Thumper vs. plated column

[kyed]

Hi all,

I am playing with the idea of building a larger still. My play is to make Bourbon and rom. I am very much in doubt if I should go with a still with a thumper or a 3-4 plate coloum.

Do you have any good advice what is best for my purpose ?

[Saltbush Bill]

I doubt that there is a proper answer to that question.......any answers that you do get will be driven by the writers personal preference.
Either still will do the job well.

[tjsc5f]

No need to compromise. Go for a 1-3 plate column on top of the thumper! Keep it all modular via tri clamps.
That's my opinion, but like salt said, there is no right answer.

[Yummyrum]

I used to make Rum in my 4 plate still . I have then switched to stripping and running through three plates .

For shits and giggles , I decided to get the thumper out last time and ran stripped wash in the boiler and started the thumper with just enough Rum faints to cover the thump pipe.
Although I ran it really slowly , the hearts were as clean as I’d get through Three plates , but the hearts cut wasn’t as wide .

So for speed and amount , the plater wins in my opinion but the thumper can achieve a similar product .

[NZChris]

If you want to make high ester rums, a thumper is a handy tool as it can be charged with precursors.

[Chauncey]

I'd day go with a pot and thumper and bring plate sections in later on as you get the hang of everything

[NZChris]

For any product, I reckon the best way to go is to decide what it is that you want to make, then research what equipment and materials you need to make that. What you need for white, light, rums, will be very different from what you need for rums with lots of hogo.

Whatever you build, give yourself Lego style options so that you can configure your stills to be whatever they need to be on the day.

[Yummyrum]

Whatever you build, give yourself Lego style options so that you can configure your stills to be whatever they need to be on the day.

I'll second that Chris . The tri-clamp has become the defacto connection in Home distilling . Keeping everything as modular as possible will allow the biggest opertunity to experiment with different setups .
viewtopic.php?p=7475122#p7475122

[Chauncey]

Whatever you build, give yourself Lego style options so that you can configure your stills to be whatever they need to be on the day.

I'll second that Chris . The tri-clamp has become the defacto connection in Home distilling . Keeping everything as modular as possible will allow the biggest opertunity to experiment with different setups .
viewtopic.php?p=7475122#p7475122

Third. Motion passes.

[jonnys_spirit]

And consider a boiler with a 4” column/riser port so you won’t need to neck it up to 4” when you eventually try out a plated column.

Cheers!
-j