler]

Thanks for the quick reply ,more sugar = more alcoho , got that , but I expected a greater % during the run ... I think I have too much water condensing out at the same time . The condenser should have been cold enough not to loose any vapor and I ran it pretty slow .. if the thermometer was right maybe too fast ?
thanks Brett

[crow]

yep spot on have a look at some of the recipes here, you will get far greater results. That recipe you used would have only worked if though had of heated that wash to say 68' for 1/2 hr to activate the enzymes in the malt or added another 3 kgs of sugar . keep what you got as it is what is known as low wines , mix it with other low wines and rerun it back through the still for a higher ABV. ok fiddle why don't you wonder over to the welcome centre now and introduce your self to the members here :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[kelbygreen]

well dry malt per kg is about 70% of the fermentables as sugar and I think 1.7kg of liquid malt equates to 1kg of dry malt, Been that long since I had to know that stuff so its prob all wrong :))

[invisigoth]

More info on your still?

Use more sugar mate. Without knowing how much sugar content is in a can of malt ..using 2kg of sugar in 20L wash your alc% wouldn't have been much over 6%. Aim for around the 12% mark. Try doubling your sugar next time.Still got yourself some good practice though.

:text-+1: what has been put together is essentially an old school ale (unhopped "beer" as opposed to beer fermented with ale yeast). maybe i'm just special 8-} but i'd be adding more malt rather than more sucrose. don't know if that makes a better distillate, but it makes a better ale.

fiddler: my strip runs have been coming out at about 48% for the low wines. my cuts on the spirit run tend to be in the 70/80s

[fiddler]

Hi all.. thanks for the help
couldnt wait to get more low wines ( the fermenter has a load of mollasses in and the wife wants more cider next!) so i did a spirit run . forshots @70 % and coming off at about 15 % kept the middle at 68% ( a bit less than 1/2 the run ) so off for some oak chips and I will see what it's like in a few weeks!
Malt ext. tin was morgans pale lager ,1.5 kg so probably more sugar would have helped . My poorly remembered maths works out to about 3.5% abv for the wash , allowing for losses
thanks Brett