Pan size?

[Mountainstate mapler]

Will have 400 taps, and will only be able to boil thursday to sunday. What size pan do you think we need. We have a 5x6 lined up, but are now nervous that we are gonna get over run by sap. WE only have about a 1000 to spend on this. we are a new company in WV and have limited resources. Any help is apprecaited

[bowhunter]

I'm probably not the best producer to reply, but I'll give you my "two cents worth". You will get 400-500+ gallons of sap on a good day. Your pan should do about 30 gallons per hour with no enhancements, so you're looking at 12+ hours of boiling time. The pan is probably ok for now. You can always add some enhancements in the future maybe even a reverse osmosis unit. The big issue you have is sap storage. When the good runs occur on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday you probably need to store 1000-1500 gallons of sap and it might not keep for three or four days. At the end of the day if you get too much sap it's not a disaster. You might be able to sell it to another local producer. Worst case you have to dump it and only collect on the days when you're boiling. I think boiling old sap can significantly reduce the quality of the syrup. I assume you have everything on buckets so your total sap production will only be about 12-15 gallons per tap for the season producing about 120-150 gallons of syrup. Hope this helps a little.

[DaveB]

I saw this thread and I know it's a little over a month since the question was posed but I thought I would add my experience with a 2x6 and 600 taps for anyone looking for reference. I also am limited some weeks to boiling as little as three days a week and I don't think it's a problem if properly done. When I started with the Leader 2x6 WSE I had about 200 taps and was told that I'd get about 25gph but I found I was getting 30-35gph by using small, well seasoned wood and using good firing techniques. I also gain time by using a torch to get the fire started. I have a roaring fire and boil within 15 minutes. I upgraded to better pans an air tight arch/forced air as well as preheater and was able up get up to 50-55gph. I had weekends that I'd go through 1500 gallons of sap. My idea was that I could always add an RO or upgrade to a Steamaway when expanding and keep the highly efficient 2' firebox and use less wood to boil more sap.

I also have no need for light syrup and I've always produced quality syrup with great feedback from my customers so I haven't had a problem keeping sap for a few days by keeping it cool and out of the sun.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you want to boil that much sap, you can tweak things to make it work and you shouldn't feel like you need a larger pan.