use of pan compartment plug

[BeeRay Farms]

Folks,

Been a long time since I boiled on a leader drop flue on a wood fired rig but I used to years ago with my father. Many good memories there. Anyway I am trying to remember how the front pan compartment plug was used. I have just picked up a new to me pleasure mode 2x6 that has that option in it. If I recall we used to run open while pans were sweetening then plug last pass when it started coming up to temperature, then pull plug when drawing off, close valve and replug once temp dropped, repeat etc, am I missing something here... If I recall this was done to prevent back mixing when recharging the wood fire. I know once we got the oil fired setup that that baby just ran wide open all the time because heat was more consistent which provided for better continuous flow, of course that was a 4x12 also...

[rayi]

That sounds like a lot of work to me. I don't have a leader but I only plug the pan when I want to change sides or clean the front pan. Others will chime in that have the same rig as you do and they will most likely be right

[maple flats]

The only pan I ever plugged is my finisher pan. That is 2x6 and has 2 compartments. If I don't have enough to use both sides I plug the pass thru and fill the other side with water. Then I can finish off the small batch in the one side.
Back when I had a 2x6 pleasure model, it did have a slide gate at each pass thru from one section to the next, but I never closed them, I just drew off slowly and maintained steady temp as much as I could. I thought those gates were to be used if you had to draw off faster to prevent mixing, but I feared burning the last section when that level got low.

[maplecrest]

That style of boiling is called closed gate. The old timers did not have thermometers we have today to see the temp in finish pan.close gate boil that channel of pan down to syrup open gate and draw off syrup in that channel and close gate and cook another batch. At the same time you time your firing cycles.works great but not with late season sap.that is how my grandfather boiled and I started. I still use this method on my cross flows to sweeten pans or if too deep to get to syrup using valves.

[BeeRay Farms]

Been loving the boiling on my new to me pleasure model and using the plug sure does help...