Temperature reading

[Acidgut]

As I'm very new to this art, may I ask for some assistance. Im will be running a pot still with a thumper.
Being new I'd like to know my vapour temp. Should I place my thermometer at the top of my column or at the top of thumper outlet.

[NZChris]

Leave it in the box and use your senses and alcometer.

[Acidgut]

I look forward to having the confidence in the near future to be able to. But as this is my first rum I'd like to use a thermometer.

[NZChris]

Making decisions based on a temperature somewhere in your still is likely to lead you to making mistakes when you are a beginner. You can record temperatures for future reference, but thinking they are useful for your first run is a common mistake.

[zapata]

Not bustin your balls here as I watch a therm sometimes. But if you don't know the difference between reading it at different locations, how do you hope to gain any useful information from it? For it to be of ANY use, you have to understand where you are reading, why, and what it means at that location, and how to use that information. By asking us for the location doesn't it show you lack the rest of the knowledge needed to make any use of it? You want to use a measuring device the overwhelming majority of us find near useless, but don't know what you want to measure. Let that sink in...

My advice, stick it in the boiler, at least then you'll know when you're about to be scared by the loud thumping noises.

But I'll be "nice" and give you the bad answer you want anyway. Stick it at the top of the thumper.

[Acidgut]

Thanks for the helpful advice. I appreciate it, balls intact.

[nuntius01]

Thanks for the helpful advice. I appreciate it, balls intact.

nice, i run two thumpers. i put my tstat in the thumper. only use it to give me a rough idea of when to start my cooling water through my condenser. and even that i dont really do anymore. once you know your still and how much heat you run on it. you'll be able to tell pretty much exactly when things should be coming out. good luck

[Kareltje]

I use one thermometer at the top of my boiler outlet and one at the top of my thumper outlet. Both are not correct: one is 1,5 dgr C too low, the other 2 dgr C too high. More or less.
As I can not feel the difference between Auch! (78 dgr) and AAUCH! (100 dgr) I find them helpfull to estimate the progress of the process.

And maybe I am not the typical thumper user. My boiler and thumper are the same size and mainly I use it to distill on the grain: the fluid in the boiler and the grain in the thumper.

Of course I make my cuts by taste and smell, but I think it is easier to glance at my thermometer than to fill a sample glass and use my alcoholmeter to establish the end of a run.

[NZChris]

I use a thermometer too, Kareltje, but I have records going back years to refer to, records that are specific to my stills and the products I make with them.

It seems like not a week goes by without a newbie asking what went wrong, quoting numbers from thermometers thinking that the decisions he made using those temperatures should have worked and being surprised that he's in the sh!t.

[Neuspeed61]

Scrub the therm. Put your money/effort into building/buying a proofing parrot instead. A therm is fairly useless in a pot other than letting you know when its about to start dripping. A parrot on the other hand gives you real time proofing, making for easy cuts. Running with a thumper it will compress the stages, and your hearts will hold a consistent proof. On my main pot/thump its 85%. Once I'm getting close to tails it drops to 80%. Once tails hits it will drop to 75,70,65,60 fairly fast...around 20 min or so. I stop collecting when it hits 68-65%.

[Kareltje]

Now you mention it, Chris, it indeed is almost every week!

When I started distilling there was no internet, let alone a forum. But there was a university with a library. And after I got me a still, I learned how to use it by trying and observing and making notes and graphs.
Sometimes I think a lot of people merely want to follow orders or instructions.

I forgot to say that I use the thermometer between boiler and thumper to get an idea of the % of the vapour going from one to the other. There is no other way to get this information, as a parrot can not be used there. And it can be very usefull information: I had a few times my boiler ended up almost empty!

[zapata]

Thermometer in the boiler will give you pretty much the same info, or at least the ability to infer it. Plus you'll ha e a therm in the pot

[Kareltje]

But I have no hole in my pot.

[Acidgut]

Thanks to all for the replies. Appreciate it.

[bilgriss]

People have strong opinions on this. While it's true that you can not and should not attempt to make any distilling decisions based on a pot still thermometer, I have found a vapor path thermometer helped me to visualize and learn the relationship with my particular equipment and performance of distillation. I can anticipate time to take off, get a rough idea of how far through a run I am (dependent upon the recipe and such) and generally internalize concepts. So I think it can have some value. But I'll repeat, don't run your pot by the thermometer - it's not helpful.