CCVM Lesson Learned

Dokimos

Just posting to share something that just happened during a CCVM reflux run on a Booner's Casual All Corn wash (11 gallons at about 7% ABV in my beer keg 2"x40" copper column CCVM). I ran off 1.5 pints of fores and heads at azeo, then lifted the reflux condenser and turned the power up from 850 to 1650 watts. I immediately smelled tails (which during a reflux run smell like horrible menthol gym sock to me). Concerned that I'd gone from heads straight to tails, I ran in full reflux at 850 watts for about 15 mins with the reflux condenser all the way down. Then I lifted it a bit keeping the power constant. And whadayaknow, I squeezed some hearts out of the run. I'll probably consider this an overcomplicated stripping run though and dump it back into the next run.
My goal was to make a clean whiskey, not vodka. Has anyone else tried on a CCVM to obtain hearts at about 70% ABV from a single run without accidentally hitting azeo or otherwise pulling tails through the system prematurely? Any tips would be appreciated regarding run speed, condenser height, etc.. Thanks in advance.The only difference between science and screwing around is writing it down.

Salt-Must-Flow

I've never ran a 2" or tried to use a CCVM to make whiskey on a single run of a corn mash, but I imagine the data points you would need is watts of power and takeoff rate. "Condenser height" is probably too vague because it overlooks variables like water temp, flow rate, etc... Probably wouldn't want the entire column fully packed, but that's just my guess.
I'm sure others will have more experienced input because I've read where people have done what you've tried.
If you haven't already drained your boiler, you know you could just toss what you've collected right back into the boiler, wait for input and try it again. That or just do a stripping run and a spirit run with a pot still.

acfixer69

You did go from heads to tails by not gradually lifting the coil "opening the valve " and boosting the power you pushed the tails to the take off.

ThomasBrewer

Pulling anything less that 40% from a VM head is a challenge. If you want to do a stripping run, switch to pot still mode.

Deplorable

I've not tried to pull 70% from my 2" CCVM, but iffin I was, I'd start my experiment around the packing since inefficient packing can limit your ability to reach azeo.
But since I haven't tried, I may be all wrong. I only make whiskey and vodka, so I'm either running a pot still, or a fully packed 40" tall column before the sight glass.
All the Booners I made went on oak and or cherry wood at 60%. The Cherrywood stuff is smelling pretty damn good after almost 10 months. The stuff in the 5 gallon barrel is gonna get another 4 to 6 months before I peek again.Use all your senses, and its not that hard. You just have to pay attention.
Procrastinate, you'll make better whiskey.

shadylane

I'd recommend adjusting the take-off rate or the power.
But not both at the same time.
If I was running your still, I'd leave the power constant @ 1600w and move the CCVM coil.
Draw off the foreshots at a drip, then raise the coil enough to draw off the heads at a broken trickle.
Raise the coil a little more as needed for the hearts run.

Sleighahh

I've done a bit of UJSSM-style stuff on my CCVM.  Have been pretty happy with it as one-and-done.  It is a little lighter in flavour and cleaner than the strip and spirit pot stuff I've done but still decent flavour.  I feel the CCVM probably suits better to making white whiskey, and double pot still is probably better for aging.  A noob's opinion though.
I've got a 55L boiler, 2" column, 3300W element, still charge of about 38L wash.  I run a short column of 300mm.  
I use rolls of copper mesh as packing that are 100mm tall.  I've messed with 1, 2 or 3 rolls.  All heights of packing from 100 to 300mm work.  I've had best results with 200-300mm of packing.  Haven't noticed a massive difference in flavour level between 100 and 300mm of packing.  300mm feels a bit more 'stable' during the run, 200mm is a good middle point.
Proof is still pretty high no matter the packing height - 81%-85%.  Percentage stays stable for most of the run.  Run off speed dies down as the run goes along.  Once the take off becomes painfully slow I know I'm done - cap off the top and drag out the last of the tails in pot mode.
It really helps to add some feints from the previous run.  I add 1L feints to to ~38L of wash.
I usually run it like this...
Bring to boil at full power, when almost boiling I drop power to a level that would give me 1.6L/h takeoff with the coil up.  Let it stabilise for 15 minutes or so with RC coil full down.  Raise coil up to take foreshots at 1-2 drips per second.  Raise coil to a fast drip/almost-stream for about another litre for heads.  I then raise my coil up so the bottom of the RC is flush with the top of the takeoff 'T' and run it like this for most of the run.  About 3/4 of the way through the run the takeoff speed starts to drop.  I'll raise the coil slightly higher and run it a bit longer.  After that I'll increase the power little by little.  Eventually the takeoff speed will get stupid slow even at near full power and it will start having some hints of tails - then I cap off and run it as a pot still until I'm down to about 10% at the spout.
Once in pot mode there's usually only a litre or so of really bad tails left until it hits 10%.  Usually the last litre or so from CCVM mode is too tails-y.  From memory the first 2.5L are fores and heads.  Heads and tails both go into the feints container to be added to the next run.
My last batch of cornflake whiskey is the first time I've done pot strip + CCVM spirit run.  This is way lacking in flavour compared to my last batch of CFW that was double pot stilled.  If you rerun this Booner's I'd do it in pot still for fear of stripping too much flavour out.