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shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 6:46 pm
by pynys pub
recently well 5 weeks ago i took off a bourbon gumbalhead that fermented out quite well with fleishmans yeast. its been awaiting my arrival to run it . about 12 gal. I plan on running it through a pot still with a thumper. I want to introduce a cherry flavor , thru the reading here I have done Take the heads off first pre heat the pureed cherries so not to shock the temp of the thumper ( 1 gal ) and release them into the thumper once the heads are done ( i have a 3 inch canister cloverleaf cap at the top with a butterfly valve at the bottom to release it into the thumper .)
Does this amount of cherries sound reasonable , more/less ? do I add them at timed intervals ? also my thumper is apx. 6 gal. knowing that a gal. of pureed cherries could be a little thick , realizing there is about a gal. of liquid in there from running the heads , am i potentially building too much back pressure for the boiler (safety first ).
If this turns out I plan to put the cherry flavored run on oak to replicate the Jim beam Red Stag

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:10 pm
by OtisT
Sounds interesting pynys pub. Any chance you could attach a pic of your rig. I am having a hard time visualizing the shooting chamber thing, especially after your comment on back pressure. Would be nice to understand your rig before answering. Safety first.

As for shooting after heads, that is correct. No sense flavoring your heads. If what you shoot has oil, that is likely going to come over very fast so you would miss some of that if you shoot before heads are gone.

Thanks,
Otis

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 10:57 am
by goose eye
Ole boys mite try soakin that puree in likker bout over nite you got the time. Save some puree an soak them heads an when you bout at backins shoot it again with them heads. Save your backins for next charge. Not sure how that outfit gonna cook so best keep your wits about you at backins. Some outfits on some thangs they come calling 110 to 105 .
If you agein on sticks an stems mite not matter if you getting it gone clear it do to some.

So I'm tole

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 6:20 pm
by pynys pub
Otis unfortunately i don't have any pics and my rig is tore down at the moment. my outfit is all stainless steel, 2inch with a sight glass off of the boiler, a short 10 inch stack for copper mesh . I bushed the size of the tube down to 1.5in. for the cross over to the thumper about 30in. in length. All is made of dairy sanitary fittings with teflon gaskets the boiler is from a beer keg and the thumper is about 6 gal. i'm thinking about 10in. dia. the down tube inside the thumper is 1.5in in dia.. and has about 40 --1/8th inch holes in it. It takes one gal of liquid to cover the holes. My question as for back pressure , would the pureed cherries being a thick substance interrupt the flow of distillate from the boiler to the thumper .I'm thinking 1 gal. of cherries plus 1 gal. of what ever to get the thumper down tube covered keeping in mind to leave room in the thumper for liquid accumulation I do have a pressure relief on top of the boiler

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 8:35 pm
by OtisT
I think you will be fine with pressure if it’s just the pure/liquid mix in a standard thumper. I was not understanding the way you described your plumbing, with the butterfly valve and all, and was concerned you may not have an open air system. Ya never want to close that system off from the atmosphere.

The process goose eye explained sounds interesting and worth a try, saving the backins for a subsequent run.

Otis

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 8:47 pm
by HomerD
With that many small holes in the thump pipe, back pressure shouldn’t be a problem. I love to read goose eyes’ posts.

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 1:00 am
by Saltbush Bill
As time goes by I might build and use a thumper....never have as yet.
Reckon I'll keep those little pearls of wisdom tucked away in my head till that time Goose Eye :thumbup:

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 5:33 pm
by Beerswimmer
Could someone please translate what goose eye said? I read it 5 times and still can't get it....

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 5:50 pm
by pynys pub
Otis the way i intend to shoot the thumper is as such .
On top of the thumper is a 3in. tri clover clamp fitting I use for supplying liquid to the thumper. I will fasten a butterfly valve to it (closed ) and a 24in. long X 3in. dia. tube on top of that .
Next pour the 1 gal. of hot pureed cherries into the tube and cap off with a sanitary end cap.
after heads have been run , open butterfly valve to release the cherries into the thumper.
The reason for the end cap is to prevent a drastic heat loss and to prevent the steam within the thumper blowing the cherries back out the holding chamber when opening the butterfly valve

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 12:18 am
by OtisT
Beerswimmer wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 5:33 pm Could someone please translate what goose eye said? I read it 5 times and still can't get it....
My take on what he said (please correct me if I am mistaken).

First time you try the process
1) Mix some cherry purée and heads (from a previous run?) and let sit over night. Set aside.
2) Start your thumper run and collect heads. Save heads for next run (see step 1)
3) When hearts come, shoot fresh cherry purée and collect hearts. (goose eye did not say to shoot fresh after heads. My assumption)
4) When the tails (backins?) begin to come over, maybe around 110 to 105 proof off of the still, shoot the heads/cherry mix made in step 1.
5) Collect the Backins and reserve this for your next thumper run.

