Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi all,

Just a few questions for all those running inline thumpers; what is your run strategy and why? What benefits does that particular method give you?

Do you precharge; and if so, with what?

I just did my first run with my inline and voltage controller, and simply bled fores for roughly 45 min before I opened her up. (Had an empty thumper to begin with)

Love to hear your opinions and techniques :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I've always wondered if you could use an inline thumper on its Pat Malone (with Rc only to fill) as a traditional pot and thumper arrangement.

I've never run an inline thumper (nor any other thumper), but read up a lot on them back when I was first intrigued by distilling.

From what many seasoned distillers suggested, they charged their thumper with hearts, so as the "new" vapor came through the thumper, it would filter through the hearts.

They suggested it gave a larger hearts fraction, and at a higher abv.

As for how they ran their stills, I'd imagine it would be the same method as if the thumper wasn't there.

warramungas wrote:I've always wondered if you could use an inline thumper on its Pat Malone (with Rc only to fill) as a traditional pot and thumper arrangement.

Have a fill port and a drain on your thumper. Charge it before you run, no need for RC. But I see what your thinking, never seen it done before though.

CaptainRedBeard wrote:Have a fill port and a drain on your thumper. Charge it before you run, no need for RC. But I see what your thinking, never seen it done before though.

Wouldn't the direct heat from the boiler boil off your initial charge though? It would have a lower boil point than your wash.

If it was me and it soon will be i would charge the thumper enough to cover the bottom of the bubble cap slots so it re condenses the vapour and fill the downcomer cap. this way it fills from bottom up as well as reflux, then load each plates from there or pre charge the plates with the same mix also, maybe pour it down the coloum untill 3 plates are loaded with heads and the thumper slightly. once fores are gone compresion should be good. that way its not loading top plate down then the thumper. I just figure it would stack it much better but i dont know yet

="rumdidlydum"]I'm far from an expert but the runs i have done so far have showed that pre charging does have an effect on flavour, depending on your run strategy.
If you pre charge with dunder, bleed you fores, the heads can be very strong smelling of dunder. By the time you get to your heart cut you still have an amount of dunder influenced smell, but nowhere near as much, ( keeping in mind the longer it reflux's the more dunder you loose back into the boiler, diluting the precharge.
I'm still learning how to run it and picking up its quirks in operation though.
Good fun. :D

I have tried this strategy, also pre charging with rum tails.
Too soon to tell on the final product as its only 2 months old. But the 100% molasses rum done with that strategy is smelling and tasting pritty dam good, just ask doubleuj, (a converted rum drinker for now) :teasing-tease:

Arrrgh me hearties :obscene-drinkingdrunk: had me some last night

warramungas wrote:

CaptainRedBeard wrote:Have a fill port and a drain on your thumper. Charge it before you run, no need for RC. But I see what your thinking, never seen it done before though.

Wouldn't the direct heat from the boiler boil off your initial charge though? It would have a lower boil point than your wash.

It could do mate, I'm trying to find more info on inline thumpers.

I would imagine that you wouldn't charge your thumper with a higher abv than what's in your boiler, so strip runs would be 13%/13%, spirit 40%/40%, that way the boiling Temps are similar.

Hard to find decent information on them, all the yanks seem to do is make old school Mason jar thumpers and slobber boxes :handgestures-thumbdown:

warramungas wrote:

CaptainRedBeard wrote:Have a fill port and a drain on your thumper. Charge it before you run, no need for RC. But I see what your thinking, never seen it done before though.

Wouldn't the direct heat from the boiler boil off your initial charge though? It would have a lower boil point than your wash.

Only if it's higher proof then the wash. If you fill it with dunder or some sort of flavouring that's not higher proof it won't boil off first. Some even just use water in the thumper :handgestures-thumbupleft: no first hand experience with one though, yet

CaptainRedBeard wrote:

warramungas wrote:

CaptainRedBeard wrote:Have a fill port and a drain on your thumper. Charge it before you run, no need for RC. But I see what your thinking, never seen it done before though.

Wouldn't the direct heat from the boiler boil off your initial charge though? It would have a lower boil point than your wash.

It could do mate, I'm trying to find more info on inline thumpers.

I would imagine that you wouldn't charge your thumper with a higher abv than what's in your boiler, so strip runs would be 13%/13%, spirit 40%/40%, that way the boiling Temps are similar.

Hard to find decent information on them, all the yanks seem to do is make old school Mason jar thumpers and slobber boxes :handgestures-thumbdown:

They all work on same principal, inline and the American style ones although the American thump keg can also be used as a steam powered boiler for a thick grain mash.
Inline thumpers generally are used on plate stills to speed things up by stripping the mash fast to feed the plates, they also hold the alcohol while the colum is in full reflux rather than have it all return to the boiler then needing to boil it off again or for a liquid flavour infusion bath.
The American thumper also speeds things up but usually are used on a pot still so a single pass higher proof spirit is possible, saving time by not stripping then doing a spirit run.

