Holy crap, this guy may be the best teacher I've ever seen, missed your calling, should have been a college professor......but glad you decided to do this instead
This was the best and most thorough explanation of a thumper I have come across. Now that I know what it's for and how it works, I decided not to use it. But, I watched the thumper implosion video and decided I would use the thumper, to infuse flavors.
I'm 5 years late to this party. I used this method 6+ years ago, but I missed the control side of the thumper. I had a 15g still and 15g thumper. I missed the mark with filling the thumper for sure and the holes in the feed pipe to the thumper. Thank you so much for the knowledge of functionality.
Buddy I love how you explain things! Dropped in to see how you shared your knowledge and am duly impressed. Keep doing what you do, I'll keep doing what I do, and as you say; "Happy Distilling." "Apples and Oranges aren't the same, until you put them in a mash." -"Grandpa" Martin.
Holy Bejeebus! You sir, should be writing books in this - or even teaching this at some lucky college as an adjunct professor. I have been home brewing for the past few decades, and could only wish that I had the guidance of someone like yourself when I first started out. Now that I'm finally taking those first baby steps at distilling, you have given me the confidence and the tools (thank goodness for the interwebs sometimes, I guess) to have at it. Thanks for taking the time to produce these excellent videos. I hit that subscribe button so hard, I nearly cracked my screen!
I have watched a couple of your videos- love your style. You never mentioned scrubbing- passing a vapour through a cleansing liquid . A thumper acts as a cleaner- all impurities and dissolved in the thumper liquid and pure distillate evapourates. They do this in laboratories. I imagine if you had several thumpers connected in series the end product would be super refined. Anyway- I do not know what I am talking about and I love your presentations.
I know this is an old video but I just found your channel.. dude you could sell a book or DVD you are a mountain of usable easy to understand knowledge.. thank you so much I've been wanting to do this for a long time but couldn't find the write knowledge for me but this is awesome.. thanks again for sharing this knowledge and God bless..
Would also suggest some holes up the side of the input pipe near the bottom to help prevent a boiler vacuum colapse. Never heard of the need to fill it 2/3 full. Just a couple of inches to cover the end of the pipe is enough. A water charge will also give a boost in ABV. The thumping sound you hear is the collapse (condensing) of vapor as it enters the cool liquid. Theoretically the liquid in the thumper will nearly always be slightly cooler than that of the boiler. At least until the boiling points of the two become somewhat equalized. Just my $.02.
Massive thanks from Finland.......quite simply the best description of a thumper I have heard and seen...just looking for an excuse to to phone you up and say hi....keep doing what you do...its greatly appreciated ......
Adding the cap to the bottom of the pipe, coming from the still would certainly add pressure to the still. The small holes may slow the amount of bubbles and make them smaller, at the bottom of the thumper. Most stills have a 45 degree cut at the bottom, or have the bottom of the pipe cut like a "crow's foot," at it sits on the bottom of the thumper. A modern still could probably take the added pressure, using a cap with holes in it. I wouldn't recommend it for anything less. A thermostat can be useful... Around 170 is the heat in the still you want to maintain. That will boil the alcohol. If you get to 190, then you begin to boil the water in the still and it will begin to cut your run with too much water. Simply put, your ethel will boil out of the wash, at a lower temp than the water will... And so you will check your run in several jars, with a hydrometer, to check proof. The proof of the run is never consistent from start to finish. You will run out of alcohol before you run out of water in your wash. The oldtimers, used to be able to keep track of the heat under the still, by how often they heard the "thump," in the thumper! Too fast meant it was too hot, and you'd get a weaker product. "Slower is always better for the quality of the finished product." It takes great patents to get that... Great whiskey cannot be rushed, unless you like water!
Can you please make a video where you are actually using a thumper. Iv learned so much from your channel. Please continue the great work you guys are doing.
Great video George, if I'm following you correctly, if you pack a column with one of copper mesh, and use a gin basket you could get a similar effect to a thumper without having to have an extr pice of equipment or risk.
In a direct comparison, yes. There is much more to it than that but in its simplest terms the answer is yes, you could mimic the results with column packing.
I'm Italian and to understand I had to insert the automatic translation. Finally someone who explains how the thumber works !! I have a question, however, and that is in the case of not using the thumber to separate the head and tail of the grappa, I adjust according to the temperatures, with the thumber how should I adjust?
