Thumper still3/13/2023 Once the blackpot still has been run once, more sugar is added to the mash that is leftover in the boiler, and the entire process begins again. (In rare instances well-cleaned car radiators have served as condensers rather than worms.) From the doubler the alcohol vapor runs into the traditional water-cooled worm, condenses, and flows as a liquid out the money piece. Thus the alcohol originally contained in the still goes through a second distillation, smoothing the taste of the liquor and saving the moonshiner the time and labor of running “singlings” through the still again. The alcohol vapors from the boiler heat the beer in the doubler. The alcohol vapors travel from the boiler through the cap and into a “doubler” (also called a “thumper”), a barrel which has been filled with weak whiskey or mash beer. When the mash approaches distillation temperature, the cap is secured atop the boiler with a chain, wire, or weight. Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, circa 1960s.Īfter the mash has fermented into “beer,” the bootlegger heats the boiler, usually with gas or oil burners, and stirs the mash. If a cap blows off or a boiler bursts, nearby still hands can be scalded by the steam and flying mash. The operators of this small submarine still placed a rock on top of the cap to keep the steam from pushing off the cap and escaping. Two 80-pound sacks of wheat bran are poured on top of the mixture to hold in the heat of fermentation. A typical mash recipe for an 800-gallon blackpot still includes 50 pounds of rye meal, 50 pounds of barley meal, 800 pounds of sugar, and water. However, in operating a submarine still in the modern “blackpot” method, the moonshiner mixes the ingredients for the mash directly in the boiler. The general principle of distilling–boiling fermented mash to release the alcohol in steam form and then cooling the steam back into a liquid–is the same for the submarine still as it is for the turnip still. A large submarine pot (or “boiler”) can hold 800 or more gallons of mash, far more than a turnip still. Nailed together from boards and sheets of metal (usually galvanized steel, but sometimes copper or stainless steel), the submarine still is easily made. The submarine-type still was in use by the 1920s, and in a few years it became the moonshiner’s favorite. Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, circa 1960s. When run in the blackpot style, the large submarine still eliminates the need for mash barrels or boxes. Corn mash in cool weather may take up to two weeks to ferment. Depending upon the outside temperature and the amount of yeast and sugar added, the fermentation process in the barrels takes three or four days or more. During fermentation of the mash, yeasts eat sugar and excrete alcohol. ![]() In producing whiskey with a turnip still, mash barrels or wooden boxes are filled with some recipe of ground grain (such as corn, rye, or wheat), water, barley malt (or ground sprouted corn), yeast, and/or sugar. Making such boilers, the caps, and the coiled copper “worm” condensers in the old styles calls for skilled metalwork. American turnip boilers were traditionally made of copper sheets hammered into shape and riveted and soldered together. In the Blue Ridge it was used into the 1930s, but few, if any, area bootleggers today have ever seen a turnip still in operation. Named for its squatty turnip-shaped boiler (often called the “pot”), the turnip still dates back centuries. The moonshiner can tell how far along the fermentation process has gone by feeling the foam or “breaking up the cap.” Virginia Blue Ridge, circa 1970s. When the cap of foam has disappeared, mash is ready to distill.
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