First Boil

[PrimitiveOperation]

I'm back again guys!

I did my test boil Saturday and it went fine. Today we collected about fifty gallons of sap and started up!

By the time the feed tank went dry we backed the fire off and let everything cool. In the end we were left with around twelve gallons of concentrate. My new questions are as follows:

1) Could I have left the sap in the pans and just continued within a day or so? The major concern was it freezing in the raised flue and doing harm. The other concern was lead from the older pan. This time we drained everything into buckets.

2) Another thought is how long do you think I have with that stored concentrate in the buckets. I think it will be a day or so before we have enough to fire again and was not sure if the sap we boiled today will hold?

3) Just wondering if anyone has any estimates what I can expect for gph with the 2x4 lightning with a raised flue?

[Sugarmaker]

PO,
Concentrate could be left in the pans since it is probably 20% sugar?? So it wont freeze nearly as quick as sap. But your idea to get it out of the pans is the safest from a freezing point of view. I m sure this doesn't hurt from a potential lead situation also. You should be able to let it set in the pails for days if the weather is cool. or set the pails in a snow bank.
Sounds like you are off to a good start. Good luck and happy boiling.
My guess on GPH would be would be 10 GPH, but that's just a guess.

Regards,
Chris

[brookledge]

You can leave everything alone after you shut down if you want. Unless you go for an extended cold spell the flue pan will be ok. With the high sugar concentrate it will not freeze solid like plain water.
But as far as the lead issue its probably better to drain it if it is going to be left for more than a day or so.
If you have some concern get a test kit at a local hardware store usually around 10-20 bucks for 10- 20 test in the kit. Test your sap before it goes into the evaporator and then test it again after it has set in the pans. The cheap kits I think will only tell you if there is lead present or will give yo a rough idea of how many ppm there is
I would think that you should be able to do 10-20 GPH, however there are many factors that will affect your boiling rate
Keith

[softmaple]

on our 2x4 we boil off 2 gallons every 10 minutes or 12GPH. we leave our sap in the pan till our next boil but our pan is lead free