brand new to maple syrup

[chuckwagon]

Hi everyone, hope you don't mind my stupid question but I've been trying to find some info on your site on the old threads but couldn't find any anyway I'm brand new to the maple world and getting ready to tap a couple trees my question is can I just boil the sap on an wood fire I'm planning on using my barrel smoker as a fire pit and put a pot on the grate over the fire do you think this will work or am I wasting my time I really have no other way to boil it down right now.i will appreciate any help thanks

[KV Sappers]

I say go for it. A lot of guys starting out use open pits with pots on grates when they start out. Have fun but be forwarned this is a very addictive hobby

[chuckwagon]

Thanks one more question it's supposed to go down to around 20 here Thursday night mid 30 during the day will the sap freeze in the buckets if I tap Thursday after work or should I wait until later in the month not sure what ice will do to sap sorry to ask I know it's probably been asked a hundred times here

[Run Forest Run!]

Welcome chuckwagon. I looked at the forecast for your area and while it appears that you've got a few days ahead of you with good sapping temperatures, if I were you I'd hold off for another week to tap. The temperatures around Valentine's Day look a lot better to me for someone collecting with buckets. As for sap freezing in your buckets, that's no problem. You'll find it helpful to get in the habit of emptying your buckets before the evening comes so that you have an empty bucket overnight. Sometimes the sap will run all through the night and you'll need the space. During a real run your bucket can fill twice a day.

Your grate-over-the-fire technique will be just fine. If you can find a large roasting pan to maximize the surface area of the sap you'll find it evaporates faster than sap in a deep pot. Better yet, put two pans on that grate if they will fit!

Have fun! :D

[Woodsrover]

When we were kids we used to boil over scrap wood in a cinderblock fire "arch" with old porcelain coated steel refrigerator drawers for pans. Boil with whatcha got!

[odave]

Last year was my first - I boiled outside in a pot on a Coleman camp stove and finished inside on our gas range. My 3 1/4 gallons took all day and a whole can of stove fuel but I got 10oz of good syrup. The key is to maximize your surface area so use a pot with the biggest diameter possible.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[chuckwagon]

Thanks everyone I will wait a week to tap appreciate the advice will let you know how I make out thanks again

[JDP]

I was a newbie last year but a good driven student of this forum - Thank You Maple Trader members. I read as many of these threads as I can to gleen info.
Best advice I can give you......wood fired is the cheapest......harnessing every BTU from that wood will decrease your time spent boiling.....surface area of your pan or pans is key(a retagular pocelein coated turkey pan - about$25 at Home hardware gives you about 4 gallons of boil rate per hour if you use both top and bottom) don't spend a pile of money. This can be done on a very modest budget. Find a homemade evap that will work for you. Many use cinder blocks to star with and the move on. Use your imagination or checkout all the Homemade Evaps on the tread here on Maple Trader.

Last year my evaporator was a " Redneck Bathtub Evaporator" pocelein inside really helped keep the heat in..... We bricked the outsides anyway to concentrate the heat.... It work great but we graduated this year....we also cut out the holes in the tub where our turkey pans sat.....there is no substitute for direct flame on a pan. Also shelter your boil area with anything from the wind. Table on its side, plywood, etc............ Your boil will fall off with a good blast of cool wind.
I got the bug and went from 35 taps to over 75 planned this year. Of course our oil tank arch will now boil approx 20 gallons an hour with a blower added and some knowledge from my forum member.
Ask questions. I did and boy do they respond.
Enjoy Chuckwagon. It is very rewarding passing out some syrup to friends and family. All the best in sugaring this year! :-)

[JDP]

I was a newbie last year but a good driven student of this forum - Thank You Maple Trader members. I read as many of these threads as I can to gleen info.
Best advice I can give you......wood fired is the cheapest......harnessing every BTU from that wood will decrease your time spent boiling.....surface area of your pan or pans is key(a retagular pocelein coated turkey pan - about$25 at Home hardware gives you about 4 gallons of boil rate per hour if you use both top and bottom) don't spend a pile of money. This can be done on a very modest budget. Find a homemade evap that will work for you. Many use cinder blocks to star with and the move on. Use your imagination or checkout all the Homemade Evaps on the tread here on Maple Trader.

