Chasing syrup w/water on last boil?

[johnallin]

At the end of the season last year, I boiled all the sap I had left and then added water to the tank to "chase" the syrup up to the front pan. Does anyone know of a better way to finish off what's in the pan?

What's in there is good looking syrup and real close to being drawn off - 2 to 3 gallons is my guess. I'm concerned the water affecting the taste of the syrup... any ideas or alternative methods you guys use?

Thanks.

[Kev]

I boil it as low as I dare. then after the evap cools enough to not scorch the pan. I plug the sryup pan from the rest, put all the sweet stuff in there. run water into the rest. and boil off the final batch

[Kev]

To add:
I personaly have had very poor luck "chasing" with water. I do not know what I have done wrong but I reach the point where it just will not make syrup. it stays close and water just keeps adding to it

[brookledge]

The way I do it is boil it down as low as I dare then drain the flue pan and fill it with water. Then start it back up and add the contents from the flue pan into the syrup pan as needed until it is all in then after it cools down again drain the syrup pan into the finisher.
Keith

[Ausable]

For my setup - chasing with water is rather simple. I have a home made 2' x 5' with flat pans. I have a tapered plug setup between my sap pans and syrup pans and another tapered plug between my syrup pans and last syrup pan. I put the plugs in both sections when the last syrup pan is near syrup and drain and scoop the syrup out leaving just the botton covered (just have a low fire when I do this) then scoop the other near syrup from the other syrup pans forward to the final syrup pan with the plug still in - leaving the syrup pans I just mt'd with enough on the bottom so it dosen't scorch. Then - you guessed it - scoop the contents of the sap pans forward to the syrup pans and then open the valve and put water into the sap pans. You get the idea - just repeat the process till I've saved all or most of the syrup and have the pans full of boiling water. If I'm in a hurry - I just plug and save the syrup from the last syrup pan to finish later and remove the plug and flush what remains out with water.... Mike

[ennismaple]

For us, it's a little more involved. We fill one of our storage tanks with 300+ gallons of water and once the last of the sap goes into the evaporator we pump water into the evaporator feed tank and chase the sweet through. Eventually, the runoffs get so far apart it's not worth boiling anymore. We may miss a gallon or two of syrup in the pans when we call it quits but it would take more wood than it's worth to get every last bit of it through.

[johnallin]

Ennismaple...That's what I did last year - my first with the 2x6, but was wondering if there is any better way to go about it.

After all sap was out of the big tank, I filled with water and just boiled until I could not get a draw. If I understand it correctly; if I keep the level in the front pan the same, eventually there just isn't enough sugar left to make syrup any more. So unless I draw it all off and finish on something smaller, it's time to clean up and call it a season.

I've had my best year so far and hate to lose what's still in there. We got a small run yesterday and am hoping for one last go at it in the next few days.

Thanks for your replies.

[DrTimPerkins]

To add:
I personaly have had very poor luck "chasing" with water. I do not know what I have done wrong but I reach the point where it just will not make syrup. it stays close and water just keeps adding to it

Unless you can also spin straw into gold, there is a pretty good explanation for this.

Eventually you get to the point where you aren't adding any more sugar, just water, and you can't get the gradient from the sap inlet to the syrup outlet any steeper, so the sugar density doesn't increase, so the syrup temperature doesn't increase, and you can't draw off any longer. You are basically just making steam without any concentration happening.

The only way to get out the sugar remaining in the pans is to draw the sweet off into a smaller container (finishing pan, kettle, or pot on the stove), stop adding water, and boil it down.

[Kev]

Unless you can also spin straw into gold, there is a pretty good explanation for this.

Eventually you get to the point where you aren't adding any more sugar, just water, and you can't get the gradient from the sap inlet to the syrup outlet any steeper, so the sugar density doesn't increase, so the syrup temperature doesn't increase, and you can't draw off any longer. You are basically just making steam without any concentration happening.

The only way to get out the sugar remaining in the pans is to draw the sweet off into a smaller container (finishing pan, kettle, or pot on the stove), stop adding water, and boil it down.

and if you look at the post before this one you see that I put it all in the syrup pan capped off and finish it. :)

[DrTimPerkins]

and if you look at the post before this one you see that I put it all in the syrup pan capped off and finish it. :)

Good to the last drop.