New to this, terminology questions

[Timmymacnj]

Hey guys,

My name is Tim and I am brand new to this site and sugaring. This was the first year I tried it, and really enjoyed it. Just to try it out I did 4 taps and made it on my kitchen stove, then made a simple fire outside using some cinder blocks, a metal grate and an old turkey pan. Came out very good, got about 4 pints of light amber, and the rest slightly darker. I have about 5.5 acres, with at least 40 reasonably accessible maples.

I am looking at doing a DIY evaporator this year and had a few questions.

1. I am looking at some commercial evaps just to get an idea of how they do it is done professionally and not quite sure I understand it all. I noticed there seems to be three major parts to the pan part of the evaps, a pre heat pan, a flue pan, and a syrup pan? I am assuming this goes in stages, but I am a little confused. What is the difference between a regular evaporator pan and a pre heat pan?

2. How is sap transferred from pre heat pan to next stage?

3. From what I have been reading, I take it that a flue pain is just a regular pan with raised divisions (flues?) to increase surface heating area? I guess I am getting confused as I am only familiar with the term flue in regards to air draw on fireplaces/ stoves.

4. How do you transfer from flue pan?

5. I am assuming the syrup pan is the finishing pan? Is it just a flat pan? If I was planning to finish stovetop or in a turkey fryer, could I just have a flat pan or flue pan as most of my surface area on my DIY project?

6. I have heard the term hood and air hood tossed around, what is this in reference to?

Sorry about the long post, very curious. Thanks.

[Luneyburg]

Daniel's my name and I was born in California and have lived in the midwest, south and New England . I am a high rise/commercial construction Superintendent who currently with the existing Economy out of work , but helping one of the last local dairy farmers where I live now in the quaint little town in central Massachusetts called Lunenburg.

Use to hobby sugar in Upstate New York in Ulster County and lived in quite a few towns there including New Paltz, Highland, West Park and Saugerties to name a few .

I rented a 75 acre farm and was pretty self efficient in that I grew pigs, chickens,and turkeys which I traded some of for venison for red meat. Made maple syrup for sugar and the only thing we lacked was dairy. Grew all our herbs, vegetables in a large garden and heated with wood only that i harvested (mostly standing dead wood) from the old growth forest above the fields .

Seems i got the bug again when I started to work for these dairy farmers whom have a nice sugar bush and the local producer taps along with the huge yard maples at my resident along with the neighbors. Look to tap these tree's next year with any luck in the financing and hopes that the economy will improve soon.

I was elated to say the least when I found this forum as its been 20+ years since I have sugared and had forgotten much of what I learned back then . Seems to be a great bunch of people here on this forum with a vast amount of knowledge and experience including wisdom obtained through the process of trial and error. I love the fact that people from all over the NE and Canada visit here including many of which live where I use to live and where I currently live in central Massachusetts .

Look forward to contributing what I will definitely learn and experience through getting back into sugaring with others either getting started or returning to sugaring .

Best wishes to everyone and thanks for your kind contributions

Daniel

[Ausable]

Hi Tim - Some suggestions - Keep it simple to start. The First evaporator I ever saw was a big - fuel oil fired - stainless steel rig that was all enclosed. I could not make any sense out of it and the owner was busy and could not answer any questions and I left not knowing any more then when I walked it. At that time - the only thing I knew about maple syrup was that it tasted good and came from trees. A preheater can be anything that heats up cold sap prior to entering the first sap pan. Example - a copper coil around the stack etc. etc. Next are the Sap Pans also called Flue pans, dropped flue pans and raised flue pans and probably some other names and next come the syrup pans and they also have various designs. Ok - Maple sap goes to Sugar Shack and into holding tank - then pumped to elevated feed tank - flows from feed tank into preheater and then first sap (flue) pan thru the sap pans and into the first syrup pan - thru the syrup pans and drawn off the last syrup pan as syrup or near syrup. To be filtered, finished and bottled. -- Hope I helped some --- Mike

[TF Maple]

1. The preheat pan is where cold sap goes in to be warmed up from the heat rising from the pan below it. This captures some of the heat that would be lost and warms the sap so when it is added to the regular pan it doesn't kill the boil like cold sap would.

2. Sap can be manually dipped out of the preheat pan or a valve can be opened to let it out. Some setups have float boxes that control the flow between all the pans.

3. Flu pans can be raised flues or drop flues and the idea is more surface area to catch the heat as you said.

4.See number 2.

5. The Syrup pan is the finishing pan and is flat. You can have any kind of pan you want at any stage of the process. Everyone does their own thing and works with what they can find, make or buy.

6.A hood collects the steam to get rid of it through the roof. Some hoods have preheater tubes in them to collect some heat before it leaves the shack.

[Sugarmaker]

Tim,
Welcome,
TF did a good job of explaining. Every one has a little twist and each evaporator is a little differrent too.
I think your assumptions were on the mark.
Basic thing is can you get a fire under it and will it boil? Then just keep sap in the pans! When you have done that your making syrup just like you did on the stove.
The three system evaporator is probably a Half pint version. Preheating the sap in any way helps the boiling pan remain constant. On a half pint I think there is a small valve that allows you to tricke the warm sap into the lower boiling pan.
Yes flue pan typically refers to the rear most pan and has raised or drop flues. The hott gasses from the fire has to travel between these flues in the pan and the added surface are improves the efficency of the rig.
Most rigs lik a half pint transfer the sap from the flue pan to the syrp pan throug a connection between pan. Bigger units may have a float box that allows sap to be regulated to the fron pan. A flat pan will make syrup just fina a flue pan increases the surface area and boils faster. Sounds like you might want to start with a flat pan? Gary R on here and several others make flat pans.
Hoods control the steam and direct it away from the evaporator. Nice but not required at your stage.
Sap and syrup can move through the pans where the less dense sap pushed the more dense sap towards a draw off port.
Hope some portion of this may help.
Regards,
Chris