by rumdidlydum » Sat Mar 05, 2016 11:37 pm
Now to digress tonights efforts.
I ran a 1/3 vanilla 3/1 mc rum recipe.
I pre charged the thumper with dunder, I can't give any heat up times due to old mate murphy stoping by.
After I was back on track and the column was bubbling away it took about 7min for the thumper to find its equilibrium. I have been running two elements, one full and the other 1/3 for full reflux, which i left it in for about 20min.
Next started to take off the fores drip by drip for about 10min then increased it to a drible for another 15min. Threw it back into reflux for another 10 min and started the stream for the collection jars. I collected about 1.2ltrs, the bottom glass started to fog so i put it into full reflux for roughly 15min, then colected an additional 800mls.
Due to using the liberg output temp was pretty high to get an accurate reading, but I would assume it was in the 90's.
Back into full reflux for about 20min (untill I could see the thumper draining back to the boiler, and then some)
Lastly collected about another 1ltr. Tails were being more noticeable creeping up the column so i put both elements on 100% and striped the rest out to 20 ish percent.
To summarise, the thumper worked well with precharging with dunder, you just need to keep an eye out because the dunder will puke if your throwing alot of heat at it.
I found it easier to control the elements rather than the rc, but this maybe because i have amp readouts of each.
I sampled a small portion watered down and with coke, it wasn't nice or crap but I intend on long term aging, so hopefully it will develop nicely.
So first impression of the thumper.
It works well providing you have the power to run it. You just need to stack the fractions long enough, then draw off them at a managable rate
For me this was the first run of a thumper, so I dont expect to have mastered it or tamed it. Yet anyway.
Enough babbling.
Cheers
Rum