Boiling a few hours a night.

[CAP]

I used to try and boil all my sap on the weekend but this year I put in a few more taps and am trying to keep up. I was wondering how people boil a few hours every night. Do you shut down the fire and leave the sap in the pan? The next night when you start up again do you just start the fire and go or do you need to do something to the sap in the pan? Also can I leave the sap that was boiled in the pan if the temps are in warm? Any advice would be great. Thanks.

[RC Maple]

Since my pan is small - 2x3, I like to drain and filter everything in the pan and give the inside a wipe down and water rinse, maybe letting some vinegar sit on the bottom for a few hours if starts to not look shiny. I brush the bottom of the pan and clean out the arch. When I start boiling I do so with everything clean which makes final filtering easier and I don't have to worry that I'm getting sugar sand building up on the bottom of the pan. I too try to boil enough to keep up, sometimes every night depending on the temps and how much sap I am getting.

[johnpma]

Outside boiler here on a homemade barrel unit. I boil hard draw off whats close to done as I shut down the fire while continuing to let the pre-warmer trickle into pan until I have 1 1/4" or so of sap in the pan. By that time it is starting to cool down. I then cover my pan with a stainless steel sheet metal cover I made. If it is warm I draw it all off into a container and put the partially boiled sap in a cool storage area.

[tcross]

I've boiled every night for the past week. I leave the sweet in the pan. I've only been able to have the time to clean my pan once so far. hoping to do it again this weekend. I have a home made 4'x4' arch/pan with 200 taps... it's been a busy week!

[GotSap?]

We've been boiling just about every night for the last week or so. When we are ready to call it a night, we stop stoking the fire but keep adding sap until the boil stops. Then we let the level in the pan rise a little higher then normal and shut things up for the night. The next day, we just clean out the ashes, start the fire and continue with what was left in the pan. We try to give the pan a quick cleaning every couple hundred gallons or so.

[smokeyamber]

I too just shut down and restart the next night. I have a 2x5 so I do try and draw any near off just before shutting down. Then I wait to turn off the head tank until the fire is almost totally out. I am planning to full y drain and clean the pan this week since I won't have enough new sap in the next couple days to boil. I have also experimented with using plugs to help keep the gradiant, but this year I did not and it didn't hurt much ...

I have run the whole season with no cleaning and only had a slight niter buildup... keep in mind I only did 12 gallons of syrup that season so I don't run nearly as much through the pan as others...

[adk1]

I boil when I have enough sap. last wedensday I boiled from 3pm to 3:30am. thats just he way it goes.

[Michael Greer]

You can leave everything right where it is, but be aware that three or four warm days in a row will allow yeasts to start eating up your hard won sugar. If you come in and it smells like a bakery instead of a sugarhouse, you waited too long.