StillSmart

Hi all
Don't know if anyone is catching this series on the discovery channel 9pm on Monday nights.it is a typically corny documentry type program based around a redneck, his son and another guy who presumably are locked up now plus the forces of law against them.
However their still set up is interesting...... They are fermenting 800 gallon washes in a metal and wooden 'tank' which doubles as the boiler, no racking or sparkaloid here ! They collect the vapour with a leaky collection of copper pipes before heading to a conventional worm type condensor in a barrel with running water, however between this and the boiler is another barrel or boom box which they said captures impurities in the vapour ? No idea what was in this ?
The filtering into the ' proofing barrel' seems to consist of a funnel with who knows what in ( no essencias here) and god knows what the ABV is, then its into plastic bottles for sale!
The wash is a sugar and corn mix to give some flavour I presume. Episode 3 is on this Monday with the still fired up so have a look and see what you think
AT

It will be a thumper of sorts - the vapour bubbles through liquid and it does another half distillation - not as clean as doing 2 full runs - more like doing 1.5 distillations.

They make a right racket with the collapsing vapour hence the thumper term.

You can charge them with water, wash, feints or even fruit juice and this will alter the flavour profile - I've seen a Caribbean rum set up using 2 thumpers - one is charged with water and tails, and the other is charged with water and heads.
Some setup's allow you to disable the thump for sections of the run, to further let you tweak the flavour - lots to play with there.

The guy(Tim)? is going legit now,and needed the money from the prog to finance his foray into the business world,the prog aint real,but does show docu drama,otherwise they would all be doing time in the fed pen,the real star for me was the late Popcorn Sutton,total character,who ended up taking his own life a couple of years ago.

C'pn please explain more about the boom box
Not like il be doin it soon just interested
Went arse over tit on hols double fracture on wrist with plate So typing not good

Bet that was painful! Hope it heals quickly.

AM

AT - here you go - hopefully this picture says more than I can put in words.



G - is under the liquid level and the vapour bubbles through it
K is a fill level setter, this returns overflow to the primary boiler

This is basically a secondary boiler - heated by the vapour from the primary.

This bit has always puzzled me do they put heat under the thumper and if not does that not just zap the heat out of the vapour and cause it to condense in the thumper and start to fill it up with good stuff?

A thumper, or doubler, is sometimes used to increase the purity of distillate without having to redistill. The vapour from the still is directed into a jar (or some other container) of liquid, into which it condenses. As more vapour comes into the thumper, the temperature increases and the liquid evaporates again, effectively redistilling it. It is then condensed by the usual method.



Similar to the thumper which looks similar on the outside is a slobber box or puke box, which contains no liquid and simply collects solids and condensate (affectionately referred to as puke) which have been brought up with the vapour.

Now I am confused he's adding sugar and corn to increase alcohol yield in the middle of the run

im going to burst your bubble here!! tim and tickle were not really moonshiners.. it was "faulsumentary" as ill call it!! they were all actors paid to portray how hard it was and dangerous and illegal it was back then and still is! but by all means popcorn sutton(may he rest his whisky stillin soul) was a legend among men.. best whiskey this side of the aplacha i recon!!