It wouldn't need much adjusting. Just consider the thumper as if it was a second boiler who's heat source was the vapor of the first boiler. Vapor won't be hotter than the boiling point of whatever liquid it started as. In this case, the highest boiling point of any liquid in the first boiler is that of water, at 100°C. The only way to get the thumper hotter than that would be to add some liquid to the first boiler with a higher boiling point, or to build a fire under the thumper...so it's effectively self regulating.
@@giuseppescalia9068 you could easily run the exact same mash in the thumper as what you put in the boiler. this system is designed to use the thumper to turn the alcohols into a vapor, while leaving the water as a liquid, using only the heat being imparted to it via the vapor from the boiler, which will never be hotter than the temperature of boiling water. that way it becomes much harder to overheat the mash. you could use plain water or whatever, but it would take longer to start collecting distillate in the condenser. you could use pure ethanol from a previous run too, in which case it wouldn't take very long at all. I'm not really into brewing wine or making booze though. just a chemistry enthusiast, with a good understanding of why distillation happens, and thought i would help to explain it since i like to see curious people reassuring me the human race still has smart individuals who want to learn, and so ask questions. ever watched a movie called idiocracy? if you have you know what i mean...lol
استاذ شكرا لك على هذا الفديو المفيد سوال ماهو بالضبط عمل الصندوق الضا رب وماهوالسائل الذي يوضع فيه وهل انه لايجعل خروج الراس السام ( الميثانول) بصورة صحيحة
About the cap on the down tube with holes to increase the surface area of the vapor stream in the thumper ,wouldn’t that increase the chance of plugging the down tube and increasing pressure from the boiler to a critical level.
Brilliant, im from the UK and seen lots of videos on moonshine and how moon shine stills work. By far i have learned more from this video clip, i have watched give than from all of the othere video clips, iv seen befor, iv subscribed to and looking forward to watching all of your videos, and in time i will be phoning you with a few questions about a still im going to build. Thanks Allen
I have tried using a thumper a couple different times but they always kept filling up. I was told you have to insulate it very well. For me it was acting like a worm and simply condensing the alcohol.
Hi, Ive just bought a still, 3 stage. I thought the "Thumper" has the store has sold me would be the same has the one you've shown. ie pipe all way down the bottom. In mine it has an inlet, only through the top, no down pipe, and an outlet to the worm from the top. I was wanting to put a 20/30% alcohol into my thumper with some juniper berries to make gin. Cant I do that with not having the pipe all the way to the bottom ? love the channel. Shaun, UK
Molasses is quite the jump. Way too thick and would cause a lot of problems. A better suggestion would be to take the backsit from a rum run (which would be the leftovers from the boiler) and throw that in the thumper. A lot of flavor there also making it a generation 2, you could extend the process making 3rd gen 4th gen ext between 5 and 7 best although it’s a cheating way to make a sour mash. Want to do it right add the backsit to the next wash. That’s why he said tails works great too. A lot of the flavors hide in tails... throw that cloudy mess in the thump. Thank me later
When I started my still, I started with nothing in the thumper. When I finished my run the thumper was around a 1/3 full. Is it bad to start with the thumper empty? I came out with a great product, but was just curious. Also I am keeping whats left in the thumper for my next mash. I didnt the first time and regret it.
I’m running a thumper for the first time. I have a temp gauge in both the still and thumper. What are the temperatures I should be looking for in each one? By the way both sensors are not in the liquid but will be reading vapor temps. Thanx
I have heard that there is a temperature difference of 3 deg. C between the still and thumper. If that's true, so we have to collect the cuts a little higher. Right?
I bought a 3 can still on Amazon and it said it had a thumper but it doesn't have a inlet tube that goes to the bottom so I'm guessing this is a slobber box not a thumper is that correct.
That explains it! I hope you have the strength to kick that rotten hideous disease our Aussie though are with you🇦🇺. Do you have good design on paper for a copper alembic condenser to use with a beer keg, I can source most parts on eBay at a price but I need to increase the volume and capacity that I am doing at one time. Take care and if possible keep those great videos a-comin. I sent Ray a photo of the PID I made works great! Kind regards Graham
Well I've got a little age on me and I've known a few bootleggers and I think you'd make a great one 50 years ago,if I find out it's legal in this state I might have to try some happy distillation, only if it is legal of course and try some of your recipes, thank you and I do enjoy your videos.
