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Need some help on my Crystal Dragon

Gday all,

I'm still very new to distilling but slowly picking up bits and pieces and enjoying it a lot which is the main thing!

I have been having an issue running my CD though and thought this might be the place to find out what's going on. First of all, I'm sure it's me and not anything the still is doing wrong.

So I have my CD sitting on a 50l keg boiler with 2 2400w elements and a power controller. I started off doing a few neutrals which worked pretty well, I then moved on to some cornflakes whiskey's and that's where I'm having the trouble. The abv is always around 10% give or take in the washes but when I run it I struggle to get the abv over 90% and it sits for most of the run on 88% and thats running at a little over a litre an hour. If I restrict it much more it goes to dripping and if I go the other direction the abv plummets. I've tried playing with the RC and playing with the controller but I just can't seem to get it up to 92-94% like I know other guys with the same setup are getting. Im pjlling less alcohol out of the main part of the run than I would expect too before the abv starts diving into the tails.

After all that the alcohol has a pretty nuetral taste too, I'm not sure if that's my cuts or if I'm stripping the flavour while running it and if so if that's linked to my other issue.

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

Cheers,

Sparrow

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Comments

  • How many plates?

    I don't think you're doing anything wrong. Most people over report their true abv.

  • @jbierling said: How many plates?

    I don't think you're doing anything wrong. Most people over report their true abv.

    I'm running four plates, I thought about going to 3 but thought 4 should be fine.

  • 88 thats about right for 4 plates during hearts.

  • Two questions:

    If you are making whiskey - why do you want to run it in the 90s?

    If you are going for vodka off the whiskey base - are you not stripping first?

  • Just curious. What diameter you talking.

  • @grim trying to run it there as that's where I've been told to run it. Reading the recipes on the couple of Aussie forums suggests that for things like cornflake whisky and uncle Jessies.

    @GD50 my still? 4".

  • edited August 2017

    Have you read the manual for it mate? it's at the top of the page in a sticky.

    Basically your output %'age is really determined by the input %'age and you run at the speed that's going to give you the best result.

    In the 4" for brown spirits most people find that to be 2.5-4l an hour.

    So your neutral wash running at a higher out put %'age is because it's got more alcohol in it than your 'whiskey' wash. Run them both at around the same speed, don't try to control the output %.

    As for the neutral taste i'd reckon that's from using cornflakes. You'll get more flavour from an actual mash, but most of your 'whiskey' flavour will come from the oak.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

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