Flat Pan Boiling

[Fireguy124]

Just wondering how people are boiling down sap in a flat pan. I have a 2x4 pan on a homemade evaporator. I collect about 50gal of sap from 30 taps for a boil. I can’t boil it right down to syrup without risking burning my pan. Do people just get it close within a degree or two and finish it in a fryer or on the stove? Just looking for some tips

Thanks



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[ecolbeck]

What you describe is certainly an option. However, what many people do is to just leave the a partially completed syrup in the pan and next time a run occurs you add new sap to the pan and continue the process. Does your pan have dividers?

[DRoseum]

I boil in a 21.5" x 30" flat pan and have some tips for you. Boil in batches and draw off and combine frequently. For example, I build about 5 gallons at a time down to less than 1 gallon and then repeat that over and over, combining the small amounts left and then either finish that as a combined batch back in my main pan, or in a full size steam table pan, depending on volume of sap.

Dont try to boil all 50 gallons at once, even if it fits in your pan. You will waste a lot of time and fuel heating the full volume of sap given the surface area you have to steam off water. Keeping your pan to a 3 or 4 inches to start and taking it down under 1 inch is probably best. I would plan on 3 batches of 17 gallons of sap at a time, and then combine those ( 2 gallons if you go to 0.5 inch left in pan, times 3 = 6 gallons to finish). Then when you finish that 6 gallons you should be able to still have 0.25" left in pan at finished syrup.

There are 2 major benefits to the batch-combine-batch approach
1. Much quicker and less fuel consumption because your steaming surface area to total volume of sap to be heated (BTUs needed) is much larger when keeping the pot volume lower.
2. You will make much nicer, lighter, looking syrup. By continuing to add sap to the pot without removing what has cooked down means you are overcooking the sugar molecules that were in there from the beginning. This would make very dark or even burnt tasting syrup.

I have some good information on DIY/hobby sugaring on my blog along with videos, etc. Check out the DIY sugaring section to start:

https://www.sugartree.run/p/sugaring-diy.html

[Fireguy124]

My pan does not have dividers. I was thinking of keeping the sap level around an inch and keep adding to it. I think it takes close to 10 gal just to get an inch in my pan. I don’t think I’m comfortable yet to take it down to .25”. I might try doing the small batches like you said just maybe with a little higher level in my pan. Thanks for the tips.


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[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We had a 2x5 batch setup until this year. We would do batch boils between 60 and 150 gallons. The larger the batch the darker the syrup will be because it is in the pan longer. We usually made dark and extra dark. We could get medium early in the season but only in very small batches. Batch size is usually a result of how much sap you have. We never finished on the pan. Always in the propane finisher. Without dividers you won’t be able to make syrup in the pan but can get it close. We ran 1”-1.5” in the pan and had a preheater on the back feeding fresh sap in using a ball valve to adjust the feed rate. I respectfully disagree with the flood the pan and boil down approach. It’s inefficient and if you put all your sap in the pan, you risk a burnt pan near the end of the boil.

[woodsy]

We finish from a 2x2 pan into a 10 gt ss pot on a turkey fryer. With a 40-50 gallon boil we get down to about 1/2 -3/4" in the flat pan
and pour it off for finishing.

[DRoseum]

Yeah you definitely do not want to just keep adding sap to the pan as it boils down. That will make very dark syrup. Boil it down in batches, dump it off, combine all the draw offs and finish that.

[Fireguy124]

Thanks for the help, Going to do batches and then finish them all


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[Hunt4sap]

I would start a batch from previous day's collection ( usually from 60 taps around 50-85 gallons)
Started burning wood at 5 am and have it from the started sap amount down to 2 gallons by dinner time or so, then finish that on my stove top( have a very good vented through roof hood fan above our stove)
Be bottled by 12 midnight...
Collect sap the following morning at 5 am and start all over again the next morning, or if cold enough store in 5 gallon food grade buckets/ lids till following day( not tapped one tree yet this year b/c of new job, but I rebuilt a new evaporator out of a oil tank( pictures on here somewhere... Had a custom ss flat pan made for it)
Just know how time consuming this hobby is and don't know if it will happen this year or not...
Glad I made alot last year!!!

[Fireguy124]

Worked great, Just did about 50gal of sap in one batch. Finished it in the turkey fryer. Got some nice syrup. Never got this light out of my barrel evaporator and steam pans.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190317/a5ecb09b51c5c14a6694983b8a3d64fd.jpg20190317/6ad49f76bf4a0e11ff106420e77f69be.jpg


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[DRoseum]

Awesome! Glad it turned out good!

[Fireguy124]

Not sure why the pictures didn’t load1973119732


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