Spirit Stills and Reboilers?

[Davin de Kergommeaux]

Hi Horst, Dave and All,

I think the thumper is used for more than just copper contact.

In Classic American Whiskies, Waymack and Harris, speaking of
Brown-Forman, say: "As the spirit comes off the still, it is at about
118 proof - fairly low compared to other distilleries.  But from the
beer still it goes into the thumper for a more serious distillation
than is common.  As the spirit comes off the thumper and through the
tail boxes, it is at 140 proof."

If it's re-distilled there has to be a source of heat.  I am NOT an
engineer but could one speculate that waste heat might be extracted
from other sources (pot ale for example) using a heat exchanger?  Just
a wild guess.

Davin

On 8/3/06, Horst Luening <luening at dr-luening.de> wrote:
> Hello Dave!
>
> We already talked about this here and came to two different conclusions.
>
> This is my thinking of it and how I understood this during explanations in several Bourbon plants:
>
> The doubler/thumper is no distillation device. Because a lot of column stills are now made of stainless steel, you need some time of contact between the raw whiskey (white dog) and copper. This is to have the necessary catalytic processes going. Because you loose some energy over the pipes to the doubler you need some heating too. This has nothing to do with distillation.
>
> Perhaps this is also the answer to the question? May this device be only in place for more contact of the alc. fumes with copper?
>
> Regards,
> Horst
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE [mailto:MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE]Im Auftrag von djrussobik at AOL.COM
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 3. August 2006 01:47
> An: MALTS-L at LISTS.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE
> Betreff: Re: Spirit Stills and Reboilers?
>
>
> Is this (or could this be) how the second distillation in a doubler/thumper in some Bourbon distilleries also is accomplished?.  I never quite figured out how this step actually was implemented -- it certainly seemed to be distinct from both the traditional pot-stills and column-stills, and not obvious if there was a direct source of additional heat.   Any one know how THAT distillation/step is performed?
>
>   Thanks and Slainte!
>     Dave in Boston
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ake.j-son at BREDBAND.NET
> To: DJRussoBik at AOL.COM
> Sent: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 7:12 PM
> Subject: Re: Spirit Stills and Reboilers?
>
>
> Hi again,
>
> Another speculation: the liquid of the second step may also be more
> volatile due to higher alcohol contents thus boiling at lower temperature.
>
> Åke
>
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