Drawing off of half pint

[acrete]

I had my first draw off of the half pint yesterday. Ended up with 6 pints and a quart of medium. I am wondering how others go about drawing off on the half pint. Here's what I did: Once the temp right at the draw off valve got up to 220 I started drawing off, and I also made sure the sap was flowing in quick so the pan wouldn't get too low. Once the temp would get down to 218 or so, I would stop. The first time I drew I couldn't draw off quick enough, I started at 220 and the temp got up to 225 before it came back down. After that first draw they were better. So basically I took it off just into a stainless pot, then once I ran out of sap for the day I took the pot into the kitchen on the stove. Brought it up to temp at about 215, I thought I would have to boil more off but I checked it with the hydrometer and it was right there, So I dumped the pot into my coffee urn with cone filters in it and started bottling right away. Is that about what others do with a half pint?9229

[buckeye gold]

Sounds to me like you got it figured out. I ran a standard half pint for years and done pretty much the same thing. I had the warming pan setting right on the pan and when a draw was ready would increase the inflow to insure coverage. I typically had syrup go heavy at the draw off valve, but just done as you and draw down a little light and the mixture would be close. In later years I just drew off a bigger draw down to 216-217 and finished on propane. My pan boiled more sap and my syrup was more consistent then, plus I had bigger lots to filter and bottle. One tip: you said you couldn't draw fast enough. Increase your inflow more and bring the dept up as you draw. Be careful how far you open the valves and watch your pan or you will be cleaning up a burn. Yup I done that.

[steve J]

I have done it the same as you except I use a paper filter when I am drawing off that catches a lot of sand and helps when you do the final filtering

[bowhunter]

I have a half pint which I'm feeding from an RO, but I do it the same way you do. I've found that if I start at 220 and keep drawing until the temperature drops to 218 the syrup is right on when I check the batch with the hydrometer. I boiled 6 1/2 hours on Sunday and drew off 3 gallons of finished syrup from 110 gallons of sap. Obviously the RO made a huge difference.