Hi, I have just changed over to a TPW from HBS products and would like some advice please. This is what I did on my first attempt:
1. Made up a 25 litre TPW
2. Used my pot head to strip, once fermented out (25 litre boiler with electronic controller on 1500 watt element - home made pot head with 1000mm liebig)
3. Got around 12 litres at approx 45% ABV from the strip run
4. Made this up to 20 litres with cold water and put back in the boiler with some bi-carb added
5. Fitted my 2" boka head to the boiler (insulated 1100mm copper to take-off point with 250mm copper condenser portion above this - coiled copper condenser)
6. Brought reflux still up to temp and ran at 100% reflux for 90 minutes where it stabilised at 78.5 deg C (high quality electronic thermometer +/- 0.01 degree)
7. Backed boiler off to 750 watts and stabilised temperature for 10 minutes, opened needle valve and took off 150 mils at 2 drops/second
8. Closed valve for 10 mins with temp steady at 78.6 deg C
9. Took off 250 mils heads at 2 drops/second - temp moved to 78.7 deg C
10. Started taking off hearts at 2 drops/second at 78.7 deg C with parrot reading 96% ABV @ 30 degrees C (approx 94 % true) Temp stayed constant.
This is where I appeared to run into issues. I got 2 litres at 95-96% ABV @ 32 degrees C before what I took to be a light "tails" smell appearing. I would have expected (rightly or wrongly) to get nearer to 3 litres of hearts by running this way. (recommended by Compleat Distiller)
Can someone comment on whether:
a) I was expecting too much
b) This is not unusual with TPW
Cheers, StillWaters