First Boil on upgraded Oil Tank Evaporator

[optionguru]

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I know it's dark out but I was pretty excited to get the evaporator going. Only had about 18 gallons of sap to run but it allowed me to experiment. The preheater around the stack worked well, cold sap in the feed bucket was luke warm coming out of the valve. The preheater warmed the sap approx 35 to 40 degrees. The siphons from pan to pan worked well but once the boil got rolling hard you had to restart the siphon every 20 minutes or so from air bubbles getting sucked in. Still made it a lot easier than scooping it from pan to pan. I just made a little S-hook out of coat hanger to be able to grab the siphon, dump it into the pan to refill it and then lift it out.

One question for those with more experience, syrup came out dark, is this from it being a first run of sap this year or because the sides of the steam table pans always have some sugar burnt on the sides.

[happy thoughts]

That looks like some tasty syrup! I'm sure you'll get other opinions, but in general, the first sap usually produces lighter syrup though that's not a hard and fast rule. Using a similar set up on a block arch I believe the dark color comes more from the burnt sugar on the pan sides. That's one reason why I always try to stay below the scorch line when adding more sap to pans. Also, the length of time the sap remains boiling in the pans may have something to do with it. On a rig with a continuous flow set up, the first sap in is the first syrup out. In a batch system like ours, we boil the heck out of every drop of sap until it's just about syrup so there is more chance for overcooking and carmelazation.

[5050racing]

Also nice bet it's tasty,when you look at it in a wide jar it looks darker,put some it a thin jar like the maple flask and it will look lighter,but if it's good who cares!!!

[bigjohnsons]

Guru I'm building a setup just like yours except I'm using 4 steam pans. Did you firebrick the whole thing? I put the ceramic blanket in today and realized that there is quite a big space on the sides of my rear pans. I'm not sure if I'm going to put fire brick on the sides, double up on the blanket or just leave the space. How did you lay yours out ? Thank you

[Bryan Molnar]

Dont count on making all dark syrup with your new outfit. I to have a homemade oil tank evaporator with a 2 foot by 4 foot pan last year i made mostly light syrup first boil this year syrup the same color as yours. Talked to alot of sugar makers with big units who had the same problem. Hopefully after this cold snap syrup quality will get better.If you have any questions about oil tank evaporators feel free to ask me good luck this season !!!

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[RC Maple]

From reading posts in different threads it seems a lot of guys are making darker syrup this year. The syrup I make so far does look darker than our normal first run.