Thumper plumbing improvements

[Chroi]

Original build can be seen in posts 5 and 6 here http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 16&t=45276

New and improved, heavy on the easy flanges

I know most people are plumbing in and out through the same hole in the keg, but I wasn't about to change my design when I'm so happy with the results. USGE has a great post on thumper plumbing diameter in the "Thumper" thread.

Just wanted to make setup a bit easier (ha!) but more importantly not need to build a stand and shim it perfectly level every time I ran. Also, my original build was designed around a kitchen I won't own in a few months, so I wanted to go universal.

This design allows me to connect any two kegs together at any angle. When I came up with it I was trying to figure out how to run 2 thumpers, which would mean connecting to a 2" ferrule I would weld onto the keg. Obviously, that ferrule would not be perfectly angled like the original sankey input on the top of the kegs. I've since abandoned the idea of a 2nd thumper, but loved BoisBlancBoys idea of having height adjustment build into the arm. I just took it one step further and added another axis of rotation so it could truly connect to anything.

It wasn't cheap, and it wasn't easy, but it works a charm and should last a lifetime.

Thanks for the inspiration everyone!

PS ignore how long the connecting pipes are, they're just column pieces from my LM/VM setup. Need to fab up a couple slightly shorter pieces. Just wanted to throw it together for pics

[WhiteDevil504]

Smart plan and a lot cheaper than unions, especially if you already have the flanges around. What are you going to use off the thumper to condense? If you've got excess 2" (is there such a thing as excess?) You could easily use a couple more 90's and make a riser to a 180 to a shotgun.... Hmmm suddenly that 10ft length from menards doesn't seem like enough. Thanks for posting this!

[Chroi]

Smart plan and a lot cheaper than unions, especially if you already have the flanges around. What are you going to use off the thumper to condense? If you've got excess 2" (is there such a thing as excess?) You could easily use a couple more 90's and make a riser to a 180 to a shotgun.... Hmmm suddenly that 10ft length from menards doesn't seem like enough. Thanks for posting this!

the flanges were made from solid 4 gauge copper grounding wire per the easy flange tutorial.

for takeoff I have a simple pot still head which is just a bunch of reducers leading to a 1/2" liebig.

this setup delivers 140-150 proof hearts from a 5-7% wash in a single run using water in the thumper

for a spirit run or with feints added to wash (heads in thumper, tails in boiler) hearts are in the 175-178 proof range and much steadier, although I tend to think the final product isnt quite as clean.

Tried wash in the thumper and believe I may have been introducing tails into some of the earlier jars. (Hence heads in thumper, tails in boiler)

Now that I have this setup I'll prob try running a full size keg for a thumper (or rather 2nd boiler) and double my stripping output.

I have never aged my stuff longer than a few months, so I'm basically after a drinkable white dog (which I believe I've achieved! )

[BoisBlancBoy]

I have never aged my stuff longer than a few months, so I'm basically after a drinkable white dog (which I believe I've achieved! )

I can totally agree with you on that statement. First time doing a spirit run with my thumper I couldn't believe the difference in white dog products vs non-thumped, night and day difference!

Now I have started aging some of my product and wow what a differnece. Example: I ran some sweet feed and didn't like it at all in the white dog, but have some sitting on oak at about 5 months and just took a taste and love it!!!

Nice design and thanks for the credit to me for your inspiration.