Stovetop Thumper

[Usge]

I've been wanting to try a thumper for some time and figured my Colonel Gooseneck head was probably the most likely candidate. Logistics in an "in-house", stove-top rig is always a problem/concern. But I finally got everything mocked-up, measured twice and soldered up. Here she is:

The barrel is 2 gal gibbs brothers, I ordered with no bung (ie., holes) drilled. I drilled out the top. The thumper design is one that I saw "here" in the forums Don't recall who's design it was..sorry..or I'd give credit where it's due. It's a 1" copper tube with a 1"x1/2x1/2 reducing Tee. The 1/2 inch tube is pushed up through the middle. So basically, the 1/2 tube transfers vapor down to bottom of keg..and 1" tube transfers the vapor out, to a liebig attached on the other side of the T. Its all in-line as it were instead of being 2 separate tubes going in and coming out either side of the barrel.

InnerTransferTube.jpg (13.8 KiB) Viewed 10138 times

I haven't had a chance to use it yet, just got it all fit together and soldered up. But, plan to do a clean run this weekend.

[Rabies]

That is the perdiest stovetop I have seen

my only question would be about the arm leading to the thumper being so long and thin, I don't know but I would expect some condensation to form in it

but it looks great can't wait to hear how it performes.

[Kentucky shinner]

Pretty damn cool man. I love that. I cant wait to here how it works.
KS

[Usge]

That is the perdiest stovetop I have seen

my only question would be about the arm leading to the thumper being so long and thin, I don't know but I would expect some condensation to form in it

but it looks great can't wait to hear how it performes.

I reckon it could happen...have to wait and see. The arm coming over to thumper is about 38". It's hard to see from picture angle, but it has to be like that to clear the stove. I had to mock it up 3x soldering bits and pieces at a time, in order to get everything lined up properly so it would hit the barrel parallel and the fittings would fit (proper angle). So, I'm hoping it's not going to be an issue (fingers crossed).

[olddog]

That should be OK, dont forget you need to put a bit more power in when your driving a thumper.


OD

[LWTCS]

I don't know but I would expect some condensation to form in it

Except for the initial charge, all the liquid there after is condensation. Thats not a bad thing.
It is thumper bahavior.

But there ain't gonna be "cool water glass sweating kind of condensation" accumulating.

[LWTCS]

BTW.
That out fit looks really nice.

Hope you get some nice rums out of her.

[LWTCS]

Oooh. The lyne arm.

Gonna be hot. May get some type of passive reflux action.

Seems fine (again )

[rad14701]

Nice looking rig... Like the single orifice thumper plumbing...

[Kentucky shinner]

where did you get your keg for your thumper

[Usge]

Thanks for all the comments/advice, etc. It's really appreciated. I've always wanted to try a thumper. I've read enough to have a "general" understanding but wanted to experience it for myself (and add the capability to single run a wash...beyond my CM reflux Ga Ridge head).

Nobody commented about the original liebig (in the lynearm loop over the head of the cap), is still intact and functional....ie., could run water to it first part of the run to pre-fill the thumper with low-wines, then shut the water off and let it heat up? Didn't want to get into that for first runs, but the option is there. Not sure it would work though, given the the length of lynearm and how straight it is. Probably pool up.

The design (single in/out) was not mine. I found a picture of it somewhere and liked it...saved it. Don't know who's it was, so don't know who to give credit to for it. Just wanted to make the point..that it wasn't my original concept design. I just used/borrowed it

The barrel is a 2 gallon toasted Gibbs brothers barrel with a plugged and ground off bung. I drilled a 1-1/8" hole in the top...but my drill SUX and was wobbly so it came out a little oversized (note to self...next time, use one size "down" and file it the rest of way out — or..buy a better drill!). So, I slid a copper join over my 1" pipe to act as a shim/sleeve and soldered it in place, then used a file on the hole till I got it to drop down in the hole (not the cleanest job there, but I think it will work). A little dough/paste should fix it right up. I soldered the 90 degree elbow to the lynearm, but not to the top of the thumper head. This lets me position everything more easily and it stores (breaks down) better, and didn't require fixing the angle between the lynearm and the liebig at the top of the thumphead — it allows for further adjustment once it's all tightened up. I could put another 1/2 union somewhere near there to separate the lynearm from the thump head, but I don't think it's going to be necessary. We'll see after a shake down run. It seems to fit on there rather snug, and with a little thread tape, etc., and/or paste, I think it will be fine and less prone to leaking than adding yet another union. Have to wait and see.

