Stock pot or Keg as thumper

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

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Dimension
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Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by Dimension »

I am in the planing phase of my still and decided that I want to build a pot still out of a keg (15.5 gallon) boiler with a thumper.
I was able to locate a local brewery that sells there decommissioned kegs but they only have 15.5 gallon kegs so my boiler and thumper would be the same size unless I use a SS stock pot.

I am planning on mainly attempting to produce flavored spirits with my setup and after much reading I have decided to build a keg still with a thumber that I can shoot. My question is should I use a SS stock pot or a keg to achieve my goal? From what I can see it might be easier to use a 30 quart stock pot rather than a keg. What do you all think?
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MichiganCornhusker
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

Dimension wrote:...they only have 15.5 gallon kegs so my boiler and thumper would be the same size...
Yes, do that, you will be very happy with that setup.
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Dimension
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by Dimension »

If I go with the keg option as my thumper I will have to figure out how to attach a pipe to the keg to hold my additional flavoring.

Does anyone have a picture or can describe how they setup a keg to allow for the additional liquid to be injected into it in the middle of their run?
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MichiganCornhusker
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

I can easily add to either boiler or thumper mid-run.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 92&t=60248
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Dimension
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by Dimension »

MichiganCornhusker wrote:I can easily add to either boiler or thumper mid-run.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 92&t=60248
MichiganCornhusker, thanks for the link I did not even think about adding in another tee to the thumper column.

If I go this route would you recommend attempting to run a pipe off the shooter down to the bottom of the keg or just let it trickle openly into the thumper?
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cede
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by cede »

Dimension, I guess the tube has to go down to the bottom with a little head space to bubble :)
Or do like MichiganCornhusker, put a L arm with holes in it at the bottom.

MichiganCornhusker, you had a great idea btw !
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by Dimension »

cede wrote:Dimension, I guess the tube has to go down to the bottom with a little head space to bubble :)
Or do like MichiganCornhusker, put a L arm with holes in it at the bottom.

MichiganCornhusker, you had a great idea btw !

I am not fully following you on wanting to make the additional flavor added to the thumper to bubble.

What I am wanting to do it attach a tube to my thumper with a couple of valves on each end to hold a flavored liquid. Once the heads have come off and I am into my hearts I want to be able to open a valve and allow my flavored liquid to mix with the liquid already in my thumper. From what have read on here from other's experiments that it kicked up the flavor of the spirits big time for some of the flavor in the initial thumper liquid runs out before they made it to their heats.
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cede
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by cede »

Sorry misread your previous answer.
You can add a reducer and a valve on top instead of the bung or add a separate input on the keg like a ferrule or a NPT coupler.
Dimension
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by Dimension »

cede wrote:Sorry misread your previous answer.
You can add a reducer and a valve on top instead of the bung or add a separate input on the keg like a ferrule or a NPT coupler.
I was thinking that instead of having to cut a hole in the keg to weld a ferrule into that I would instead just have two tees in my thumper column. The lower tee would go over to my Liebeg condenser and the upper tee is where I would attach my shooter. Do you think this would work? The additional liquid would free fall but I do not think it would cause any issues so long as it was up to temp.
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by zapata »

I doubt it makes much difference, but I would have a downpipe for the shooter, just so it mixes into the boiler before coating the riser. For 2 reasons. 1 some things you might want to shoot could be messy (sugars, solids etc) and I'd rather clean the thumper than the head since you'll be cleaning the thumper anyway and it'll probably be easier to clean if it immediately mixes with the thumper liquids. 2 a downpipe would discourage any of the shot charge being entrained with vapor and blowing through without being diluted by the thumper charge first. I have no idea if this is a real problem or not.

If the shooter downpipe is It's own thing I wouldn't run it to the bottom of the thumper though. It might just fill up the bottom of the down pipe to the level of the thumper charge and disperse very slowly. Just enough to get it into the thumper would suffice.

An idea based on cornhusker's setup would be to use the thumper's steam in down pipe to double as the shooter's downpipe. You could put a tee on the steam pipe inside the head instead of the 90 he's using. Then You have 2 options. 1 your shooter reservoir and valve would be on top of and going through the cork, or whatever you do for a cap there. Or 2. Come back out of the thumper head just above the internal Tee with a 90 inside the head and another 90 outside of it with your shot valve and reservoir. This would be like what I'm picturing you describe, just using the vapor in as a downpipe.

The vapor would instantly clear the pipe pushing the shot charge into the thumper and dispersing it. Depending on what kind of holes and solids clearance you have at the bottom you would have to consider shooting with anything with solids. Nothing wrong with his tube style for the way he uses it, I'm just thinking I'd go with a different design at the bottom if I knew I was going to be shooting something like say a chunky fruit puree. But several designs of thumper diffusers exist which can handle solids well.
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by Antler24 »

Can't comment much on the "shooting" part, but definitely go keg over stockpot, you'll be happy with the dual kegs for pot/thumper!
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by jon1163 »

Dimension wrote:If I go with the keg option as my thumper I will have to figure out how to attach a pipe to the keg to hold my additional flavoring.

Does anyone have a picture or can describe how they setup a keg to allow for the additional liquid to be injected into it in the middle of their run?
Look up my "keg build repost" or Badmotivators keg build in the boiler build section.
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cede
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by cede »

Dimension wrote: I was thinking that instead of having to cut a hole in the keg to weld a ferrule into that I would instead just have two tees in my thumper column. The lower tee would go over to my Liebeg condenser and the upper tee is where I would attach my shooter. Do you think this would work? The additional liquid would free fall but I do not think it would cause any issues so long as it was up to temp.
Yes that's why I was also speaking about a valve on top of the tees instead of the bung.

Zapata made a good point about when using some flavours with chunks and solids if trying to fill the thumper via the tees.
So I think the idea of the valve on top might not be so good after all :)
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Truckinbutch
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by Truckinbutch »

Shoot through the thumper fill pipe . Vapor has to rise up through the liquid in the thumper on it's way to the condenser .
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Skinnerback
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Re: Stock pot or Keg as thumper

Post by Skinnerback »

I have two kegs and a stockpot as the second thumper. Good for solid flavors. Stock pot is certainly cheap enough to experiment with.


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