StillSmart

Hey Guys

First up....Sorry its been such a long time....work commitments....but its good to see you all still going strong....

So...
I'm thinking of making a pot still with a thumper....What I need to know is...as the distillate comes out the condenser end after the thumper, do I still discarded the first 100ml...and...would it make sense to have some form of reflux in the process,,,ie from the boiler or after the thumper...just trying to get my head around cleaner spirit.

Cheers Paul

Firstly, welcome back!
Yes, still discard the first bits. No drinking nail polish remover!
As for adding reflux, I'm not sure what you're looking for? A pot / thumper would lend itself more towards a flavourful spirit like whiskey / brandy / rum, not that people don't make neutral spirit from their pot set ups it's just a little more difficult. If you want a more vodka like drink to add essences or other flavours to then I'd say take your pick from the many wild and wonderful reflux columns out there rather than a thumper.
If by "clean" you mean something smooth with little sting on the tongue but still with flavour then I think it's more a combination of everything. Good ingredients, fermented well, good cuts, allowed to breathe then time to age as well and you should be set!

Benoit

I've never run a a setup with a thumper but I would expect you treat the output from the thumper the same way you would with a standard pot still, so yes, discard fores and collect in small fractions you can make cuts from.

As for reflux, you don't need it with that setup, the purpose of reflux is to flood a distilation plate or counterflow vapour through some kind of packing in order to exchange water from the rising vapour, thus increasing the alcohol percentage of the vapour.

With a thumper this happens as the vapour from the boiler enters the thumper and bubbles through the liquid inside it, in this case it also heats the thumper.

So to start with, the boiler will be boiling and the vapour entering the thumper will be heating the liquid inside it, at the same time increasing the ABV of the thumper charge.

Once the ABV and temperature of the thumper charge has reached the correct level, it too will start to boil and produce alcohol vapour, only by this point it would have been distilled twice, so it will be higher than from a standard single pot still.

But you will still need to make cuts as normal, hope this makes sense and helps.

Yes,you may have to read Benoit and Anavrin's posts a couple of times, as I did, but I believe that they are giving all the relevant information.
This is not an easy one to wrap your head around.
There are few Thumper users out there/here.
Thumpers are not trying to mimic a reflux still,merely to up the % from a pot.
And they come through with the flavour,generally at a higher %


Did I help,or muddy the waters?

Robert.

Cheers for the help guys,,,

very useful info...not sure if its the over thinking or the drink thats making my head cloudy.

What kind of stuff are you looking to make PJ?

Benoit