low tech/cheap options

[tuckermtn]

I'm looking for advice on low tech options for evaporating some sap...I'm going to be in British Columbia for the sugaring season and am considering tapping some of the silver maples that are scattered around town...probably 20 taps maximum...never tapped silver maples nor do I have any clue if they would even run in any predictable way with the slow spring warm up out here...

turkey friar (I assume stainless vs. alum pot)? steam tray pan on wood stove? I thought about getting a second syrup pan that would fit on my 2.5 X 8 grimm and have it as a back-up for when I get home...other suggestions?

thanks in advance...

-tuckermtn

[RileySugarbush]

If you can get a couple of deep steam table pans, its hard to beat concrete blocks, a cheap fire grate and a stack on the back end. My first block arch was two pans settled down between blocks, and a cheap stack of galvanized ducting, crimped and pop riveted to some of those rectangular ducts you can buy in two pieces at home depot. The sides of the pans get hot and sizzle/burn, but the syrup turns out great after filtering. The blocks will be trashed after a season, but who cares if you are coming home for next year?

[Grade "A"]

I like the turkey fryer idea. Get one with a drain spout that way you can use it as a canner when you get back home. Also the fryer is easy to move and with a small amount of sap it is nice to just shut the gas off when you run out.

[Maplepro]

What part of BC are you going to be in costal or inland? costal you will have a had time making syrup as the weather just isn't there. i am not sure what the syrup will be like but any maple will run sap but what you will end up with i am not sure but i guess it would be worth a try! good luck.

[tuckermtn]

Maplepro..we are in interior BC- basically due north of the Idaho panhandle...quite a few maples- mostly silver and Norway...but I have no idea what the syrup will be like...

I found this pot w/valve online-
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/52_QUART_STAINLESS_TANK_WITH_V_P1731C50.cfm

forgive my ignorance, but how would you boil with a one-pot system? add a little at a time, or do batches? All I've ever used is a standard Grimm evap. so I have no clue how to "go back to the basics"...

-tuckermtn

[RileySugarbush]

Single batch evaporating is really back to the old ways all right. But it makes great syrup. I've done single batches in steam table pans were I added sap from morning to night, stopping when the sap ran out and then just boiled it down to syrup and filtered right off the fire. Some of the tasting syrup I've ever made, though a little dark. That said, I'm not going back. I love the 2x6 and the flue pan. I do miss the strong flavored dark syrup though.

[mapleman3]

Not to discourage you but Silver maples have a really low sugar content and boiling in a turkey fryer has very little surface area.. so with that said.. go buy plenty of beer because your going to be at it all day for very little yeild, 20 taps can get you over 20 gals of sap a day and you'll be lucky to boil off 1- 2 gals and hour on the turkey fryer ... it only has a little more than a sq ft of surface. it will work but you will use a crap load of gas and alot of time.

maybe try only 10 taps to start?

just my 2 cents,

but boiling sap in anything is better than not boiling at all!!

[Russell Lampron]

Tuckermtn,

The pot that you have a link to looks like it could make a nice canner but I think the steam table pan on a block arch will work better for making syrup. If you try it on a wood stove you will have to modify it so that the flames can hit the bottom of the pan directly. It doesn't work the other way I tried it. I hope the weather cooperates so that you can at least make something.

Russ

[markcasper]

Would you all believe that I tapped 4 large silver maple in our farm yard Tuesday at 3pm. I gathered them at 10 pm Wednesday and got 10 5 gallon pails FULL!!! There was a total of 19 taps between the four of them. They are HUGE. One with 4 on yielded 22 gallons @3.9%. (I emptied that one in the morning on Wednesday b/c 2 were running over)

I have never seen these run like this in the 23 years I have made syrup! If only the ones in the woods would run like this.
__________________
Note: This was copied from my posts, spring 07. I have checked these all for sugar content in various years and never saw any of them test under 3%.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

If you can pick up a 2x3 or a 2x4 stainless pan or several steam pans and construct a crude cinderblock arch with some 6" stack, it will work good and you will be able to make a few gallon of good quality syrup that way! I started out on a 2x3 pan over a cinderblock arch when I was young and made syrup several years like that!

[tuckermtn]

Well I think I'll give it a shot making syrup here in BC...all off of silver maples

for those of you who have used a flat pan/cinder block arch set up, how do you rest the pan on the arch? do you just make the block arch just a bit narrower than the pan and then rest the pan on the edge? or do you make some type of frame for the pan to sit on? then block around the frame? also- I assume you have some sort of fire-place grate for the actual fire...

as for the stack, I was thinking of making some type of collar or the sort and running 6 feet or so of cheap galv. stove pipe...

anyone have any photos of their cinder block rigs?

thanks

tuckermtn

[Ahnohta]

make arch a little narrower then pan maybe about an 1" narrower each side

for grate anything cheap to get some air under wood for hotter fire
we even used back to clothes dryer with slotted vents one year. lasted all season

chimney will improve draft and increase heat to pan does not have to be perfect. helps pull soot away also. we used the cheap galv and now going into our 5th season w/ cheap pipe. we even let it lay on grd all summer and it is still in good shape we go up about 10' with stack

[TapME]

as was stated 1'' narrower than the pan and I use some rolled up insulation as a gasket to seal the pan to the arch. You can go to Wall-mart and get the replacement grills for a gas grill as grates, they last the whole season, just put bricks under or blocks whatever you want to use. My stack is set on a rectangle piece that they put in hot air duct-work. Some sheet metal on the inside against the blocks will keep the flame from seeping through the cracks. And most important is have fun.