new to this and want to build my own pot still w/thumper

Simple pot still distillation and construction with or without a thumper.

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jackpinesavage
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new to this and want to build my own pot still w/thumper

Post by jackpinesavage »

Was thinking of starting with a 32 or 40 quart pot, 2" column, 3 gal. thumper, gas heat. how tall should the column be?
ss scrubber packing okay? Looking for any and all suggestions.
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Re: new to this and want to build my own pot still w/thumper

Post by Pikey »

94" :)
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corene1
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Re: new to this and want to build my own pot still w/thumper

Post by corene1 »

The height of your colum is not real a big deal it is basically going to transfer hot vapor to your thumper so keeping the diameter larger will help with heat transfer to the thumper making it heat up faster. Packing in a pot still is basically not going to do anything, it needs a forced reflux unit to make packing work properly. Before you start building it looks as though a little more reading may be in order. Start with the link in my signature, there are lots of useful tidbits there.
What do you want to make as far as spirits go? Pot stills are very good for whiskies, rums and brandies . These spirits really don't need to be distilled at high ABV's as that will remove the flavors that you are trying to put into your finished spirits. Packing and reflux units are typically used to pull of very high ABV neutrals and vodkas. On a side note copper packing is used on stainless steel still to get copper into the vapor path to remove sulfides from the distillate not to increase ABV.
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jackpinesavage
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Re: new to this and want to build my own pot still w/thumper

Post by jackpinesavage »

I'll take a look. I think I should do some more research yet. Thank you. My interests are all over the place right now, but I guess I would like to start out with the flavored brandies,using fresh fruits as they are available throughout the summer. I'm wondering, though, if I should not start out with a simple thing as corn whiskey
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corene1
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Re: new to this and want to build my own pot still w/thumper

Post by corene1 »

I believe that starting with some simple recipes from the tried and true section will give you a solid foundation to build from. Both the sweetfeed recipe and the UJSSM corn recipe are simple yet flavorful recipes . There are also quite a few folks here that do brandies , particularly apple brandy. Te fruit musts will use a different yeast than grain mashes or sugar washes. The most common is EC1118 for fermenting fruits. When I first started distilling I figured it was pretty simple and straight forward ,but after a few years I am still learning everyday. It is a basic concept of converting sugar to alcohol , but the tiny details is what separates making alcohol from making a fine spirit. Even the way you run your pot still will change the flavor of your spirit. Most pot stillers will make a hard first run called a stripping run then combine all these to do a slow spirit run . Sometimes using the thumper and sometimes not . So many little things will change the flavor of your final product. Don't be greedy and make good cuts as well as don't try to make super high ABV washes or mashes these are notorious for bad flavors. Try to keep your mashes at 7 to 8% starting ABV , your sugar washes under 10% starting ABV . These will not stress the yeast and will give you better flavors. Keep good records of your ferments so you can replicate them when you get one that is just right for you.
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Re: new to this and want to build my own pot still w/thumper

Post by bilgriss »

Good advice that. Start simple, see what works, have fun, be careful.
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Kareltje
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Re: new to this and want to build my own pot still w/thumper

Post by Kareltje »

Well said corene1 :thumbup:
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