StillSmart

After watching a series of videos on YouTube about legendary moonshine maker Popcorn Sutton I decided to add a Thumper or Doubler to my pot still.

This is mainly to run my Corn Whisky but I can't see any reason no to run it for other washes too.

Here's the pic - all comments, suggestions welcome.



The initial distillate vapour from the boiler is fed to the modified pressure cooker which contains 2.5lt of tails. The pipe feeding the vapour from the boiler has holes drilled in the in the final two inches to allow the vapour to emerge in the liquid, BTW the end of the pipe is also open. When the liquid in the doubler gets to the correct temp, heated by the entering vapour, and alcohol reaches saturation in the liquid it will produce a cleaner distillate vapour which then leaves the doubler via the lower pipe on the left and on to the liebig condenser where it is collected in 1lt jars.

Thing is, I haven't run it yet so I can't post anything as to it's efficiency - yet

However, I do have 85lt of real Corn Wash which has finished fermenting and is just about ready to go. I can't wait to get that run and onto some nice American White Oak I've been seasoning since last year.

The maiden run will be 40lt of stripped VS @ 30%ABV which is sitting in my holding keg.

Watch this space - I'll post the details of the VS and Corn runs.

AM

P.S. The brass fittings you can see on the modified pressure cooker do not have contact with the distillate vapour.

Exciting stuff Aiden - I love the adjustable stand for the condenser, I find mine runs best for pot stilling much closer to the horizontal than you have in the pic, would be interested if you find the same with a bit of experimentation.

With the thumper, you can charge it with feints to let some of those good flavours come across with the hearts, that's how the Caribbean rum guys go it, they normally have 2 thumpers, one with tails, then one with heads before the condenser. If running one I would put a mixture of heads and tails in there (from the same type of wash your running).
Also heard of folks putting more fruit and low wines to push the flavour on fruit brandies, so thinking corn feints and a bit of wash might be a good thing to try it out with.

I've also read it is more like 1.5 times distillation rather than a double distillation, also be prepared for it to be really noisy on warm up. I've heard of folks hiding behind the door as it was so unnerving

I have 2 x 9 ltr stainless fire extinguishers that I'm looking to try and convert to a double thumping rum still - but can't see me getting to it this year, got a few other things on the go, so watching with interest.

First run using my new Thumper was on 24 Jul but didn't have a chance to post anything on it 'till now.


The difference between running the pot head on its own as against with the Thumper is massive. (Hey CC, note the changed angle of the dangle on the Liebig - whatd'ya think?)

The new Thumper charged with 4lt of mixed late heads and early tails from previous VS washes with an av ABV of 53%. The boiler was charged with 40lt of stripped VS at 30%.

Switch on at 14.31; First Output at 16.23 - 1hr 52mins.
Discarded 250ml as Foreshots. Discarded 250ml as smeared Heads
Jar 1/3 - 300ml each - these turned out not to be useable and were recycled.
Jar 4 - 500ml - a little too much heat on tasting after 48hrs - this was recycled.
CUT
Jar 5 - 750ml (85%) - Heads ended very early in this jar so kept with Heart
Jar 6/17 - 750ml each (85%-75%) pure Hearts
Jar 18 - 750ml (73%) Hearts
CUT
Jar 19 - 750ml (71%) ?Tails
Jar 20 - 750ml (67%) Tails
Jar 21 - 750ml (62%) Tails


Change to Parrot & DJ - 2lt tails collected down to 50%

The run ended at 19.50 - total running time 5hrs 19mins




The Thumper definitely stabilised the output with the first 7.5lt being output at greater than 80%ABV and I thought the output from the larger pot was clean but after the Thumper it was pure nectar.

My Corn wort is cleared and ready to run and this is the one I've been waiting the use the Thumper for. BTW my 'Thumper' didn't - thump, that is! In fact it was quiet as a baby. If I got really close I could hear the vapour from the boiler bubbling through the charge in the Thumper but that was it.

One lesson learned was to disconnect the Thumper as soon as I turn off the power to the boiler because with the heat removed the liquid left in the boiler immediately began to contract. This loudly sucked liquid from the thumper, through the submerged vapour pipe, back to the main boiler. This was not really a problem but it meant that after the first use of this equipment I don't know exactly how much liquid remained in the Thumper at the end of the run.

When I opened it at the end there was only 2.5lt and for pig-iron I cooled a bit to 20oC and threw in an alcometer - it measured 4%ABV and it smelled really vile.

