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I traded emails with C. Cowdrey about this very issue, some time ago, as follows: Roger, Distillers tell me the doubler 'polishes' the spirit. Specifically, it removes some remaining low boilers not removed sufficiently by the column. You are right that it is unnecessary for achieving proof but is necessary for removing a few undesirable congeners. The doubler is a pot still. A conventional doubler uses fully condensed distillate from the column while a thumper takes the uncondensed vapor and uses its energy for flash condensation, which makes the thumping noise. Back in the 60s and 70s, when everyone was cutting costs to the bone, many distilleries stopped doubling but they didn't like the results. At present, every major distillery doubles except for Blanton's 1792, which doubles most of the time but doesn't for some brands. I hope this is helpful. Chuck Charles K. Cowdery Made and Bottled in Kentucky

Interesting... For brandies, I was taught some of the same things. Brandy is interesting, in that the heads and tail cuts are very sharp, easy to distinguish. For larger runs (brandy) I was taught to run my dephleg at full reflux as soon as I had my first whiff of fores from the parrot. Running like this concentrates the heads in the column. Then I bump up the dephleg bit by bit until my heads dribble out, and the heart run isn't really starting. At that point, I was shown to turn off dephleg, run with no plates (or just one) and adjust my heat/cooling to get my desired proof off the still (we liked right around 152). When the proof starts to drop fast (and it does!) shut up all the plates, and continue to the first whiff of tail...then run the dephleg around 195-198 (digital PID) until your tails are done. That was for stonefruit and softer apples. Grappa was a little different, as there are some unpleasant congeners that come off at certain points...if we get into a grappa discussion, I may reveal some of my findings on that... The guy who taught me all of this makes well-known brandies, many of which have won awards.

You could try this.. Do the math on expected yields for your size wash and ABV you are putting into the still 1. Take a large cut of foreshots (something like 3x what you normally would) and discard. 2. Collect the next 1/4 of expected total yield as heads and save. 3. Collect the next 1/2 of expected total yield as hearts. (on the first batch of the cycle you might want to take even less as hearts) 4. Collect the final 1/4 as tails and save. Run it all the way down to 20% ABV.. On the next batch add the heads/tails into the still with your new ferment. Do the math on expected total yields again including the feints you added. Repeat steps 1 - 4 but this time adjust your cuts to taste. So... Your take big foreshot cuts each run because this is where you get rid of the burn that builds up. You take big heads cuts because you don't need to worry about losing product as you will recover that alcohol next time. You run all the way down to 20%ABV because that is where most of your flavor is. It essentially works out to a 1.5 distilled product.

Found this on a past thread. It makes sense to me...

That's not the deal. That is just one persons opinion who probably favors the flavors he or she has achieved through a column still – not sure if their same wash/mash was was also attempted on a pot still... Either way, it's their opinion and there's nothing wrong with it. I run pot stills for whiskey. There is a crazy amount of flavor that comes though in the second distillation on my still with my wash. I've tried distilling the exact same wash through a column still (a small 55g still that I use to distill my higher whiskey cuts into a gin base) and the flavors were not quite as rich and enjoyable for my liking. The answer for me was pretty clear. If you want to make whiskey on a column still - go for it, but know that you can make a "smooth" spirit on ANY still that's run properly with proper cuts taken. Tons of folks make great whiskey on all sorts of stills. Make the best whiskey you can!

I love it! A geothermal cooling loop! (I used to install geothermal and hydronic floor systems)