Batch process for boiling

[riley04]

As I've said in a few other posts I'm new to sugaring and am only going to tap a few trees at best this year. I'll have acess to more next year, but just trying to get some ideas really.

So, If I collect 8-10 gallons of sap over the course of 2-3 weeks and freeze it.....and some point in the near future I will thaw it and perform my boiling. I assume I don't want to fill up a pan to the top with all my sap. Would you put a gallon or so in the pan (if that's all it accomodates at one time) and then as that cooks down a bit, add a little more until you've gone though all your sap? I assume I really want to keep my temp below the (+7deg F over boiling) until I cycled all my sap through my pan....right? And then as it hits the ~219F...I'm done. I ask about this because of all the reading I've done about evaporators and how the more viscous, higher density liquid moves from one end of the pan to the other. In my case though since I'm just doing it in a pan with no channels....do I just keep adding as my level goes down?
Thanks. Any suggestions or pictures would be welcomed. I'm planning to use either a wood or propane smoker setup with a large pan on the burner.

[TF Maple]

Yes you can do it just like you typed up and that will work just fine. One change you can make is not storing sap if you don't want to. You can start boiling when you have a nice amount for the pan, boil it down for a while, and just stop for one or two days until you have more sap.

Here is what I did 2 years ago when i first started with 18 taps in 12 trees. I boiled in a pot that held about 3 gallons on an electric stove in the garage. Filled the pot and had the burner close to the highest setting. I kept adding more as it boiled down. We had enough sap coming in that we didn't have to stop. At night I filled the pot and turned the burner down a little so it just barely boiled, but you can only do that when the stuff in the pan is pretty thin, too risky if you have halfway to syrup. When I started to notice the boiling bubbles were getting smaller and lasting longer, I knew it must be getting close. I then transfered to a smaller pot and finished in the kitchen.