I think with more judicious control of the power input I should be able to fine tune the output as I feel the thumper was running a little too hot but I'll experiment with that on the next run.

Definitely recommend the use of a thumper with a potstill.

AM

Very cool Aiden, loving this set up. Did you find the liebig worked more efficiently? I'm curious to see if other stillers find the same thing, or if our still all run differently.

I was a bit worried about such a small thumper flooding and puking, good to know you ran without incident.
Out of interest, was running the VS wash just for learning, as I've always thought of thumpers as being for flavoured washes, imagining it would smear the nice tasting feints into the hearts - but this might not work for going for a more neutral wash. Never ran one, so I'm interested in what you think about this.

I think charging that with some nice corn heads and feints will make a big difference to the flavour.

Ordered a new grain mill that can handle the maize, so will be venturing that way in the next few weeks. I'm not a big bourbon drinker, so might be edging towards converting the grain with some barley, and only adding minimal sugar, as I can live with lower returns. But will be interested in how yours turns out, that might change my mind.

Cool!

As this is the first time with this particular setup it's impossible to judge if it is more efficient but I think, based on conventional wisdom, that running the liebig at a shallow angle may improve the retention of flavour in less neutral runs.

I can tell you that the output is noticeably purer and the cuts were much simpler to make.

Flooding was a worry and this is why I wanted to see the volume of liquid in the thumper at the end of the run but was thwarted by physics and my stupidity for not disconnecting the thumper from the boiler as soon as I cut off the power.

The VS was just to allow me test and experiment because I didn't want to waste the flavour of a Corn wash by making some silly mistake(s) running the new setup.

When I'm running the Corn wash, next Wednesday, I'm going to run with 3lt of Corn wash in the thumper but I'm going to pre-heat the thumper charge as I believe the vapour from the main boiler adds considerably to the volume of liquid in the thumper as it condenses while heating up the liquid charge to boil temp but I'm not nerdy enough to know how to calculate how much vapour will condense in the process of bringing the thumper charge up to vapour temp. Does that make sense?

I'll let you know how the Corn wash run goes.

AM

You'll be fine with a 3L charge in the thumper. Preheating the wash wont make that much of a difference to when it equalises. If you have 40L of 10% in the boiler, and 3L of 10% in the thumper, throwing 1800w at it, then the difference between the thumper starting at 20oC and 50oC is its volume will rise to a maximum of 3.45l or 3.27l respectively.

Steam heating is very efficient, your 20oC wash would hit the maximum of 3.45l after 9 mins (with an ABV of 15.6% and BP of 90.4oC), and the 50oC would do it in 5 mins (with an ABV of 13.6% and BP of 91.3oC), so very little difference in reality.

Thanks for the calculations. It's taken a worry off my mind.

AM

If you don't want too much liquid adding to the thumper - its best to charge with a higher ABV, as this mixture will have a much lower boiling point.

What is the actual ABV of the wash you're going to run, and how much are you putting in the main boiler?

The Corn wash is 12.5% and the main boiler charge will be 40lt.

AM

The numbers are pretty similar to the other ones I gave you - the only thing I have thought about since, is with wash you might get foaming so the liquid level might not be the only concern.

Hi Aidan,

I'd be very interested in your thoughts on taste differences between product from this still and your AirStill. In particular the sweetness of things distilled from sugar washes or molasses, if you ever make rum. I am feeling the need for a bigger, better still and trying to justify it. Not that I need to justify a cool new toy...


Chuck

Hey Chuck,
Residual sweetness was often a problem with distillate from the Airstill but as I was making a Bourbon-like spirit it was not a problem for me.

With my 50lt pot a sugar wash, fermented dry with VS came out absolutely neutral - not even a hint of sweetness.

I have a friend who wanted a bigger still and he converted a Cornielius Keg with a kettle element. It holds 19lt (he runs 15lt each batch).

For me the big advantage to a bigger still, apart from the obvious size, is the short time it takes to process a wash - relative to the Airstill. To strip 40lt; Airstill = (10 X 4lt) 40 hours; 50lt Pot Still = (1 X 40lt) 5hrs 15mins

Don't get me wrong, I love my Airstill and it will continue to be used for small or special test batches but the superior quality and efficiency of the output from a larger pot still is all the justification needed to upgrade whether you build or buy.

AM

Cheers Aidan!