Continous flow question

[Rangdale]

We have been batch boiling with propane the last bunch of years and have upgraded to a Mason 2x3 continuous flow this year (what a difference!). This being our first experience with a continuous flow pan, how much sap needs to go thru before you start drawing syrup? I'm pretty sure I ran across that info on here a few years back (and remembering it being a fair bit) but have been searching for the last hour and having no luck finding an answer.

Thank you!

[madmapler]

It depends a lot on the sugar content of your sap and your evaporation rate (heat of fire). Aside from that, I remember it taking a long time to get there when I had something similar but once the pan is sweetened, you'll start having things to do.

[eustis22]

my 2X3 takes approx 100 gallons to establish a gradient.

[johnpma]

I'm using the same unit with the preheat pan. We finished our first batch last night after boiling 55 gallons of sap. We had about 1 1/2% sugar content in this 55 gallons mostly from red maples.

When I saw the deep color change in the sap I stopped feeding raw sap and boiled the pan sap down to 217 degrees then did my draw off and finished on propane

Keep a bucket of sap handy and fill the preheat pan so that you can flood the pan as you draw off so that you do not burn up the pan

We filter thru 3 layers of prefilter in to a cone filter at the drawoff

I'm sure others have other advise. This is what works for us.....

Good luck this season

[Rangdale]

Thanks so much for the info everyone!

[anchorhd]

This was our first boil on our 2016 Mason 2x3XL. We just boiled 60-70 gallons of 2.3-2.6 sap in 6.5 hours and pulled 1.5 gallons of grade a amber syrup. one felt and 2 paper flat filters. Pulled small batches of syrup for 60 minutes on and off. I could see the difference in the quality of wood and how high it would boil. The better wood with the firebox filled, gave me the better draw offs. I did not have to keep opening the door to load wood, which lowered the gradient temp. When sap was getting low I opened up the flow from the preheater to push what was in the last channel into a container then finished that on a small propane camping stove. Discarded everything else in the pan and cleaned the pan and bottler. Next time i will freeze and save whats left in the pan.
Good luck!

[Jolly Acres Farm]

It takes about 140 to 160 gallons of sap to sweeten the pan on our 2x4 XL depending on sugar content. After that we can start drawing off syrup.
We found last year that if we draw off "near up" at say 62 to 64 brix that we could maintain about 2 additional gallons per hour boiling rate. I then would finish the nearly syrup on propane, which would finish pretty quickly on propane and I could control them temperature much better.

[johnpma]

my 2X3 takes approx 100 gallons to establish a gradient.
That's interesting......what is your sugar content?

[eustis22]

my sugar content ranges this season from 1-2.5 %. I have mostly reds.