alembic still reflux?

[Bph]

So my buddy owns a 10 gallom copper still. Its one of the more popular ones that pops up when you search for 10 gallon copper stills. I belive its an alembic still. He swears that it "runs it twice just like having a thump keg" now I know that he is mistaken on that one but he is an older boy from the hills of Maggie Valley and trying to debate anything he says about making moonshine is a waste of your life. According to him he came up with popcorn and learned to cook whiskey from him so as far as he is concerned that settles that. Now I have trouble beliving that he cooked with him but I know they were born around the same time in a small mnt town so chances are they at least have been drunk around a fire together. He probably even got shine from him. My question is this. Is there any refluxthat ocours from the shape and texture of the head of an alembic style still? I am planing to buy the same one myself cause I really do think it's beautiful. I have been keeping everything we make as low wines till I get mine then I'll do spirit runs. He is adamant about not running it twice. He says you just lose flavor that way. I tried to explain that you can lose the flavors you dont want and keep the ones you like but he just wont hear me. He drinks the shit straight off the still and acts like it's so good but its full of flavors that dont do it for me. Like finger nail polish remover lol. Not a fan of that. Sorry for the rant, he and my wife are the only people that know what I'm doing and she dont want to hear it.

[NZChris]

Popcorn was doing one run and done with a thumper.
[utube][/utube]

[NZChris]

There is always some passive reflux, but with a simple pot still, not much unless maybe you're outdoors in wind and pissing down rain.

[Bph]

Thats about what I figured. And yes he swears that it's the same as having a thumper (just like popcorn) and that running it more than once will give you more likker with less flavor. He is a mess. I think he knows plenty about drinking alcohol but not much about producing it. I owe him a lot tho. Never would have got so deep if he didnt invite me to make some shine with him. I tried to get him on this site but he can barley text lol. He ask me to look stuff up on the web when we are together. I'm like bud your phone can donthe same thing. Any question you have can be answered. He just shakes his head. Makes a lude joke about this or that then lites up another ciggeret. Its like he came from a diffrent planet than me but we grew up a few mountians apart. You get up above 3500 feet and the vegetation aint the only thing that changes.

[NZChris]

If they don't want to know, you're just being a PITA if you try to help them.

I worked with a mate who boasted that had never made a bad bottle of beer in his life, so I asked him to bring us a bottle to try. On a hot summer Sunday, that bottle was sampled by quite a few of us, but it was still 3/4 full hours later when it got tipped out. AFAIK everyone was too polite to tell him what they really thought of it

[zapata]

Everytime a scientist tries to measure it, they come up with any alembic style ever studied being far less than a thumper. But people that idolize popcorn and argue about alembic efficiency don't care about science so whatcha gone do?

Reflux is easy to detect and quantify. But numbers don't make anything better. A pot still is a pot still, with minutia to differentiate them. Yet many around the world, and many here can make a helluva case for pot stills making fine spirits. But only someone who likes to talk more than think will try to make a case for any pot still coming close to any device designed with reflux and/or redistillation in mind.

[Corsaire]

They're pretty. I measured abv and volume on mine when I did my first strip runs, and they were about the same as everyone else's pot stills so no reflux.

They do make a good headspace for foam.

It may work in big setups where you lose more heat because of the higher surface area, I don't know.

If he likes his drink then that's all that matters. Friend of mine didn't like my white dog because it had no 'bite'. Next time he got a sample of my barrel cut white and liked it better.

[zapata]

Honestly I think the best case to be made for a large dome/onion/helmet/whathaveyou is not reflux, but rather the ability to prevent entrainment. It doesn't make the vapor stronger to any relevant degree but it does encourage droplets to fall out or stick to walls so that the vapor exiting is more purely the vapor one is trying to create and less tiny droplets of not really vaporized wash.

[NZChris]

There will be a naturally occurring vortex in the dome that increases in speed as the dome narrows, centrifuging entrained droplets to the sides before they make it to the gooseneck.

[Windswept]

I remember reading once about the large scotch stills and how lyne arm angle makes a difference through minor passive reflux. Basically that's why they taper the lyne arms, but leave the top fairly flat, whatever comes out of vapour can flow back along the bottom of the lyne arm into the boiler.

no clue if its true

[Bph]

Thanks for the input guys. He compared it to the dimples on the inside of a Dutch ovens lid. Maybe he knows more than I give him credit for. I will be getting the same still from Santa Claus this year. I want to get the 20 gallon one but for some reason it cost more than if you buy 2 10 gallon stills. I just cant see dropping 1800 bucks on it. 700 is a lot already. But they trully are works of art. Its gonna look real nice in my man cave.