How do i get sap out of flue pan to finish it off?

[cpmaple]

Just wondering if anyone out there can shed some light on how do i go about finishing off the sap thats in the flue pan. Do i chase it with water to push it into my syrup pan or so i draw it off through the drain for the flue pan and add it to the syrup pan by hand? but i guess i flood the flue pan either way with water while finishing off my syrup. going to pull taps this coming weekend so i'm just trying to get a jump on it so i know what to do. first year with a flue pan lots of learning to come with it. thanks cpmaple

[brookledge]

The way I do it is drain the flue pan into a barrel through the drain valve. Then fill the flue pan with water and pour the drawn off sap into the syrup pan as needed. Boil it down as much as you can and then draw off the remaing from the syrup pan and finish it in the gas finisher
Trying to chase water through it will help you finish off what is in your syrup pan but it will still mix in to a certain degree. If you want to get all you can then don't use the chase method
Keith

[briansickler]

I just did this last night to finish up for the season. I drained the flue pan into pails. Filled the feed tank with water and another 100 gallons in the bulk tank. I wanted to have plenty because it takes quite a while to finish the 30-35 gallons of concentrated sap on the flat syrup pan. It speeds up the process if you can preheat the sap. I have a preheater under the hood. I found a pot that would sit on top of my preheater. Sit the pot on the preheater, (not under stack) close the hood door and in about 30 seconds the sap was 200 degrees. Then I added it to the syrup pan on the side away from the draw off. I was able to draw of like normal this way until I ran out of sap. I kept the sap depth in the pan between 1 and 1.5". The gradient developed just like normal. When I ran out of sap, I let that boil down all that I dared. By then I had about 3 gallons of syrup drawn off. Dumped the syrup back in the syrup pan evenly across the whole pan in all section. I scooped from the syrup (draw off section) to the other side to get it all evenly concentrated. Boiled until it was syrup. Opened the draw valve and removed the flue pan plug on side away from draw off. When the water reaches the draw box or the temp drops close valve. I ran the flue box deep (2.5") so it would push the syrup around better when the time came. Make sure it's plenty (at least 1") deeper than the syrup pan or the syrup will wind up in the flue pan. I ran 10 more gallons of water through at that point into another bucket to get all of the rest of the sugar out and discarded that. Flooded the pans with about 5" of water, cooled a bit and added acid to soak over night in both pans for my final cleaning. The process took about 3-4hours, but wound up with 3.5 gallons of syrup for my efforts.

Brian

[cpmaple]

thanks for the info i have never a this set up till mid season all new to me I've made 21gallons on it so far and dont want to waste the 74 gallons of sap thats in the flue pan. thanks again chad (cpmaple)

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I do the same as Keith and with the AOF system this year, I kept the under fire air shut down and it worked really good as it didn't take too long and kept all the heat under the syrup pan and didn't take too long.

[michiganfarmer2]

The way I do it is drain the flue pan into a barrel through the drain valve. Then fill the flue pan with water and pour the drawn off sap into the syrup pan as needed. Boil it down as much as you can and then draw off the remaing from the syrup pan and finish it in the gas finisher

Keith

sounds like a great idea to me