Just dropped a pan off at the welders.

[Brandon Yuchasz]

Sorry guys I mostly lurk on the board but I wanted to post to get some idea's about this.

I recently acquired a stainless steel dairy tub. Its currently 40" wide, 72" long and 20" deep. Its already got a drain at one end like you see in a bath tub except in this case its all stainless and simply a dropped tub out the bottom and then to the front.

I make syrup simply for my family and friends and don't have any ambitions of getting into it commercially. Last year I ran 25 taps all on buckets and boiled on a block arch using 5 roasting pans ladling the sap from one to the other until I got a pan that was close to finished at the end then I would pick it up pour it into a deep pot and fill it with fresh syrup and start over. This year we plan to run between 50 and 75 taps all on buckets and bags and have no plans of getting bigger then that. All that said some day I do plan to make a shack after we move and will probably build a permanent stone arch in it.

So today when I dropped it at the welders to have the size reduced I explained to him it was for a hobby and I needed to keep the cost down. The place does really good work I use them in my work to have fabrication done but they are expensive so I wanted to be sure they knew I needed to be reasonable. His suggestion to keep the cost down was to leave the sides the same and just remove a section from the middle take the two ends and weld them together and then finish it with solder. I told him to cut it down to half the length so I will be looking at a 40" x 36" pan. I may or may not have it divided into three sections depending on where it comes in on cost. I figure I can always batch boil for this year then have it divided later.

What are you thoughts on the size I have chosen vs the amount of taps I run? I am having a little anxiety cutting it down knowing everyone always wants bigger!


I should have taken a picture for you to see before I dropped it off I have a few days till he starts on it If I want to make any changes.

[Brandon Yuchasz]

Sorry I probably should have put this in the homemade section.

[Big_Eddy]

36x40 for 25 trees is overkill. To make a minimum size batch and take it close to syrup in the pan will take about 95 gals of sap at that size, which is a week or more of sap. You'll need to have suitable storage to keep up to 100gals cool for a week, or you won't be able to get close to syrup on the fire.

I'd suggest 2 pans at 20x16 and 20x20 would be much better. Use the larger pan for sap, and the smaller pan to finish off. That way you can work with smaller batches of sap more realistic for the number of trees you have. You can always fill the rear pan with water if you have no sap left.

Also - at 20" wide instead of 36", you will use about half as much wood with the same or better evaporation.

My 2 cents worth

[Brandon Yuchasz]

Thanks for the feedback. But we are actually planning to run between 50 and 75 taps this year. I guess I was not clear.

[talahi maple products]

Your calculations are ok for 50 to 75 taps, with a 10sq ft (36"x40" )surface pan. on a good day you'll get 75-100 gal sap, You will be in the sugar house awhile, but thats the fun part @ that size, You might consider looking for a few more taps, maybe 25 or 50 and leaving the pan the way it is, if thats not possible or doesn't work maybe try to put it on the trader page to swap for a smaller pan! Theres probably some one out there that has a smaller pan that would love to swap up,

[Big_Eddy]

A simple rule is width (in) x length (ft) = gals / batch at 1/2" finished depth and 40:1 sap ratio.

Batch size is limited by the amount of syrup that the pan holds when down to ~3/8"-1/2". Anything shallower than that and you're playing with fire - literally.

I factored the estimate down to 3/8" earlier as the bare minimum number but even with 75 trees, 95 gals is several days output.

I still suggest you make 2 pans rather than 1, so that you can finish off smaller batches. Just gives you more flexibility, especially for those slower days.

[Brandon Yuchasz]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I should have added that we don't cook every day. Last year I would have between 60 and 80 gallons before we cooked and that seemed to be every three days of so. It made for long days. I plan to do the same this year so I will be looking at 180+ gallons when I sit down to cook. We are blessed with really nice temp swings for a few weeks 20s at night 40s in the day so in the shade of the garage the sap keeps three days easy.