Burnt to a crisp

[jblaker]

Burnt to a crisp! When we get done boiling for the night, we leave about 40 gal of sap in our feed tank, stoke the fire box, close the flue and walk away. Well when I returned to the sugar shack, to my horror, I found the front pan full of "BURNT BLACK" syurp or non syurp. Now have a small leak in the pan to repair. The man that taught me sugering, has always ended the boil this way. Still can't figure out what happened. How do you all end the boil, when you are done for the night? Sap still running need to get up and running again. This is my first year running the operation. Chalk it up to experience? Looking forward to your feedback.

[Sue @ Battel's Sugar Bush]

Sorry to hear it! The oldtimers around here say you're not a real sugarmaker until you've burned up a pan. :cry:

We leave the syrup deep in the pan to be safe, and only stoke the fire if we have someone else coming within an hour or so to get it fired back up again. Otherwise we spread out the wood and let it die down. Some people run it a little riskier, and I suppose everybody has to figure out how hot and shallow they can leave things before they'll end up with a burnt pan in the morning. Our helper left it too hot three years ago and completely ruined the pan, so we've been more conservative since then.

[jblaker]

Got an update for you. Pan is not ruined. Thank God! What happened is a seam came apart, as the sap started leaking out it turned to syurp and burnt to a crisp. Have a friend from church, who is retired from a welding shop, he has the pan says it will be an easy fix. In the mean time temps in se Mi are riseing and I have 350 gal of sap that needs to be boiled. Looks like a long night tonight. In the future I will error on the side of caution. Thanks for the feedback. More later.

[DonMcJr]

Don't worry too much it's going below freezing tonight!

Glad you found the problem!

[Tweegs]

I have my feed tank marked, when I reach that level I stoke the fire one last time and let it coast down from there. I usually run out of fire about the same time I run out of sap (save for 5~10 gallons as a buffer), but I stay there until the boil is off.


When the boil is totally off, I draw 1 gallon into a bucket and label it #1. I draw a second gallon and label it #2.

The next time I fire up I’ll get a good boil going in the syrup pan and then slowly add the contents of bucket #2 back in just ahead of the draw off port, then I’ll add the contents of bucket #1 the same way.

This reestablishes the gradient and you’re off and running.

We learned this technique at a conference here in January. Works like a champ.

This is also a good way to change your draw off side on the fly.