adamf wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 4:30 am
Nice work! Inspiring. What style of vapor outlet are you going to use on the spear? Holes? 45 degree cut? Slits?
Is that a shotgun condenser? If so, why did you choose it over the other styles?
Thanks, it's Yummyrum's design I drilled 12 holes around the bottom of the spear. Yes, it's a shotgun. I wanted to really knock down vapor when stripping since now I'll be stripping nearly double and didn't want to double the time. My previous leibig could never handle all of the power I threw at it.
First spirit run underway now, the biggest I've ever done. Hearts are starting at 83%, the highest abv I've ever made to boot. I have about 5-6 more gallons of hearts to squeeze out of this run.
Oh, I ended up with about 7 gallons of hearts. Hard for me to tell with so much. No more smearing than a normal potstill. The hearts seemed to be a larger cut with the thumper.
adamf wrote: ↑Sun Sep 15, 2019 10:41 am
Awesome! That must have been a heck of a large run! I'm getting 1.5 gallons of hearts from ~ 10 gallons in the boiler and 2 gallons in the thumper.
I have a some more observations and things to try and then I'll summarize my build and what has worked.
I'm indebted to this forum for all the accessible info and available friendly help.
THANK YOU!
"...and I wound up spendin the night in a corrugated conduit with a cat." Suttree, Cormac McCarthy
myles wrote: ↑Mon Dec 03, 2012 3:59 am
My reply above was actually completed by my cat standing on the keyboard
Oh well! A small keg is an easy option. If you can build a liebig then you can build the fitting that is needed to turn a keg into a simple thumper.
thump2.jpg
Or you can use a stock pot and a bowl for a lid - well 2 bowls actually. Solder the rim of the first bowl to the pot to make a seat for the second bowl to mate onto.
Photo024t.jpg
Or line a wood box with a thin copper liner.
ins thump.png
I had been looking at Corene's method of installing a thumper which is great; but this is fantastic.
For me that is, because I do not weld or solder. But I have relations who can solder the copper fittings in after I set it up.
Thanks, eight years later.
Geoff
Last edited by The Baker on Sat Apr 04, 2020 9:23 pm, edited 3 times in total.
I will probably use two inch copper tube with a ferrule, from the thumper.
A reducing tee two inch to one inch to bring in the one inch tube from the boiler (and down to the bottom of the thumper).
(may need 2x2x2 with a reducer, so as to be able to manoeuvre the one-inch-tube-with right angle bend into place).
And a two inch to one inch reducing tee at the top of this two inch tube; from there, one inch tube to the condenser.
(using one inch because I have plenty of it and it should carry a lot of vapour easily and it was REALLY cheap,
ten bucks Australian WITH over four feet of HEAVY four inch tube.)
And in the two inch top of that tee, a short length of two inch tube and a two inch end cap
(sealed with a turn of plumber's tape if I need it).
So I can lift the end cap and fill the thumper; and "shoot the thumper" (add some flavouring or whatever) after the bad stuff has passed.
I am pretty happy, this should work well and be easily set up.
I run a 6 gallon boiler with 3 gallon thumper and a worm. Haven’t had a bad run yet and have been using only a small amount of mash to cover the bottom of the inlet vapor tube.
Is an inlet vapor tube required for a thumper to work successfully? My still has a thumper with two threaded holes in the lid but no tube to go into the liquid
IdahoShine wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 5:34 pm
Is an inlet vapor tube required for a thumper to work successfully? My still has a thumper with two threaded holes in the lid but no tube to go into the liquid
IdahoShine wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 5:34 pm
Is an inlet vapor tube required for a thumper to work successfully? My still has a thumper with two threaded holes in the lid but no tube to go into the liquid
That;s a puke bucket not a thumper
I know it's not a true still, just wondering if it would work without a tube in the liquid
Last edited by acfixer69 on Tue Jan 19, 2021 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:removed unwanted advertisment
Hi all
So build a thumper system, 40lt pot 3lt thumper just over half full with tails @ 60% mash @ 10% is it normal for my alcohol to come out warm?/does it matter if it is warm or cold?
dec3223 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 17, 2020 6:49 am
I run a 6 gallon boiler with 3 gallon thumper and a worm. Haven’t had a bad run yet and have been using only a small amount of mash to cover the bottom of the inlet vapor tube.
I use the previous batch’s heads and tails as starter in my thumper, and always collect the first ½ pint as feints, which I use to clean my BBQ grill.
adamf wrote: ↑Sun Sep 15, 2019 10:41 am
Awesome! That must have been a heck of a large run! I'm getting 1.5 gallons of hearts from ~ 10 gallons in the boiler and 2 gallons in the thumper.
That's because you're running a size that the community supports and is common.
