Reflux with Thumper?

[Casey Jones]

Can you run a thump keg on a reflux still? I've searched the internet and found no information about it. Reflux with a thump keg would be almost like a triple run in one right? Because your cleaning up the distillate in the reflux then basically distilling it again in the thump keg correct? I've ran plant of runs in a pot still and reflux still but never ran a thumper so I'm just not sure if this will work. I was mainly concerned if it will cool the distillate too much and not allow it to come through the thumper. Thanks for any help you can give me.

[RedwoodHillBilly]

If you want to try it, I would recommend adding your reflux head on the thumper. Although I'm not sure why you would want to do this. The only reason that I can think of is if you are doing steam distillation i.e. clear wash in the boiler, slop in the thumper and then a reflux head on the thumper for a one and done run. This is the way that I designed my latest still. I haven't used the reflux head yet, but I plan to in the next month or so. I plan on using 2 or 3 plates for the reflux head. But I make whiskey.

[Blarney Stoned]

Can you run a thump keg on a reflux still?

I think you mean,"run a reflux still on a thump keg " but I may be wrong.

Mods, please remove if above is incorrect. Thank you.

[Casey Jones]

What I had in mind when I was searching and wrote the post was, my column with reflux attachment and then into a thump keg and then to the condenser. Basically like redwoodhillbilly said a one and done run. Will it work like that?

[jedneck]

Its been done. Jarhead i believe it was built a vm on a thump a few years ago. I think about ill try to find the thread

[RedwoodHillBilly]

What I had in mind when I was searching and wrote the post was, my column with reflux attachment and then into a thump keg and then to the condenser. Basically like redwoodhillbilly said a one and done run. Will it work like that?

I still recommend that you run your boiler to the thumper then to a reflux column.

[Kareltje]

Of course it can be done! Both 1) a reflux on a pot followed by a thumper and 2) a thumper augmented with a reflux column. And of course a boiler, a column, a thumper and a column again.

I have thought of a boiler with tails, a thumper with heads and than my spiral column with some reflux.And see what happens.

I read that in making gin there is a difference in product when you still with complete reflux into the boiler or when you distill with partial reflux with a ginbox that holds this reflux. Which is of course conceivable.

I am very curious to hear about your experiments!

[Kareltje]

Last week I did a stripping run with 6 litres of 11 %ABV in both boiler and thumper and my spiral riser on top of the thumper. I started at 82 %ABV and ended at 4 %, total of 3 litres of 45 %.
But: after finishing my boiler was almost empty and my thumper was almost filled to the brim!
Could have expected that: the vapour goes out of the boiler, but the reflux goes to the thumper.

So next time I will stop halfway, take the boiler off and go on firing the thumper (if there is fluid and no slop in it).
A reflux between boiler and thumper seems useless, unless the thumper is empty: there is not enough vapour entering the thumper to heat the contents.