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I have a 15.5 boiler and a 15.5 thumper . i've been exploring the limits of pushing my thumper and using it for other purposes .
To date I have pushed my boiler / thumper charge to what I consider max limits on strip runs of sugar head washes . 12 gallon boiler charge and 9 gallon thumper charge is as far as I will go .Takes about 2 hrs heat up time for first steady production of product with a 60k btu propane burner . Runs take as much time as they need to get to 20%ABV which is my cut off point from what ever % the wash was when I charged up . Production is consistant with traditional thumper runs as far as %'s go .
>I rack two 44 gallon ferments at a time . Charging the thumper heavy for strip runs gives me 2 runs instead of 6 and leaves me with enough wash to dilute the 2 strip runs with the remaining wash and put a few gallons of wash in the thumper for the spirit runs .
>The extra back pressure of the heavy thumper charge demands a near perfect seal for my boiler cap .
>I gain about 11 quarts of liquid in the thumper while running down to 20% ABV which keeps me in safe capacity levels in the thumper .
>Hope this will be helpful to someone .
>My next step is to get up to AG with Brutal's steam cooker and maybe use the thumper as a steam stripper to avoid scorching .
>Questions and advice are both welcomed .

Good thread TB.

Good reading there butch if that don't convince a fella to run a thumper I don't know what to tell ya.

I don't know if anyone here does this, but thumpers can be charged with low wines. Some Jamaican distilleries use this trick, running low wines in the first thumper and high wines in the second thumper. Every run produces triple distilled product from the second thumper.

Using one thumper, you can produce double distilled product every time you run.

NZChris wrote:....running low wines in the first thumper and high wines in the second thumper....

Chris, do you know the %ABV range they use for the low & high wines charges? With all the "thumper drivers" here, this seems like an interesting proposition to try. Heck, I might just try it too.
ss

In this process the feints are diluted in the thumper charges. The primary reason they are used is flavour enhancement, the increase in ABV is a side effect.
low wines 50:50 and high wines 75:25. Different terminology but it corresponds to heads and tails.

Great thread TB. There's been a lot of discussion lately about steam distillation and your thread goes a long way in support of the technique.

I'll be trying the "Uncle Remus Rice Vodka" recipe in the near future and will be using your technique to avoid some of the mess involved with rice washes. I'll run as much cleared wash as possible in the main boiler and the remaining dirty wash in the thumper. If I had a rig like yours, I would dump it all in the thumper and run water in the boiler for a true steam distillation.

I love my thumper!!!

Now you use a jumbo size thumper, I use a micro sized thumper, but I still love the thing. Mostly for one reason, while distilling Brandi, with a fresh charge of wine in the thumper, you get both the flavor and the abv in one pass. How do you beat that?

I know small thumpers are frowned on, but if you can drive a Vespa well enough to keep up with someone on a Ducati, than maybe the Vespa will suffice.(just don't tell your friends)!

Red I don't think small thumpers are frowned upon necessarily, unless they are glass
or ridiculously small for the boiler charge how big a thumper you run?
The advantage to a even size thumper really comes in for strip runs.12-13 in boiler 7 in thumper
makes running 20 gal batch real nice.

There is nothing wrong with a small(er) thumper. It looses less heat during the process and that causes it to fill up less depending on how it's run.

My set up is similar to TB's and it can be installed on a full size 15.5 keg for a secondary or a smaller one. I have a 5.25g keg that I have used very successfully to make a clean product. I use the small one when I have cleared wash in the primary and that's all the wash I have. I put about 1/2 gallon of water in the small thumper and just run it. It makes some nice clean shine. With the large 15.5g secondary you can put wash in it to strip a larger amount than you could in the primary alone, or you can use water (or the cleared part of an AG mash in the primary and put the sludgey thick stuff in the secondary. I did that recently and I recommend if you do it just turn it up and consider it a strip run. Bubbling your clear through your murky gives a murky product. A second run will be needed to clean it up. Unless you like it like that. Then you're done!

So many options with a thumper.

Brutal wrote:There is nothing wrong with a small(er) thumper. It looses less heat during the process and that causes it to fill up less depending on how it's run.

My set up is similar to TB's and it can be installed on a full size 15.5 keg for a secondary or a smaller one. I have a 5.25g keg that I have used very successfully to make a clean product. I use the small one when I have cleared wash in the primary and that's all the wash I have. I put about 1/2 gallon of water in the small thumper and just run it. It makes some nice clean shine. With the large 15.5g secondary you can put wash in it to strip a larger amount than you could in the primary alone, or you can use water (or the cleared part of an AG mash in the primary and put the sludgey thick stuff in the secondary. I did that recently and I recommend if you do it just turn it up and consider it a strip run. Bubbling your clear through your murky gives a murky product. A second run will be needed to clean it up. Unless you like it like that. Then you're done!

So many options with a thumper.

That's exactly what I was going for with the rice vodka. I'll be fermenting enough wash for at least 3 stripping runs using this technique and then a combined spirit run to clean it up.

