Grains in thumper

creekrat

I'm a FNG to all of this and am currently gathering parts and pieces for my keg still build. In the future I want to have two 1/2bbl kegs with one being my still pot and the other as a thumper.
My question is what difference in flavor profile did you achieve when you did say 2 ferments and charged your still with clean mash and placed the grains in your thumper and filled up to the charge level with water before running? My brain is telling me that the end product should have a heavier and potentially more complex flavor profile and more mouthfeel.
It would also allow for greater efficiency with greatly diminished risk of scorching since you'd be direct heating a liquid and having your solids in your thumper.

Steve-Broady

I tried it once, and it was a disaster. The grains clogged the vapor tube, built up pressure, caused all kinds of problems… and then the snotty rye wash started to scorch, and the whole mess got thrown out.
Not saying I knew what I was doing, and I’ve thought about trying again in the future, but as a newbie, it’s not totally risk free.Steve, you’re way behind time. This is not 38, but it’s old 97. You must put her into Spencer on time.

Kareltje

So you want the clear wash in the boiler and the grainy slurry in the thumper? Good idea!
But you should not fill the thumper with water: there must be plenty of room for the extra volume coming from the boiler.
Same goes for distilling fruit washes: fluid in the boiler, slurry/pulp in the thumper.
I should think a ratio of 2 liter/gallon in the boiler on 1 L/gl in the thumper should do well. Filling them both for about 50 %.
I do not understand your question about the difference in flavor, as I see only one mode of operation.

haggy

Do some searches here on "what to add to a thumper" and you will find wash in the boiler and grains in the thumper has been done many times. As for what happens to the flavor profile, I found a couple of posts that might help to understand this.
Re: what to add to a thumper
Post by NZChris » Wed May 17, 2017 3:38 am
It is the 'impurities' that makes your corn likker taste like corn likker. Remove all of them and you have neutral.
Use your thumper to add flavor, (impurities), if you are making flavored product. if you have fermented on the grain, putting the wash in the pot and the grain in the thumper will increase your yield and add flavor without the risk of burning the grains onto elements or the bottom of the pot. Without the grain, putting some of the wash in the thumper is better than putting water in it.
A thumper is a multi purpose tool and there are a lot of ways of using it. Having a shooter valve for adding flavor during a run makes it even more versatile.

Re: Grains in the thumper
Unread post by still_stirrin » Thu Mar 17, 2022 9:59 am
Don’t be surprised if you get more oils in your product when charging the thumper with corn mash. Without doubt it’ll boost flavors in the product. But consider what flavors and other constituents will carry over. Don’t come back asking “what happened”.
ss

According to these posts, a thumper with grains might give you a good/better flavor profile. I have not studied this so I cannot confirm this.
So, you have a 15.5 gal pot and a 15.5 gal thumper.  A charge of 12 gal of wash in the pot and 9 gal of grains in the thumper with both at 10% ABV and a pot heat up and distill at 3000 watts should be a good run. The thumper initial temperature will determine the time it takes for pot vapor to heat up the thumper and start it boiling. At 30 C ( 86 F ), it could take an hour to heat up the 9 gal. This adds alcohol to the thumper and it will boil over at about 70% ABV initial product at about 100 ml/min. The distillate ABV will drop during the run as alcohol in the pot and thumper decreases. The thumper volume should not overfill during the run as long as the ABV is about the same in both vessels. Tails might appear when the distillate out the spout gets to about 40% ABV. You can stop there, or collect more in a different jars. Flavors ( tails? ) come out all during the run, more so during the later stages, so collect several/many jars and see what the hearts jars taste like.
This run information comes from the HD Calculator section - my calculation model for this pot - thumper operation. Go to the Calculator Section and try it with these inputs. Then adjust the inputs to your exact ABV and temperature values and look at different options to find your best run conditions.
Haggy

haggy

Also, the thumper spear design is important when you put grains in the thumper.  Look up some posts about spear design posts to get information about the best design. Probably not small holes that could plug.
And, to be conservative, the first run could be half wash and half grains in the thumper to reduce the solids content.
Truckinbutch (RIP) has run wash in both the pot and thumper. See some of his posts. Here is one.
maximizing thumper potential
Post by Truckinbutch » Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:18 am
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 .

Two hours heating up both pot and thumper.

Twisted-Brick

How you design, load and run your thumper will directly impact what you produce from it, but each additional distillation creates a cleaner, higher-proof distillate.  For this reason it may be difficult to realize a 'fortified' (heavier, more complex) spirit from running a thumper, especially on an ensuing spirit run.  The challenge will be coordinating the processing of dissimilar contents of two connected vessels such that the distillate is taken off in a linear fashion, like a pot still does.  If a small-diameter riser (or sharp 90*) plumbing is involved, the challenge becomes greater, IMO.
Some HD thumper threads for thought:
Thumper?
Do you really need a thumper?
Thumper design “Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake.”
- W.C. Fields
My EZ Solder Shotgun
My Steam Rig and Manometer