Because ... Juzsayn... 7 Gallons of hearts equates to a 45-60 Gallon Wash being ran.
adamf wrote: ↑Sun Sep 15, 2019 10:41 am
Awesome! That must have been a heck of a large run! I'm getting 1.5 gallons of hearts from ~ 10 gallons in the boiler and 2 gallons in the thumper.
That's because you're running a size that the community supports and is common.
Because ... Juzsayn... 7 Gallons of hearts equates to a 45-60 Gallon Wash being ran.
I was stripping washes that size with a 15 gallon keg boiler and same for the thumper. I now run a 26 gallon milk can boiler that still meets the accepted size. I'd rather do one big final distillation than many small ones.
Beerswimmer wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 10:08 pm
I was stripping washes that size with a 15 gallon keg boiler and same for the thumper. I now run a 26 gallon milk can boiler that still meets the accepted size. I'd rather do one big final distillation than many small ones.
I'm with you on the time savings. Multi-plated columns with dephlag are out of my budget/SWIMBO approval rating, so I borrowed a buddy's Brewhaus 5L thumper, purchased another one of my own, & run a double thumper set-up for flavored spirits.
Recently got done with Irish style recipe & hopefully this weekend will get to the sugarheads from them.
I have a 6 month aged LME batch that is coming along nicely: 1st batch was single thumper, 2nd was double thumper from same exact wash. The double thumper batch is maturing faster, IMO.
There are two times of year: FOOTBALL SEASON and... Waiting For Football Season
A coworker of mine owns a stainless 7 gallon milk-can that has a 2 inch tri clamp pipe with a side-arm liebig condenser in a pot-still setup. He has made his own grappa in the past with this setup. I am giving him some parts in exchange for him doing a lot of mashing, fermenting, and distilling of some projects. He has run this with a propane burner.
I bought him a couple of 90 degree bends, a 2 foot pipe, an 18 inch shotgun condenser, and a thumper from brewhaus.com (they custom weld on the tri clamp fittings). I also got a bunch of the 2 inch clamps. It's all stainless so I got some copper mesh to go with this. The thumper is 4 inches diameter and around 31 inches high. It's made from stainless and has a incoming steam tube that goes almost all the way to the bottom inside. It holds approximately 2 gallons.
The proposed setup (if all the parts arrive) will be 7 gallon boiler, 90 degree bend to side, 2 foot pipe, stainless thumper, 90 degree bend down, shotgun condenser. I have the fittings for one thermometer right above the still boiler, and another thermometer right before the condenser (post thumper). I told him that I would like to try turning 2 gallons of molasses into rum after the vinegar run as the first test. Will we get enough proof in 1 run to collect and age? or do we have to double distill this?
You shouldn’t be keeping any of it . If you have only done a Vinegar run ,( assuming you have followed that uo immediately with a steam run or a rinse with clean water ti remove all traces of Vinegar) you should do a sacrificial alcohol run . The solvents in that run will remove anthing the Vinegar missed.
Most would just run a cheap sugar wash though it . Keep the Rum wash for after .
But to answer you question , you are not going to get much keeper stuff . I still do a pot stripping run and then rerun through Pot and Thumper . Just tastes better ti me and obviously if I strip several washes first , I end up with a decent amount
Thanks, Parts have started to arrive and we are going to assemble without the thumper for the stripping run like you said. Do you put leftover backset into the thumper for your first spirit run? Or do you use something else?
This might be a bight of a weeds question but I've read that when ppl make rum they use something called "double retorts" which by my understanding is just 2 thumpers.
I know there is a thumper calculator on the site and I am trying to model my thumper by that, but the question is:
Is there any pros/cons to take a thumper and split in in two? For instance a 50L boiler would need a cca. 16L. Would it also be ok to have 2x 8L thumpers?
I'm thinking that way I could play with flavoring a lot more but am unsure if it brings about any technical challenges. I assume I will have to heat the thumpers seperatelly.
If you do a little digging there are some cool threads on double retorts including dimensions and how they are to be loaded to manipulate the acids for ester development.
I really like the way my thumper works to produce a good product and gives me the ability to assist with flavors (which I am currently learning on) and no need for all those spirit runs. Excellent product! I use a 5 gallon keg as thumper on my 15 gallon pot. The 1st 3rd of my run comes out at 170 - 180 proof.
PS an old shiner from Oklahoma helped me on the build and he says they always run a thumper back in the day.
Attachments
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately....
and see if I could learn what it had to teach."
- Henry David Thoreau
I drilled 12 holes around the bottom of the spear. Yes, it's a shotgun. I wanted to really knock down vapor when stripping since now I'll be stripping nearly double and didn't want to double the time. My previous leibig could never handle all of the power I threw at it.
