5 Gallon Thump Keg Upgrade To New Order (Including eBay)

5 Gallon Thumper

Height: 15″

Diameter: 9.75

• 1 Ball Valve Drain
• 4″ Stainless Port on Top
• Temp Gauge

As alcohol boils out of the “pot” a certain amount of water evaporates with it. Some smart old timer discovered that if the vapor is bubbled through more fermented wash that was heated only by passing the steam through it.

The Alcohol re-vaporizes but the water and heavier undesirable materials remain trapped in the thump keg, thus the thump keg increases the efficiency of a pot still typically by 35-50% Greatly increasing the strength of the alcohol on the first pass “Stripping run” (where the object is to “Strip away” most of the water.)

An even greater efficiency is achieved on the second pass through the still if you do a “Spirit run” with all the collected “first runs” saved up and run through the still the second time. Generally when doing a “Spirit run” the thump keg is “charged” with pure clean water, because as always it’s primary function is to trap higher boiling fractions that you don’t want.

Separating the “heads” is done at the beginning of the spirit run, because the separation is easier to do at the higher proof levels. The important thing to understand is that the thump keg should not be filled more than 1/3 full, because it is also there to prevent an overfilled pot from “puking through” the worm… but if the thumpr is overfilled it will “puke through” the worm itself.