I'll post back after my first run. I've got some corn workin'.
5lbs sweet corn, 5lbs brown sugar, boiled for an hour with citric acid to invert the sugar, then aerated for 30mins with a stone/air pump and pitched an EC-1118 starter. It was "swarming" for about 3 days.

[Barney Fife]

Nice! Make sure to completely fill the barrel at some point to swell the staves and be sure it doesn't leak.

[Usge]

Thanks for the reminder Barney. I have a 1 gal gibbs charred I keep watered up now...so I'll just add this one to it. I think my rubber bung for the carboy will plug the top enough to hold it for a while. I think too Dunder mentioned keeping it filled after you use it (with water) not just for keeping it tight, but to keep mold from forming in it.

Just wanted to add for anybody who's interested in making one of these: To mock it up several times and solder a little bit as needed as you go to make everything fit good/right at the angles it needs to be at. Secondly, other than the crappy drill job for the hole in the barrel, the other thing I had to fiddle with was getting the inner 1/2" tube to solder up "straight" (or relatively so) inside the 1" tube rather than pushing to one side of the tube. I solved this by putting a 1" to 1/2 inch fitting reducer in the other end of the 1" tube without soldering it ...just to hold the 1/2" inner tube centered inside while I soldered the top of the tube in the T. I then removed the fitting and the tube was centered nicely.

[ScottishBoy]

That little barrell is so cute! I just want to take it home and raise it into a full grown 55 ...

I bet it will make a really nice sound. Blump blump blump...very nice.

[Usge]

Yep...guess some got bigger thumpers than others

But, it's not the size that counts

btw...I searched back and it was Olddog that posted the pic of that thumper head design. So, credit due

[LWTCS]

Nobody commented about the original liebig (in the lynearm loop over the head of the cap), is still intact and functional....ie., could run water to it first part of the run to pre-fill the thumper with low-wines, then shut the water off and let it heat up? Didn't want to get into that for first runs, but the option is there. Not sure it would work though, given the the length of lynearm and how straight it is. Probably pool up.

Seems like it would be quite easy for you to use the self filling feature since your using flour paste. Just engineer a lower elevation for your thumper and seal her up. Your not handcuft to a fixed elevation that comes with ridgid joints. Don't need much.

[GreyGambler]

I bought a keg for a thumper awhile ago, I'm going to try the single pipe method. nice rig

[Samohon]

Love the single/double pipe plumbing and the boiler, bootifulll.
Let us know how she runs usge...

[Usge]

Thanks samo. I plan to give her a twirl this weekend. The pot was part of a custom order 5 gal version of the Ga Ridge still from "The Colonel" out in Arkansas topped with his "gooseneck" head. I have the other head too (the original CM Georgia Ridge head). The pot is great...very thick, heavy duty copper, and welded not soldered/brazed. I'm not crazy about his head designs, but the gooseneck here is fairly straight forward...so I figured it was best candidate for the job running a thumper. I did braze up the copper for everything else though — no leaks . That's about the extent of copper working for me thus far. But, I'm adding to things as I go (made the liebigs, etc., too). Got parts for a parrot as well, just haven't gotten to it yet.

[Samohon]

Got parts for a parrot as well, just haven't gotten to it yet.

Yeah, know how you feel man... Got loads of plans myself, just cant find the time... Somethin allways get in the way...
Anyway, great rig buddy... Keep us posted....

[Usge]

Ok, finished first run on it. Very interesting and somewhat different indeed. Olddog, the source of the thumper head design, helped me with some tips..ie., takes a bit more heat to push a thumper than normal. Yep. I could hear the thumper keg boiling, but nothing was making it to the liebig. Started to get worried for a bit...I was pretty much running the heat up there where I do for stripping runs, the still head was sitting on 200F, the thumper sounds like a washing machine, and nothing was coming out. Finally, after about 30 mins, it started to drip, then dribble, then broken stream/stream.

