Finishing off at the end of the season

[Noah's Ark]

I have a 2x4 continuous flow pan but no syrup pan, last year on my last boil I boiled it down as far as I could and drew off until what was left in the pan looked pretty light and then finished it off in the house. It seemed like I lost a lot of concentrated sap and could have made more syrup. How do others finish off at the end of the season if they do not have a seperate syrup pan?

Thanks for the help, looking to increase my taps and production this year and trying to work out my plans before the season starts.

[RC Maple]

I finish off with my pan - a 2x3, the same way you described. I do my normal way of shutting down - quit firing and let cool down and try to leave 1.5 in or so in the pan. Then I filter that after all is cooled down and finish with the turkey fryer. I don't see how I lost any concentrated sap though, there's only so much sugar in all that sap and I made syrup out of all of it. How do feel you lost concentrate?

[Noah's Ark]

I do not have a turkey fryer set up and so there was 3 gallons of semi concentrate i did not boil down further since i did not want to boil that much in the house. It was not the end of the world but I am just looking for what others do as I am looking to increase taps and want to get the most out of my production. May look into a turkey fryer set up to finish off the last of it this year.

[DaveB]

Funny you should ask this because this was our first year trying a new method. When I start getting low on sap I try to flood the pan from the feed tank and shutting the fire down. I then just let everything cool off. If I time it right, I'll have a couple of inches left in my pans which I draw off the next day into clean buckets, filtering out any impurities. I then add these to a 2x2 kitchen pan and then finish it off on my stove. We got 2-3 gallons of syrup which really surprised me so I think salvaging what is in the pans is worth it!

[maple flats]

When I had a half pint (24x36") I boiled until I had only about 1/2-3/4" left. I then slid the pan off and onto a bench I had moved next to the arch. Then I let it steam off some, but then tilted the pan before the steam quit and drew the concentrate into a large pot. I then finished it in the kitchen. I did not rapid boil until I was getting close, I just used a sub boil heat to get less steam in the house at once. When it was thought to be getting close, I turned the heat up, turned on the ceiling fan and opened 2 windows. It went well and we had wall paper in the kitchen.
I now drain the concentrate from by flue pan into a barrel. I close the valve to the syrup pan. Then I put water in the flue pan and light the fire. As the concentrate gets down just under an inch I let the fire burn out. Sometimes I need to slow the boil by opening the firebox doors. When the fire is out, I draw the contents and pump it into my finisher which already has the last batch in it. Then I finish it in the finisher, in the sugarhouse.