Anyway cut a long story short. The end... :)................................
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Today got the still out and distilled my first batch. First section stank to hig heaven adn hte rest just like a rough alcohol. No real smell except for the sugar and yeast sort of thingy.
I am not planning on drinking it. This being my first batch was a trial to run something through the system and see how it all works. In fact it was very easy. If you check the cloudiness in the bottles compared to the last photo with thethe clarity of liquid is is quite amazing.
My main concern which did not materialize, was keeping the liquid from boiling over. I was expecting to get to water boiling point very quickly but now realize as the alcohol evaporates this requires a lot of heat so things did not get much hotter. Whole process took me about 1 and 1/2 hours including setting up and checking final alcohol levels. I used my hydrometer which indicated 56% proof by volume....Adjusted for todays amazing 37 deg Celcius and lots of sunshine and that's about 59.5 % ABV.
Hehehe. Lots of fun coming there.