Hi Pilot Bob, When useing a thumper you put some of your mash in it for the liquid that is needed. That adds more flavor. The addition of copper mesh would probably take more flavor out.
I've never done it but I only use 1 roll of mesh in the column during a pot still run because useing more takes more flavor out. That I have done.

Bob,



You should be doing much better than that. I think you'll much more bang for the buck by improving your technique.

--JB

Tell us how you run your rig and what you are using for power. You turn on the power/light it off then .... ???

How long do you hold it in reflux? How do you control the collection rate and power? Is the column fully packed with copper, rings, scrubbers?

PB - please give us the details. I run a 3" column & consistently produce 92% with sharp delineation between the heads, hearts & tails. A good strip and at least an hour of reflux goes a long ways to making the highest end stuff. Wife makes excellent lemoncello, amongst other things.

Thumper is for corn liquor anyway, kind of a waste on a neutral rig.

I have a 15 gal beer keg with a brewhaus Pro Series II, 2" column filled with copper mesh. I make wine and will often have more than what I need or someone will give me some wine that didn't turn out so good. That's what goes in the keg and is usually anywhere between 12-15% al.
I fill the keg with 10 gals of wine and heat the keg with a propane burner. I start out high to get the temp going and as soon as I feel some heat on the column I turn the burner down and wait for the run to start. I discard the first 100ml. I adjust the heat so as to get just a drip or very small stream.
In the past when using just the column I would first do a stripping run and end up with a couple gals of 50%. Then when I had 10 gals of fist run I would load up the keg and do a final run with the temp as low as I could get. I usually ended up around 85%.
So I began thinking about using a thumper and running it once. I built the thumper using a 1/2 gal mason jar connected to the outlet of the column with no cooling at the column and a worm box for cooling after the thumper. This worked well the first time we tried it and I thought why not do a double thumper since I had to buy a case of mason jars.
I ran this system and checked the al. thru out the run every half hour and got 85% at the beginning and 80% at the end for an av of 83%.
I will use this for soaking with lemon, oranges and lime zest and then make up sugar water and dilute to 35-40% al. If I want brandy I'll soak it with charred oak cubes from old wine barrels.
That's about all the information I can think of to give you. If you have more questions, please do ask and thank you to all for your advice. Sorry about the picture, I'm still trying to figure out how to get a picture posted.

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Here are my pics finally have them sized correctly.
The pic showing the full setup is working with 1 thumper, the closeup is after I put two thumpers together.

If I understand you correctly, your running your still twice. I'm trying to get that result in one run thereby saving on propane.

I agree with Googe.

Thats good mate, I wasn't sure, just remember reading it somewhere, would hate to see someone burnt badly.

Hi Bob Iam trying to use a tumper , with a thumper what temp is your still and what temp is your thumper?