Not the greatest first rum run.

[Corsaire]

If you want to smear tails through your rum, put them in the thumper. If you don't, put them in the pot.

If you want to smear heads through your rum, put them in the pot. If you don't, put them in the thumper.

Interesting tidbit, this. But makes sense. Perhaps why it's reported the Jamaicans run tails in the first thumper and heads in the second.

[WhalerDan13]

Ok … so now a question about the thumper and the heads / tails in the pot / thumper issue. If you run thru a thumper, you’re going to get nasties in your first 75- 100 ml or so out of a 15 gal boiler. It HAS to go they the thumper and whatever you have in the thumper. (Flavor adder, higher ABV clear, etc.) how do you clean out the fore shots and other nasties if it is running thru a closed thumper ? Ya can’t shut it down and drain off the junk and start again…. So what do you guys do to eliminate this issue??

[NZChris]

Taking a foreshot is a trick for a simple pot still, you are using a thumper.

Run into twenty or so jars, (whatever you are comfortable with), then select your heart cut from them by making up sample blends from those jars. Start with a blend of the blandest middle jars and work your way out. If your best sample heart cut blend is a bit bland for some reason, consider leaving some of the middle jars out of your final selection.

[WhalerDan13]

Thanks NZ. That’s what I have done in the past with my reflux. I’m somewhat new to the thumper. The last run I made seemed to have foul crap in the whole run. I was thinking it was because of the fires settling in the thumper and not being able to remove them. So what your saying I assume is run it as normal… toss a small amount of fore’s based on nose and then collect in small batches for blend later. This is essentially what I have done in the past but thought I was missing something new with the thumper.
Thanks for your help !!

Whaler dan

[WhalerDan13]

That would be … “fore’s” settling in the thumper.

[NZChris]

Fores don't 'settle in the thumper'. They consist of the most volatile components in the still, so are very high in the early distillate, as normal.

[WhalerDan13]

I will do a run next weekend and report the findings. Thanks again.