so much ice yesterday...

[sticky_sleeves]

Needed an ice pick... added a lot of time to the boil, still a very nice day to be outside

New sugar shack holding up well - my arch however is requiring maintenance after every boil as I am getting cracks in the refractory cement around the fire brick. I am going to try a parge coat of Rutland Dry Mix 211 - if anyone has had experience with that please let me know...

[Sugarmaker]

Just take the ice out and leave the remaining sweeter sap to boil. The ice probably only has .5% sugar at best. I wouldn't worry too much about the cracks. Is your arch all brick?
Regards,
Chris

[sticky_sleeves]

Thanks for your reply - yeah I would normally discard the ice - but 75% of my buckets were all ice - left me little choice.

My arch is made of cement block on the outside (like cinder block without the holes) with about 100 fire brick lining the inside. Some of the areas in the arch where the fire is hottest, the refractory cement/mortar between the firebrick has cracked. I've tried patching with more refractory cement/mortar but it seems to only last one boil before it starts to crack again. It is definitely heat related as the fire brick on the bottom and less heat intensive areas have no cracks

[Sinzibuckwud]

We had 5 of those ice chunks here on last Saturday's boil.
I put most in to start..then you just have a little longer startup and not killing the boil as many times.