My pot/thump, improving flavor/upgrading hardware?

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

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distiller_dresden
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My pot/thump, improving flavor/upgrading hardware?

Post by distiller_dresden »

Hey guys! Here's what I have to work with, been cooking with her since January, six months now, and pretty much not a weekend has gone by without a cook. Been a busy stiller!
still.jpg
So here's what all I'm wondering about/looking to do...

Looking to make a distillation safe insert (JB Weld or something?) to round those 'edges' in my cap and smooth everything toward the exit pipe. OR find someone who's good with copper to make me an alembic top for my pot. Then I have a 5 gallon pot and a 1 gallon thump, I think I could also benefit from upgrading the size of my thump; I know a lot of you run thumps the same size as your pot, I would like to run perhaps a 3 gallon thump so I could charge it with a nice amount instead of the 32oz charges I'm using now, but also so I wouldn't run into the issues a 5 gallon pot/5 gallon thump would have like a much longer cook because how long the heat up would take.

I'd like to know about thumps, what kind of results as far as return on hearts cut you guys get with 5/5 setups, (or equivalent, such as equal size pot/thump) and then a difference anyone may have measured/noticed in reducing the size of the thump vs the pot such as 100%/100%, 100%/80%, 100%/60%, 100%/40%, and I'm running 100%/20% I have pretty much established very well I get from a normal cook of 5 gallons a hearts cut of about 50-60% of the cook, usually yielding me 60oz of 120proof whatever I'm making. Brandy is different, as I use more of the heads due to the flavors.

The cap is a result of I've noticed I'm not getting as strong of flavors as I would expect from rum distillations. I am making great AG based, getting flavors really well. But I've read a few rum comparison threads and one was blackstrap vs high quality and his blackstrap was so strong a distillate as to be nearly unbearable it seemed. I'm just getting molasses/rum wash flavors regardless, even for super high gravity washes, I'm not getting unbearable blackstrap flavor density or such. Part of me is wondering if this is due to my thumper, and in acting as a second/1.5x distillation or the spirit run, there's not enough in there to flavor the spirit at a starting charge of 32oz?

I've also noticed whatever I charge my thump with typically is hitting the fores and heads, and then is less detectable/weak across my hearts -- which makes sense when you think about it. But if I had a large thump, and larger charge, then the flavor would last longer into my cook.

SO -- what do you all think, is my 'flavor' issue the cap and the thumper, is it all thumper? Could I benefit from a new/modified cap anyway?
I read, I write, I still.
The must interstitial man no Earth.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
morethenaname
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Re: My pot/thump, improving flavor/upgrading hardware?

Post by morethenaname »

I have the same system basically but i went 20 and 3. I spent ALOT of time trying to pass banana flavor on down the line. Even made a gin basket out of copper wire. I set it on back burner for now since so much came along here lately but the only way i personally see me getting more flavor is to add a by pass to where i can control flow of vapor and let it pass by the thumper and go straight to worm. I did a run about 6 weeks ago and i left the cap off the top of thumper for about 10 mins it hurt watchin the steam leave out but i did get a stronger banana flavor in the hearts that time around. Theres a thread on here about making a dump for your thumper basically waiting until the heads have passed before loading thumper. Unforgenately my thumper only has a 3/4 hole on top so not good for my needs thats why i will be adding a couple of tees and shut off valves to mine later.
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distiller_dresden
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Re: My pot/thump, improving flavor/upgrading hardware?

Post by distiller_dresden »

How's your thumper project going morethenaname? I'm going to try upping the charge volume in my thumper this weekend for the first time to see if that has an effect on more flavor in my distillate. Since it's a gallon thump, and I've noticed when I charge with 32oz I always get 64-65oz out, the volume doubles whatever I charge. Gallon thumper, if I charge 42oz I'll end with 84-85oz, leaving still 40 (43)oz head space so it should be plenty so I don't get any coughing through the worm from the thump-out as long as my temp is low and slow enough and things are volatile/aggressive in the thumper.

I'll report back how it works out...

Alternate idea on my cap is having someone local, maybe an auto body guy who welds and works the body, buy a sheet of copper, I already have the tubing... Have him snip and seal my side exit, then cut the top off my existing cap, make a simple cone/rocket nose cap, into the exit copper tube, which I can then curve around to connect to my thump and it'd be a sort of modernist pseudo alembic.

Anybody scanning here have ideas on that, and the variance of side exit vs the top exit new/pseudo alembic -- change my flavors up heading into the thump for the better?
I read, I write, I still.
The must interstitial man no Earth.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
Shine0n
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Re: My pot/thump, improving flavor/upgrading hardware?

Post by Shine0n »

DD, I don't think having the exit on the side or top will have any improvement on the product, the downfall of it on the side will be you can put less volume in the thumper.

By the way, I love your enthusiasm and spunk in this hobby! It's people like you that go off the grid and experiment and make this fun.

Be good friend, Shine0n :thumbup:
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distiller_dresden
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Re: My pot/thump, improving flavor/upgrading hardware?

Post by distiller_dresden »

Hey Shine, thanks, that means a lot to me, really! I appreciate it. Experimenting and how much I love doing this, planning and then mashing in and then setting up and doing my cooks, and planning what wood I'm going to put into my new make... Then doing cuts and how much into tails I might go, once it's done wondering what I might do while it's aging, if I might macerate some fruit or spices or something in the liquor for a long while. I just absolutely love this whole thing and everything about it and it's black magic alchemy and analytical science all in one to me.

I was referring to my pot still, you can see up top in the photo, wondering if a top exit and smoother cap like a cone to a top exit instead of the kind of top hat with a side tube would improve my flavors and make them deeper/richer going into the thumper/out of the pot? My thump has a top exit, so I'm golden there. I am looking at a copper 2.5 gallon thump upgrade though which I found that has the same 3/8" copper entrance and exit tubing on top as my current 1 gallon does. Only sort of 'drawback' is it still has just a female 'hose' fill hole on the lower face just as mine now, which prevents you from putting anything but liquid inside, so I can never do 'strawberries' or anything, unless I pulp whatever I want in there.
I read, I write, I still.
The must interstitial man no Earth.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
Shine0n
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Re: My pot/thump, improving flavor/upgrading hardware?

Post by Shine0n »

I don't honestly know about the top or side being better for the boiler buy many many moonshiners have used that style of pot for many years.

Get a 2" copper ferrule and cap and solder it to the top of the thump so you can shoot it after heads and make sure to preheat it to reduce lag time.

When are you going to get a keg?
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