For this first run, I used "water" in the thumper...Put about 1/2 gal in (2 gal thumper) which put the water line just above the slot-cut in the tube on the bottom. I just wanted to do a water run first to sort of baseline it, then use mash, then low-wines, etc. I took off about 250ml of fores. Flow-rate was right around 30ml per min to start, and dropped to 20ml per min towards the end. First 150ml off after fores was 65%. Seemed low to me....but I'm guessing its because there was no alc in the thumper to prime it. I was collecting in 150-200ml lots, and ended up with 10 jars when I shut down. The proof dropped in each jar...like a typical pot still run. I can say ..the toasted barrel gives even the left over thumper juice..a nice vanillia like tone/sweet. Very nice. The barrel also gets HOT. ouch.

Yield definitely sucks on a single run using a 5 gal pot...but...probably will get better using feints in the pot with the wash, and some alc to charge the thumper. My total volume of output (not counting fores) was 1550ml. With fores, it was 1800. Guestimating from sampling along the way that I'll probably keep about 1/3 of this...that leaves me with a net of about 516ml...give or take. Total run time was 3 hours and 8 mins from start up, to shut down. That's faster than I can even strip using the same head (minus thumper). So, that's a positive. I had no leaks, drips, or drabs..everything worked properly as far as I can tell, and everything ended safely ...also happy about that.

2nd run should come up in a week or two. I plan on using wash for priming the thumper this time....and may use the feints in the pot. Might even just throw the whole thing back in and run it again. But, at least got my first thumper run under my belt. Learned a lot. And thanks to everybody for all the tips, suggestions, comments, etc.

[Usge]

Got a few more runs under my belt and just wanted to update this a little bit with a few observations so far. I'm still learning, trying different things...but so far....using "water" in my thumper seems to really make a noticeable difference in smoothness and how "clean" the distillate is (regardless of flavor).

Yield single running 5 gals of low-abv wash/mash is frustrating — cuts come fast and furious and doesn't leave much hearts. However, running something more substantial in the pot...it works like it should, compresses heads/tails and flattens middle abv out.

I'm using a parrot...and it always stops ...gives out..around 40%. Head temp on my pot shows 210F...about 20%..where I normally stop. Those residual tails..are left behind in thumper..and the parrot makes another 10% difference in the volume it holds.

Didn't have good luck running 8% mash and feints using mash in the thump barrel. Came out hot/nasty/stinky the whole way through. First run was great...using mash and water in thump...but left so little of it..it was impossible to get a clean enough cut. So, I tossed it in with my oaked stuff and saved the quart of feints for the next run (above). This latest run, I took 2.25 gallons of left over mixed feints.....watered it to 5 gals at 40%, and ran water in the thump barrel just to confirm my finding that the water in the thump barrel is definitely making a difference (normally, and all feints run would be incredibly stinky/hot for me). It's been sitting dead on 83% for 6 pints now, and even the heads have little odor (by comparison of previous). It's very smooth, just a little dry on the lips...even at 83%. Water in the thump..definitely the way to go.

[Samohon]

It's been sitting dead on 83% for 6 pints now, and even the heads have little odor (by comparison of previous). It's very smooth, just a little dry on the lips...even at 83%. Water in the thump..definitely the way to go.

Looks like you've found your sweet-spot with water in the doubler usge. Not using a thumper myself, but have heard that low-wines in the doubler produce a great product...
Maybe some of the HD guru's can enlighten us on this one?
Anyway, congrats man, an keep us posted...

[Usge]

Gonna try low-wines next....definitely didn't like wash.

[olddog]

Is the thumper working better now with a smaller charge.


OD

[LWTCS]

Yeah, gotta find that grove.

Recon some of your smearing issues are why Holly Mack once claimed to hate thumpers.

You'll find it.

[Usge]

Is the thumper working better now with a smaller charge.


