Alcoengine Gen 2 - Flooding??

[karlfurtner]

Still - Alcoengine Gen 2 (.6 collection head)
35L digiboil

Firstly, Should I have done a vinegar run nowhere in the instructions did I read about a vinegar cleaning run.?

Brew day below.

Sugar wash with turbo yeast/carbon/clearing agent 6Days total

Turned on the boiler with both elements set to 100c
50c (boiler temp) turned on the water
88c switched off the 1900w element.
Waited 10 mins opened the tap 100%
Collected 250ml and discarded.
Took 2hours to collect about 700ml 96%
Is this all correct so far…. Here’s when the problems started….
I thought this is taking to long so I turned off the 500w and turned on the 1900w element
Production started to increase then the temp in the collom crashed and a few drops of liquid came from the top of the still.
I then went back to only the 500w element and started collecting again flow rate normalised.
I again thought this is taking to long and did the above steps again with the same results……

I gave up at this point
from the switch on of the boiler I made about 1L in 6 hours…
To me it sounds like a am flooding my still??
Soooo
The alcohol I have collected is this now contaminated with foreshots from the restarts, and if it is can I add that to my next wash and re-distil?
What should I do to fix things in the future I feel the 500w element is not enough?

[The Stig]

Hi karlfurtner, since this is your first post ive moved it here to the welcome centre.
So, welcome to the forums, have a read around and feel free to ask questions, we dont bit (unless asked to)
Flooding or Puking as its know is usually the product of either over packing (too tight) or an unfermented wash/mash foaming up into the column.
I dont use an Alcoengine but we have a few members who do or at least did at some point so I hope somebody will come along and help you out.
Cheers