Second time you try this process, now that you have the Backins from the first run
Goose eye did not say how to use the backins you just collected from the first process. It will be a mix of mainly heads/tails and some hearts infused with cherry. My guess would be to use this as the thumper charge for the next run, thought it may be intended for the main boiler charge of a thumper run or even something to be shot after heads are collected.

This is just my interpretation of the ole boy speak. Otis

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 12:19 am
by OtisT
pynys pub wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 5:50 pm Otis the way i intend to shoot the thumper is as such .
On top of the thumper is a 3in. tri clover clamp fitting I use for supplying liquid to the thumper. I will fasten a butterfly valve to it (closed ) and a 24in. long X 3in. dia. tube on top of that .
Next pour the 1 gal. of hot pureed cherries into the tube and cap off with a sanitary end cap.
after heads have been run , open butterfly valve to release the cherries into the thumper.
The reason for the end cap is to prevent a drastic heat loss and to prevent the steam within the thumper blowing the cherries back out the holding chamber when opening the butterfly valve
Now I smell what your steppin in. Thanks for clarifying. Nice setup for shooting. :thumbup:

Otis

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 10:18 am
by Beerswimmer
OtisT wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2020 12:18 am This is just my interpretation of the ole boy speak. Otis
Thanks. Can I offer him free vocabulary and grammar lessons? :esmile: Everytime he posts I have to re-read it numerous times to try and understand WTH he's attempting to communicate..... :crazy:

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:10 pm
by ShineonCrazyDiamond
Goose is our resident Gandhi. It's not him that is not communicating, it's you that needs to slow down and absorb the wisdom :). Many geniuses were called idiots by the unenlightened. Learn more, you'll understand him soon enough. That's when you know you have come of age :thumbup:

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:17 pm
by Saltbush Bill
+1 :thumbup:

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:46 pm
by jonnys_spirit
It also seems that he mentioned that the flavors might come across fairly subtle and lend better towards white over oaked.

Cheers!
-jonny

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:58 pm
by hellbilly007
Pynys Pub, before you go to pour a gallon of anything in your injection set up just know 24" of 3" is only ~0.73 gallon. Sounds like a nice setup

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:29 pm
by zapata
Lol, good lookin out!
It's actually even a bit less than that, presuming standard sanitary tube.
3" tube has an ID of 2.87"
2.87 / 2 = 1.435 radius
24" x 3.14 x 1.435^2 = 155.18 cubic inches
155.18 / 231 = .67 gallon

Another friendly reminder, if these cherries you are shooting have pits, you will likely get more of the almond flavor than the cherry. And possibly a bit of cyanide too. It's a delicious liquor on it's own, but definitely more of an amaretto thing than a red stag thing. If red stag is really what you want, my understanding is it is just a black cherry liquor mixed with bourbon. No fancy distilling needed, I bet if you followed the standard panty dropper protocol on some finished whiskey you'd get pretty close if not better.

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:46 pm
by The Baker
Shine on said, '...Many geniuses were called idiots by the unenlightened....'

Now I understand why i am sad and unappreciated.

not really sad Geoff

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:22 pm
by MichiganCornhusker
Beerswimmer wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2020 10:18 amEverytime he posts I have to re-read it numerous times to try and understand WTH he's attempting to communicate.....
Keep on with that and you’ll get up to speed just fine, and be glad ya did. :thumbup:

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2020 1:11 am
by hellbilly007
MichiganCornhusker wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:22 pm
Beerswimmer wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2020 10:18 amEverytime he posts I have to re-read it numerous times to try and understand WTH he's attempting to communicate.....
Keep on with that and you’ll get up to speed just fine, and be glad ya did. :thumbup:
I live in Eastern KY and quite used to ,ahem, rural folk's lingo. I have to reread Goose's posts from time to time. They're definitely worth rereading.

On a side note, I get a kick out of watching documentaries with Appalachian folks speaking with subtitles. There's alot of misinterpreted things said.

No disrespect but, I can't make heads or tails (pun intended) of Cajun folks

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2020 5:32 pm
by zapata
I get pretty much anything east of Louisiana and south of Virginia, but anything Brittish better have subtitles, lol

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2020 8:25 pm
by MichiganCornhusker
zapata wrote: Fri Oct 02, 2020 5:32 pm I get pretty much anything east of Louisiana and south of Virginia, but anything Brittish better have subtitles, lol
:lol: :thumbup:

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2021 7:35 am
by xcaret
What is a thumper ?

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2021 7:51 am
by still_stirrin
xcaret wrote: Sat Jan 16, 2021 7:35 am What is a thumper ?
It’s the “why didn’t I think of that” moment! —> FACEPALM

Re: shooting thumper with cherries

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2021 11:13 am
by SassyFrass
xcaret wrote:What is a thumper ?
Lord have mercy...![emoji57]
Bless your heart...