When to add more sap

[joshxxl]

7271
I built a new evaporator. It holds 40 gallons of sap. On my last test boil I was able to boil off 25 gallons of water in 2 hrs 35 min. That is from starting a fire until the pan had less than 1/2 gallon left. My question is when do I add more sap, and is it possible to add to much sap? I am a batch boiler and my goal is to finish with 1.5 gallons of syrup.

[jstaples]

I've used a similar set up last year. We had about 150 gallons of sap, we just kept adding warm sap until we had about 4 gallons of concentrate then moved it over to a turkey fryer and finished it off. Some say that if you boil the sap too long then you get a darker grade. Our set up took most of the day and we ended up with a medium grade, but it was towards the end of the season. So i'd say just keep adding and just watch your temp.

[smokeyamber]

You can come up with what works for you, but batch boiling will give darker syrup , tasty dark syrup ;) My batch setup was two hotel pans, and I would move from the back hard boiling pan to the front pan and end up with near syrup that would get finished inside. Finishing on a gas burner is much easier and more controlled than in the pan. I also planned when to stop feeding the fire so I would not have a hot fire going and no sap to add... also if you want to you can even stop for the night and not draw off. I would boil for several nights before drawing off near syrup, in my case I would fill the pans to near the top and stoke the fire and walk away... in the morning they would be down a few inches and I would start from there.

When batch boiling the key for me seemed to be to keep good track of how much sap I was adding and also marking my pan at the desired finish height. I used a test stick marked in gradients as well

I.e. Mark at the 3 gallon mark ( or whatever you are aiming for ) for near syrup and then figure on the 30 gallon per gallon syrup ratio and keep adding until you have used up 60 gallons of sap... you know then you are in the ballpark and can start planning for pulling the near syrup off....when you start getting close be sure to have 5 gallons of sap as an emergency dump if things get too close ... also let the fire die when you get close...

This sounds complicated, but really isn't ... actually the nice thing about batch boiling is you can fill the pans deep and walk away for a bit if you are boiling during the day and do other things like collect sap, With a divided pan setup things run way faster and you need to be much more attentative, I am still trying to make the transition to this method and it is much trickier for me :lol:

[Spartazoo]

I just start cooking and then draw it off to a stainless steel pot when I am either out of sap or too tired. I then take it in the house and finish on the stove per my hydrometer, filter it, and bottle it. So far it works great. I do however have a pre-heater pan on my 2x4 arch. The way it is probably flowing today... My system is going to get tested because I have 80 gallons of sap in storage and probably **** near that much in the buckets.

Having said all that, I am not sure if what I am doing is the correct way or not. This weekend there is going to be no boiling until I am sick of it, gonna have to keep going! I am offering hot dogs and beer to lure in reinforcements!