OD

OD,
Not sure. It certainly helped a bit with the startup time ...just as you said. Took about 20-30mins off the time it took before it started dripping. But, not sure that this had to do with the flavor issue (ie., using water). I used water the first time. And despite the long startup time, got clean distillate that had very little odor and was much smoother than when I used wash in the thumper. It also doesn't kick the proof up too much ....which I like. What I was noticing first 2 runs was the head temp..was rising linearly...and the proof..although a few abv higher than it would otherwise be...was also falling linearly with the temp (ie., like a pot still run)...which also explains the smearing. This last run...the temp rose linearly..but the proof/abv stayed steady (ie., more like it's supposed to do). The thing I'm not sure about is...is that because of the amount of starting liquid in the thumper (given that it fills/adjusts itself anyway) or, because of the volume/abv in the pot was higher that it finally got the thumper to kick into gear? That's what I'm not sure about, but I"m leaning towards the latter. In otherwords..maybe it was doing that before? But, it was just happening so fast...over so little alc vol, that it wasn't as easy to observe it that way. Or it could be that the thumper needs to fill "itself", or participate in that, to work properly..and over filling to start with..prevents this...at which point it runs more linear temp/abv? Good question..and I'm not sure.

2nd run I added a quart of feints to 5 gal wash and used 1/2 gal of wash in the thumper. Both runs...seemed to follow more basic pot-still behavior...in that the abv seemed to drop steadily and flavor changing throughout the run. Again, not certain if this was just an observation caused by the small amount of alc volume or if it was in fact...running linear abv/temp. The major difference between those runs was...that the first run was notably smoother/cleaner and didn't smell. I figured at that point..it must be the water vs the wash in the thumper since everything else was the same..that made the taste/flavor/smell difference.

This last run I was running 2.25 gal of mixed feints I had on hand diluted to 5 gals at 40% using filtered water, and using 1/4 gal of water in the thumper (half the amount I used previously). Normally, I can't even do all feints run on my pot...it comes out so hot and nasty regardless of how slow I run it. So, I didn't have high hopes for this run in so far as drinking anything...but thought it would be a good chance to test the start up time anyway. I heard a pronounced sort of "shufff" sound...I could tell the angle cut outlet was blowing air above the water line...ie., the 1/4 gal wasn't quite high enough to completely cover the angle cut on the bottom. Then I heard dripping..and it filled..things got quieter, and I could hear it gurgle. Didn't take long after that..I was getting some drops. All in all..about 20-30mins shorter time than before. I took 250ml of smelly fores. Then took a pint off that I didn't measure. Then I shoved the parrot under it. That jar (2nd pint) was 83%. It stayed at 83% right at 83% jar for about 8-9 jars or so..before it starting dropping. Once it started dropping...it went couple jars at 82%..then started falling in much faster. I stopped at 72% ..the head temp on my still read 208F. It was 16 pints (plus fores). The head temp (theres a therm on top of my pot), was rising the entire time. THIS..run was looking much more like the posting/charts/comments I've seen about how a thumper "should" work...ie., it flattens the curve..keeps the abv up...compresses heads/tails and makes for a wider hearts cut. On top of that..the jars..while having some smell/tastes of transition through various parts of a run...were none-the-less MUCH smoother and less odorous than any feints run I've ever done! Water...is the shit.

[LWTCS]

Did you heat up slowly or rather quickly?

[Usge]

First 2 runs..I basically set the heat up high until it started to drip. Then adjusted heat. First 2 times..I adjusted it slightly just to where it would keep a small "stream. That ended up being a bit harder than I normally run heat when doing a spirit run without a thumper. Last run..I adjusted the heat ever so slightly lower...just where it broke stream. I mean it was difference between the gas eye being on high..or med-high. Not that much difference in so far as heat input. And as far as thumper was concerned...the heat was on high till it started to drip out the other end. I didn't let up on the heat still I started seeing something come out the other end.

[LWTCS]

If your not too strapped for time one of these days, charge thumper with minimal liquid. Then a slower heatup to load/stack your thumper with a bit more high proof vapor.

Boiling chips in your primary may help you sort of gage where your at with your heat (or a thermo I recon).

Collect your fores in drips to broken stream if you can. Then perhaps a slight bump up in heat (or not) to your tooth pick stream.

Gonna take longer on the front end heat up, but once she's loaded with vapor your boiler temps gonna rise anyway and then the thumper will run more efficiantly by the time she gets rolling.