BTW a sober box is not a thumper it's just there to catch solids when the still pukes :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Have run my 5gal (9.5lt liquid) thumper only 3 time's ,with either 40% or water loaded it did not dry out on heat up,any vapour that did I would think will get to ya RC and drip back down anyway,when I did not pre charge it on run three it took nearly 2hrs to fill the 9.5 lt thumper and start actual production,maybe not a consideration with a small thumper of say 1-3lt,my run strategie will be after chatting ta Mac at the shop.With rum have stripped 5 gens in 18gal boiler ,no thumper used just boiler and shotgun ,will put all low wines back in boiler diluted ta 40% or less ,charge thumper with 50% fresh rum wash and the other 50% rum feints at less than 40%,then do a spirit run through four 2inch single plates .For me the thumper is the way ta cut down the time of a spirit run ,wich can go 12hrs plus with 80lt boiler or bigger wether its for neutral or rum and whiskey.cleaning the stripping still is much easier as well ,like I just found out with rum wich can puke and be messy ta clean out ,something Iam not expecting ta have to worry about with stripped wines ,time to strip 5 batch's and 1 short spirit run with thumper should be quicker than doing 5 seperate runs with straight wash cleaning time included,any-hoow like I said only done three test runs with it and still have my Learner plates on. :D hillzabilly

I run mine dry and let the RC fill her up while bleeding off from the start as it fills up quick being 6in riser and 8in cap :laughing-rolling:
the thumper was future proofed for a 6in :handgestures-thumbupleft:
but overpowers the 4in :angry-banghead:
but will pull 6.5lts an hour at 93% over 4 plates 8-}

bigcam wrote:I run mine dry and let the RC fill her up while bleeding off from the start as it fills up quick being 6in riser and 8in cap :laughing-rolling:
the thumper was future proofed for a 6in :handgestures-thumbupleft:
but overpowers the 4in :angry-banghead:
but will pull 6.5lts an hour at 93% over 4 plates 8-}

Holy crap! 6" riser and an 8" cap!
A 4" column wold just fall through into it!! :))

bigcam wrote:I run mine dry and let the RC fill her up while bleeding off from the start as it fills up quick being 6in riser and 8in cap :laughing-rolling:
the thumper was future proofed for a 6in :handgestures-thumbupleft:
but overpowers the 4in :angry-banghead:
but will pull 6.5lts an hour at 93% over 4 plates 8-}

holy crap thats good. how fast can you go through heads without smearing into hearts?

WTDist wrote:holy crap thats good. how fast can you go through heads without smearing into hearts?

Haha I can see the cog wheels spinning in your head right now WT! 6.5L p/hr :-B I'm building me one! :laughing-rolling:

lol yea, always my plan to build one, just the size im not set on yet, want a minimum 8".

warramungas wrote:

bigcam wrote:I run mine dry and let the RC fill her up while bleeding off from the start as it fills up quick being 6in riser and 8in cap :laughing-rolling:
the thumper was future proofed for a 6in :handgestures-thumbupleft:
but overpowers the 4in :angry-banghead:
but will pull 6.5lts an hour at 93% over 4 plates 8-}

Holy crap! 6" riser and an 8" cap!
A 4" column wold just fall through into it!! :))

it was going to be 4in riser and 6in cap then found a 6 to 1 reducer ( soon made into a 6 to 4 in ) at the scrappys :crying-blue: so plan changed :angry-banghead:
6in boiler outlet
thumper 6in riser and 8 inch cap
2 to 1in funnel on top of the j trap running back inside riser ( cheers Mac for the info :handgestures-thumbupleft: )
thumper volume at overflow is about 24 liters :teasing-tease:
6in thumper outlet with 6 to 4in reducer
and a pissy 1/4in drain to get rid of leftovers :laughing-rolling: its all i had laying around :-D

WTDist wrote:

bigcam wrote:I run mine dry and let the RC fill her up while bleeding off from the start as it fills up quick being 6in riser and 8in cap :laughing-rolling:
the thumper was future proofed for a 6in :handgestures-thumbupleft:
but overpowers the 4in :angry-banghead:
but will pull 6.5lts an hour at 93% over 4 plates 8-}

holy crap thats good. how fast can you go through heads without smearing into hearts?

still learnin to drive it 8-}
but read Macs thumper tutorial so many times :-B
running outside on gas there ARE flucuations but around 2.5lts an hour :handgestures-thumbupleft:
smearing :scared-eek: anything im not sure about just chuck back in on the next run but theres not much :handgestures-thumbupleft:
when im more comfortable with it i will let rip as per Macs tutorial :-B
at 7.2 lhr 8-} the points drop pretty steadily. just have to try and see how it goes :handgestures-thumbupleft:

CaptainRedBeard wrote:

WTDist wrote:holy crap thats good. how fast can you go through heads without smearing into hearts?

Haha I can see the cog wheels spinning in your head right now WT! 6.5L p/hr :-B I'm building me one! :laughing-rolling:

definately worth doing :handgestures-thumbupleft:
should say ive never run the bubbler without it :teasing-neener:
so not sure what the 4in would do on its own but read some where about 2,5lph

I run mine a few ways.
Have rum with a 90% per charge thumper and 10% wash in the boiler and experinced the trap boiling, due to the temp differential.
I have since changed to an external drain which prevents this.

I have run heads tails and wash in the thumper that add to speed dramatically and carries good flavour.

Have run empty with a charged trap that offers great speed but can take a long time to charge.

I also run with wash precharge. This increases boiler capacity and adds some speed after equalisation and fores bleed.

Running with dunder works great for adding flavour. Although it take longer to heat the thumper and adds little to speed

I run water precharge in my thumper both primary and carter head offset column for nuetral.

Whats best is personal preference. Although i am tending to lean toward straigh wash in the thumper (extra 10 litres of wash) with heads and tails in the boiler. By the time you have bleed fores, abv has increase dramatically ( indicated by temp drop in the thumper after initial boil) this method offer good speed increase and good flavour retention. Although does have slower heat up.