So the liquid in the thumper should be about 1/3 the volume of the liquid in the still, but what should the ABV of the liquid in the thumper be, compared to the liquid in the still? Double?
So many terms, different names for the same kinds of things depending on whats being distilled. This was the thought as a I googled whether thumpers and retorts were the same thing....then I get hit with the 'slobber box' lol.
hi george ,, if I make a thumper would you reuse the liquid form it ,, say I filled it with some other alcohol /say wine or some of the wash , wouldn't the liquid from the thumper be more potent after every use? I mean doesn't it take some of the abv away at first till it gets hot?? I was wondering
Hello George, a quick question. I saw a design where the "thumper" is mounted on the lid of the boiler and also about 1/10th of the boiler size. Your thoughts? Enjoying your channel!
Yes it is but really it is because it tastes nasty. Some people will argue that point but there is't enough methanol in a batch of moonshine to hurt anyone. Just think we ferment the same way when we make beer or wine but when finished we bottle. For moonshine we distill. The real reason we toss out the methanol is because we can. We don't do this for beer and wine but no one questions that. George
Thx George, but a few questions. What do you do w/ all the liquid in the thumper after a run ? I understand that a crude (say wood-fired) pot has poor temp control, but in the modern era that has changed. IOW isn't the doubler just another plate?
Good-day George, hope all is well with you and family. Just a simple question I am still researching stills and designs and wondering if a 4” column would be to big I know surface area plays a Hugh part in the vapourising but can you go to big and loose the effect. Cheers
G-day, Yes you can go too big. This would all depend on what size your kettle is and how you heat it. A very large (80-150 gallon) still may have a 4 to 6 inch column but that is sized to the still and the heat source. I most cases a 3 inch column is about the right size for home distilling. The only problem you may have if the column is too large and you are unable to heat it efficiently is that the vapor could condense too early because it has such a large space to travel through. On the other hand if your heat source is efficient this may not be a problem but be cautious; too much heat to overcome the larger space may scorch your mash. I hope this helps George
Hi George, I am wondering if I use the thumper as a botanical basket, what % of neutral spirit will I need to put in the bottom of the thumper? there will be 30% neutral grain spirit in the still to begin with. the thumper will have a suspended sieve 2/3 way up holding the botanicals.
In this case my opinion would be to add enough neutral spirits to ensure the thumper cannot go dry. Although i have never done this before I can only offer an assessment of what I believe will happen. If you have botanicals 2/3 the way up from the bottom and fill the thumper just below that point leaving enough room for vapors to travel upward through the botanicals I see no reason why you would not gain much benefit from this process. Please let us know how it works if you try this. George
Hi George Thanks for sharing your wealth of information on distillation and brewing. Your presentations are very educational and easy to understand. As a person who enjoys diy and learning new things along with recently retired, your videos have captured my attention. I have a question on your thumper / slobber box video. You stated that the thumper should be two thirds filled for the thumper to operate correctly. I made a 10gal elect boiler w/ a 3 gal thumper. If I am running my system for the first time (blue agave wort) what should I fill the thumper with to start off. I was thinking some cheap vodka from Costco. Would this work and will it effect the essense of the tequilla that it produces? 2nd question - is it ok to leave the alcohol in the thumper for later use when I try making a whiskey. Thanks ahead for any feedback. Kind regards, Mike
hey George this is Big Fred. Thank you for the videos and I hope you do some new ones. The best I've seen that actually teach you something. I have a quick question what is the stuff called that you add to distilled water I think it starts with a.. G.. forgive me it just doesn't come to my mind I wanted to know what it was used for and how much do you add per gallon of water?
So do i fill the thump keg with spring water when i do a run or do you leave it empty. I have seen people fill the thump keg with the tails but what do you do when your doing your very first run with your still??? Please explain
Hello George. I noticed that you stressed in your video that your thumper has to be 1/3 the size of your still. Well I just bought a 8 gallon pot still off ebay and the thumper that came with it was about 1 gallon. Will this not work at all. I could have bought a still without a thumper but I wanted to make Brandy’s and I was going to use the thumper to infuse fruit flavors. Will it still work for that or should I buy a larger thumper? Also you stated that it should be filled with alcohol? What kind of alcohol? Please list several examples. Thanks for the great videos George
I cannot speak for the combination the retailer sold you so I'll leave that alone. Any alcohol in the thumper will do, mash, old wine, finished spirits cut down to 40%, almost any type of alcohol will do.