Last year my evaporator was a " Redneck Bathtub Evaporator" pocelein inside really helped keep the heat in..... We bricked the outsides anyway to concentrate the heat.... It work great but we graduated this year....we also cut out the holes in the tub where our turkey pans sat.....there is no substitute for direct flame on a pan. Also shelter your boil area with anything from the wind. Table on its side, plywood, etc............ Your boil will fall off with a good blast of cool wind.
I got the bug and went from 35 taps to over 75 planned this year. Of course our oil tank arch will now boil approx 20 gallons an hour with a blower added and some knowledge from my forum member.
Ask questions. I did and boy do they respond.
Enjoy Chuckwagon. It is very rewarding passing out some syrup to friends and family. All the best in sugaring this year! :-)

[Sugarmaker]

Any food grade container that will hold sap and have some amount of sides will work over a open fire. Have fun. After 50 + year of boiling sap the memories of a old flat syrup pan on a cinder block arch is still vivid!
Regards,
Chris

[chuckwagon]

Thanks,can't wait to get started I feel like I'm missing the gold rush but I'm sure I'll have enough time to get all I can handle thanks again for all the advice I'm sure I will have more questions when I get started

[Snappyssweets]

I am still using a turkey fryer and side burner on a grill to boil. Only thing I can think of is some of my friends whom boil over a flame with wood burning do get smoke that rolls up the sides of the pan once in a while and it can roll over the sap as it boils. It can give it a slight smokey flavor very mild and not unpleasant. Just something you may want to consider.

Also your best friend for buckets is any local bakery. The frosting and glaze buckets they use are food grade and come in 2-5 gallons sizes. Our local ones gave them to me free this whole summer. So instead of using gallon jugs this year I have nice food grade plastic buckets to gather with.

[chuckwagon]

I was wondering if the smoke would get into it but I not to worried about that I smoke a lot of different meats so I don't think a little smoke will bother me,I did get a bunch of 5 gallon buckets at the store I work at, thanks for the info

[dufftj]

Hey Chuckwagon welcome to the forum. While your boiling on your barrel smoker ya should put on some ribs. A little of that sweet steam would be mighty fine on some spare ribs.

Tim

[chuckwagon]

You got that,I know it's the wrong forum but I just smoked some the other day,delicious,just have to wait another week or two for syrup weather is supposed to get pretty cold here in the next few days but I think I will go with a center block fire pit with the porcelain coated turkey roaster like jdp,and woodstrover suggested,won't be long now until my first homemade syrup

[Cedar Eater]

If you happen to get ice in your buckets, that's not a bad thing. It's pure water, so throw it out and the sugar will be concentrated in the liquid that didn't freeze. You'll use less wood to boil that off. If the whole thing freezes solid, the first part to thaw will have the sugar.

[chuckwagon]

Thanks,good to know I'm guessing it doesn't change the flavor,not that I would know I never had homemade syrup,another question though when I'm boiling the sap down and say I put 4 gallon in the pan do I have to just boil that down to syrup or can I boil half down than ad more sap to fill pan back up and continue doing that until all sap is in pan and cooks down to syrup,hope everyone understands my question. Thanks again you guys are really helpful

[Cedar Eater]

You can keep adding sap until you've got all your sap in. The longer the initial sap boils the darker the syrup will be. Lets say that you have 10 gallons of sap and you can only boil two gallons at a time. You can figure out your boiling rate, let's say that it's 1 gallon per hour. That means that by the time you get done, you'll have somewhere near a quart of syrup and the intial sap will have boiled for about 10 hours. On the other hand, if you boil two gallons down to a half gallon over a period of about 1.5 hours, and put that half gallon in the fridge, and repeat that process five times, you will have two and half gallons with only 1.5 hours of boiling time on them. When you then boil off 2-1/4 gallons in 2-1/4 hours, you will have a lighter colored syrup with no fraction of it on the flame for more than 3-3/4 hours. The taste will be about the same, but maybe a little more buttery and a little less smokey.

[brass maple]

Yes you can keep adding sap to the pan while you are boiling.

[happy thoughts]

Yes you can do that but it is often better to keep the level in the pan constant by adding a little bit at a time to replace what is boiled off. One benefit for this is to minimize the scorch line that can develop above the syrup and can cause the syrup to darken if it were to be covered by fresh sap. With small batches you can keep adding to the pan until you've used up the day's sap or want to start wrapping things up for the day. Then let the level drop. You can store whatever near syrup you have in the fridge to add to the next batch or as cedar eater suggested above.

A word of warning- One thing you don't want to do is take your eye off things for too long. There's a murphy's law of boiling. Leave for a few minutes and things will be sure to get out of control especially as the sap/syrup depth gets shallower.

[chuckwagon]

Thanks,how long can I keep sap in buckets before I boil,sorry for all questions

[psparr]

Treat it as it were milk.

[Too Tall]

Depends on the temps. We usually empty the buckets into a larger barrel that is buried in a snow bank. It will stay good like that for maybe a week or so.

[chuckwagon]

Ok thanks,so many helpful people here

[chuckwagon]

Just an update,just got done with very first boilu,only had about 7 gallons of sap,doesn't seem to be running to good but figured I would give it a shot,used turkey roaster over wood fire like suggested here worked great,thanks again for all the suggestions,just have to wait for more sap now.

[Run Forest Run!]

Congrats on your first boil chuckwagon. That's a major milestone. :)

[chuckwagon]

Just finished up 2nd boil,about 16 gallon sap, will be upgrading cooker next year to 3 pans,or big one,need to speed up process and tap more trees this stuff taste great.just want to thank everyone for their help again