Cant get syrup to finish!

[Kbrooks80]

I have a home brew arch that I had made this year. Running a 2 X 3 flat pan with 2 dividers. Also have a 18" X 24" steam pan behind it. Running about 1 1/2 inch sap in the pans. Boil is going great. But so far have boiled off over 100 gallons of sap. Can not get the syrup to finish.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Kevin

[wnybassman]

I'd say you'll be close pretty soon. Takes a fair amount to get everything sweet.

[buckeye gold]

I have watched the forums closely on small pan comments and this is a common problem. I think that the sap just exchanges (or moves too fast) through the short pan spaces. The key is maintaining high heat under the syrup sections. This is tough because small units are effected adversely more by firing than larger arches. It becomes an art form. So it is double important to use very dry wood and small splits.

My set up is different as I run a smokey lake full pint drop flue and I extended my arch past my pan 8 inches and thus keep more heat under the syrup section, but I still get cooling when I fire. What I have tried is when my syrup section gets close I wait as long as possible to fire, but when I see the temp drop even one degree I must fire. When I do this firing I add very small wood right under the syrup section. This will ignite and burn hot and fast (assuming your wood is dry) and get you closer to finishing. However, what I find is simplist is to draw off that near syrup and finish it on propane. I draw at 217 and shut it off when it drops to 216 or 215. I can do this a couple times if needed to get a volume larger enough or just finish a small amount. It usually only takes 15-20 minutes on my gas purner and finish pan. I'm fine with this as i have good control and can filter right then off the finisher and be ready to bottle. That is just the way it goes with small pans. I used to run a 2x3 flat pan continuous flow and it would finish syrup but your draws would be a half pint to a pint at a time and that was a pain too. You might try slowing your sap inflow up when it gets close, but you better be standing right there and watching your temps close. You will then need to flood to draw, this can be tricky but it'll finish syrup.

I been contemplating what a bubbler would do to my syrup pan. Maybe someone has tried that.

[sugaring in vt]

I have a simalar setup except I have four runs. It is a finicky process to get syrup off the pan. I find that I have to play with the sap flow and the firing to get syrup. It took me at least a hundred gallons before I was able to get syrup last year. I found that when I shutdown there would be a nice gradient in the pan but the next day it would have remixed. I Think if I had someway to block the runs off it would get to syrup quicker on the next boil. Hope this is helpful and have fun boiling.

[Chris Zeger]

Hey buckeye gold how do you like your half pint with the smoky lake pan I'm using a homemade barrel stove this year and looking at upgrading to what you have next year

[bigschuss]

I have a home brew arch that I had made this year. Running a 2 X 3 flat pan with 2 dividers. Also have a 18" X 24" steam pan behind it. Running about 1 1/2 inch sap in the pans. Boil is going great. But so far have boiled off over 100 gallons of sap. Can not get the syrup to finish.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Kevin

You are very close. As somebody else said, it takes a lot of boiling to sweeten up even a small pan like yours.

[buckeye gold]

Chris Zeger, I think it was a good purchase. I more than doubled my GPH from the old flat continuous flow half pint pan. As I said it took some tweeking but I would spend the money again. definitely get a float box with it, it makes life a lot simpler. If you ever head to the ross county area I would show you my set up.

[red maples]

you have to remember you need more sap to sweeten bigger pans. It takes me 400+ gallons of sap to just sweeten my 2x6 and not even get any syrup.

[NTBugtraq]

I have a 18"x5' (18" 2 channel finishing pan, 18"'x42" drop flue) and I have so far boiled for 26.5hrs @ ~9gal/hr, and so far my best temp in the final channel is +5.5F. Kevin, you see all that steam and think, dang, it must come any minute now...but the reality is patience is as much required as wood and sap. Early sap often has a lower sugar content, cold winds/temps can reduce your heating capabilities, and until you've actually got anything bottled everything is taking way to long...;-]

FYI, occasionally take a sample from each of your channels. If a gradient is not forming, you will see little difference in the brix of each channel. If that is happening, you have to be careful not to burn the pans (e.g. have all of the channels make syrup at the same time, yet you're unable to get it out of there fast enough to prevent a burn.) Make sure you have an OMG bucket of sap beside your arch each time you start to fire, as a safe guard against no gradient. If you do start to see no gradient happening (after boiling 100gals) then consider start drawing off. A trickle may help establish the gradient and reduce the brix at the earlier channels. If its not to syrup brix, you can always just add it back into an appropriate channel, again at a trickle.

[Waynehere]

If you are in the same boat as many of us on here, you might have only 1% or less sugar and thus why it is taking so long to make syrup. I boiled 230 gal sap my 1st run and only made 2 gal syrup. :cry: