One common question I get in the Facebook group and our Ask an Expert service is why the product is coming off the still at a low proof or ABV. How do I fix low proof distillate?
For example;
“I am a complete newbie and just did my first run .. a simple sugar wash. The end result was very low proof heads (40) and thereafter 20 and lower. Trying to figure out what i did wrong. I would expect about 80 proof.”
Something sounds wrong here! The first runnings off your still should be around 160 proof / 80% ABV.
Let’s explore some of the most common troubleshooting reasons to fixture out what’s gone wrong.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Troubleshooting the Recipe
My wash was 2.5 gallons water, 5.25 pounds sugar and 50 grams of turbo yeast. I Scaled this down from the Simple Sugar Wash in “the joy of home distilling” book, which has a recipe for 6 gallons of water.
These numbers look good to me. And, apart from lacking any sort of nutrient, seems like a typical recipe. Yes, Turbo Yeast contains its own yeast nutirent, but normally we still use ingredients like oats, tomato paste, bran etc to keep the yeasties happpy.
Bunging it in our sugar wash calculator it checks out, and estimates this recipe will yield a wash around 10.2% ABV
Step 2: Troubleshooting the fermentation:
I kept the fermenting liquid at a nice temp and it seemed to ferment ok. The fermentation only seemed to be active for about a day. I never measured alcohol content before distilling but the specific gravity seemed to go from around 0 to around 10 ???
The fact that fermentation only seemed active for a day is perfectly normal. It will look ‘busy’ for the first day or two as the yeast multiplies (the first stage of fermentation). Then activity will look like it slows but alcohol production will keep going.
- If you had an airlock in the fermenter it’ll keep bubbling indicating fermentation is still going.
- The BEST and only real way to be sure fermentation is measuring the gravity.
- There’s no exact value, but i’d expect your fermentation to have a starting gravity of around 1.011 and a final gravity of between 9.995 and 1.010, yeilding 10 – 12% ABV
- Your numbers of 0 and 10 don’t make sense, what sort of hydrometer are you using?
This could well be the culprit. A failed or stalled ferment would explain why the starting ABV is low and therefore the distillate is also low proof.
Step 3: Troubleshooting the equipment
I have the VEVOR 3 gallon still with the thumper keg attachment.
Until you start making whiskey (or vapor infused gins) i’d not worry about the thumper just yet. Leave it empty to keep things simple.
Now we’re left with a basic pot still topology.
Vevor employ a pretty basic design, so we can fairly assume you’ll get 1 effective distillation when running this still
(I say this because advanced pot still designs with alembic heads might give you more like 1.3 effective distillation and therefore a higher-proof product).
In this, its probably unlikely that the equipment is the problem.
Step 4: Troubleshooting the distillation
Now, I wasn’t able to distill until a few days after the fermentation had stopped… is this an issue, how long can the juice stand before distilling?
You’ve just made wine! And wine can keep forever, provided it’s keep sanitary and sealed. I wouldn’t worry about leaving it for a few weeks..
.. even for a few months!
The actual distillation run seems to go ok. I threw out about 4 ounces of distillation after the temp hit 175 F / 79.4 C .
That sounds good. That is the right temperature for getting heads on a pot still. As you practice more, you’ll be able to taste and smell the difference as the compostiion changes.
The most of the run was done at around 190 F / 87.7 Cs this the temperature in the boiler or in the vapor path? If you measure the vapor path, we can roughly infer the ABV in the boiler at the time, and the ABV comming off the still – see below.
Conversly. If we ignore the temperature readings, this is more what we’d expect as a best case scenario, with ~10% ABV wash.
Either way, you’re looking at take off between 55% and 70% ABV. A lot higher than the 40% you’re reporting.
I had a hard time keeping the condenser cool with water pumping through it. I am thinking it was all too hot…. I had steam coming out of the condenser along with liquid. Is this wrong?
Yeah you definitely don’t want steam. You want to condense everything that’s going through the condenser. Two options to consider here;
- You may be running the still too hard. I’m not sure what your heating setup is but i’d keep the input power below 2kW for a still that size.
- Or, option 2; those pumps are a bit underpowered. I’d personally hook up the condenser coil to your faucet or garden hose and run it really slowly instead.
Wrapping Up
I hope this troubleshooting example has helped. I know I was frustrated when I started out as there’s so little information or guidance out there for such a niche hobby.
Let me know in the comments below if you’ve experienced similar problems, or get in touch with out master distillers using our Ask an Expert form.