Anybody here ever run 2 thumpers at same time? Thinking about trying it with a couple kegs I was gifted this weekend. I still have my old 5 gal thumper, but two kegs inline behind my pot oughta be interesting. Triple distilled in one run and I should be able to use the second thumper to infuse flavors at the same time. No I have to start scrounging the parts to build it.lol It may not be feasible to generate enough heat with my current setup to run two thumpers efficiently or it may. We'll see.
SF

SassyFrass wrote:Anybody here ever run 2 thumpers at same time? Thinking about trying it with a couple kegs I was gifted this weekend. I still have my old 5 gal thumper, but two kegs inline behind my pot oughta be interesting. Triple distilled in one run and I should be able to use the second thumper to infuse flavors at the same time. No I have to start scrounging the parts to build it.lol It may not be feasible to generate enough heat with my current setup to run two thumpers efficiently or it may. We'll see.
SF

This is a solid idea. I was thinking earlier today of some way to make the sloppy mess that comes out of my steam injected mash into a one run product. Deepsouth does it by running a 4 plate column on it. I've never run a plated column, but I'll take his word for it. I bet it works. But a plated column is still a reflux column. It will contribute to filling the thumper. The difference between the heat input and the RC knock down is all secondary boiler fill.

The only thing I thought of, other than a second finishing run, was a third thumper. If you start a third boiler with a small water charge it very well might polish and separate the product well. This idea merits some more attention. I have a friend with some variation on what I have, and even if it's not compatible with my stuff I'll likely build another just for the sake of the craft. I want to build a shorter cross over anyway. So, the set up would go like this: my 15.5 water filled boiler to generate steam, from there to my 15.5 keg for a secondary, filled with dirty grainy mash, and from there to my 5.25 keg with a .5 gallon charge of water. Then my liebig of course. They would all be insulated but the heat loss across all that metal would be significant. I may have to wait until summer to try this. If this works the way I believe it will it will produce a single run (kinda) finished product from a sticky dirty mash, and maybe with the grain in. This idea seems very attractive to me. I have most of the components to build this already too.

Stay tuned folks.

I like the idea of being able to do the dirty AG or fruit mash without having to worry about scorching. I have never been around a steam driven outfit before, although I have read about them and heard about them for years. I just haven't seen one in operation. That adds a whole new dimension to what I should be able to do with 3, 15.5 gal kegs. But I was just wondering if having the product distilled a third time during the same run, would be worth it. But, if I build the lines to be modular, and use slip fittings appropriately, then I should be able to cobble up something that will work for both from the same materials. I also want to use it to make a triple pot distilled vodka. (Long story behind why I want to do that, especially since I am not a vodka drinker). I don't have the raw materials just laying around, so I will have to get creative and scrounge up what I need. It could take awhile, but it'll be a lot cheaper than buying it retail. It's nice having friends that are plumbers and having access to a couple scrap yards. Talk about maximizing potential for a thumper or two...hmmm

SF

Plan to run my thumper tomorrow and came up with a couple interesting ideas to talk about. I have 10 gallons of low wines from my big batch of all corn I started 8 weeks ago.. Finally have time in the morning to make a final run and get some product!

The basic plan is to fill my primary with the low wines and a couple gallons of water just to make sure the element doesn't get exposed late in the run. Run the 1/6th barrel (5.15gal) secondary for my thumper. I had planned to just start it with 1/2gal of water. This will smooth the taste of the output and keep it from coming over at too high of an abv. I've done this before with wash and really like the result, but never with low wines. I am not worried about the flavor, I am sure that will come over just fine.

What I am less sure of is how much water I should put in the secondary to start. Here's my thought: Running low wines through plain water in this amount my thumper might actually lose water during the run. Not sure if this would be a problem though.. let me explain.

The primary boiler will be outputting like a pot still on low wines. It should produce 75-80%. Because the steam from the primary is the only thing heating my thumper it should add approx 15% volume to bring it to boil. Of that 15% only 75% is alcohol, and this should mean the abv in the thumper when it starts putting out is maybe 10%. A 10% charge in a pot still will output more like 60-65% typically. What I'm saying is that if my secondary output is lower in abv than the input from my primary then the thumper will be losing water. On a smaller run it might not matter, but I'm going to run 10 gallons of low wines. This made me think I should start it with more water. Maybe 1-1.5 gallons.

The main reason I bring this up is because if I am completely wrong it might fill up too much during the run. I may be over thinking this.. Has anyone ever made a run the way I described?

I load my thumper with 1 1/2 gal of water for a spirit run if I don't have anything else to add for extra flavor . Have never had to worry about overfilling the thumper .

As I read the subject title , it makes me think of something a little different. Here is what I did to try to maximize my thumper potential . I made a 15.5 gallon keg thumper & never have had any problems with it over filling . But I cut notches and drilled holes in the bottom of the input tube hoping for smaller bubbles inside .
The sound mine makes as compared to others I have seen run is quite different , I don't know if it makes mine any better than their straight cut input tubes , but I tried to maximize its potential !