Minimum Sap Requirements

[Heritage Farm]

Hi Everyone. I'm relatively new to the forum and am still a greenhorn with regard to syrup production. Last year I picked up a used 2x6 leader king and had 45 taps. I have lots of questions, but I'll take it one at a time :D. I started boiling last year with about 200 gallons of sap on hand. My sap tank was outside my shack and gravity fed in. As I got low in sap, the feed line started to freeze and I was very close to burning my pans so I added water. Needless to say I didn't end up with much syrup and I was pretty discouraged. Later, someone told me that I shouldn't even fire up until I have 400+ gallons on hand. Is this right? In any case, I'm not sure what to do when I start running low on sap.

[Ed R]

Never let your sap sit, boil it as soon as possible. Take off sweet as you go. I finish inside the house a gallon or two at a time. Multiple short evening boils are better than stockpiling it for the weekend.

[bowhunter]

You should be ok with 200 gallons of sap, however I would agree with Ed I don't like to store sap for more than 1 or 2 days. I'm not sure about the boil rate on your evaporator, but if it's 20 GPH, 200 gallons should last you ten hours. You should be able to pull off some syrup or near syrup before you finish. If your sap is typical, 200 gallons of sap would make about 5 gallons of syrup. You will probably have 2-3 gallons of syrup in inventory in the pan after you finish a boil if you leave 1- 1/2 inch of level in the pan, but that still leaves to 2-3 gallons to draw off. If you do short boils on different days just pull the near syrup off at the end and add it back to the evaporator on the next boil in the syrup end after you get a good boil going.

[Heritage Farm]

Thanks Ed R -That makes sense! After you draw of sweet and you get low on sap, you let the fire die and leave the rest to sit overnight until the next boil?

[psparr]

Thanks Ed R -That makes sense! After you draw of sweet and you get low on sap, you let the fire die and leave the rest to sit overnight until the next boil? Yes. But remember to have enough sap left over for a shutdown period. Even though your not firing, your still boiling.

[Ed R]

I like to leave plenty of extra sweet, especially if its going to be cold. I can then start a small fire if need be to keep the flues from freezing. As long as you have boiled the sap it will keep for a week or so in the evaporator unless its really warm out. Leaving it unboiled in storage starts bacterial/yeast growth even if cold. If you do need to keep it for a day or two its better to keep your sap in smaller containers rather than one big pot for the microbes to feed on.

[Heritage Farm]

Thanks everyone! I feel ready to give it another go. Makes me feel better too that I don't have to spend more money on sap storage containers.

[Russell Lampron]

Maybe you need a bigger pipe to come in from your feed tank to your evaporator. Mine is 1" and it has never froze up while I was boiling. With a 2x6 and raw sap I wouldn't want much more than 200 gallons of sap to start with. If you waited until you had 400 gallons to start you would be boiling for a long time to boil it all in.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have a 2x8 with steamaway and it will do 90 to 100 gallons per hour and I will fire it up with 50 to 60 gallons of Concentrate. I can have it boiling in 5 mins so I don't mind short boils.

[On the ledge]

I'm no expert,but I have a Leader 1/2 pint with 50 taps wish I had a 2x4 but a 2x6 almost seems to big. But I guess it depends on how many days you can boil. It would take me 2 or 3 days to collect 200 gallons, I boil on my 2 days off and when I get home at night for 3 or 4 hours and can usually keep up.