New here and new Maker

[Coatesy]

Bought a 150 yr old farm house back in Oct. In Eastern Ontario. Previous owner built a stone shack which is a pretty sweet addition to the property.

The set up is basic, bottoms of a steel drum for a stove and a sheet metal top with a stack
I've got 14 taps in started last week. I've boiled off about 30 gallons of sap so far, capped three bottles yesterday and it's fantastic.

Couple of questions for the pros. I really don't like the sheet metal setup on the drum, I have my pans sitting on top but it seems like it wastes alot of energy heating through two metals. I was considering drilling holes in the sheet metal to release more heat under the pans but wasn't aur eid this would crest odd heat spots.
I'll probably leave it as is this year and next year cut out a hole to drop my pan in.

Second question, sap has stopped flowing last couple of days as its been cold. My buckets are about 1/4 full atm and they all are basically frozen does this mean all the liquid in them is water and no sap?

Think that's all for now. Not sure how to post pics. Thanks in advance..

[Jeff E]

Virtually all purpose built evaporators have the pan directly over the fire. I would try and convert when you can to this. Make sure your pan is sturdy enough to support that set up...test it before you build a fire!

Regarding freezing, the water will generally separate from the sugars, so if you have a mix of ice and liquid, keep the liquid. The ice has some sugar, but not much. We have measured ice at less than 1% sugar, and liquid up to 5%.

Have fun!

[DrTimPerkins]

Regarding freezing, the water will generally separate from the sugars, so if you have a mix of ice and liquid, keep the liquid. The ice has some sugar, but not much. We have measured ice at less than 1% sugar, and liquid up to 5%.

Welcome to MapleTrader. A stone sugarhouse must be nice.

Jeff's advice is correct, however if it is quite cold, the sap in the buckets can freeze solid.

[maple flats]

Welcome to the Maple Trader Coatesy. You are doing OK with 3 bottles of liquid gold already. As Jeff said evaporators do not have a top, the pans set on a gasket and the pan bottom is the top to keep the exhaust gases where they belong. You are correct, remove that layer of tin and you will get far more heat to the pan. Is the barrel stove part insulated? If not you will gain a lot more heat to the pan if you put a layer of fire brick from the grate up.

[blissville maples]

You want the bottom of your syrup exposed to the flame or your boil and evaporation will be extremely poor.

The sap will freeze, and the ice will hold sugar also, usually around .5 while the sap will be 2-2.5+

[Coatesy]

Just wanted to say thanks for the advice. I grabbed some fire brick and boxed in my set up a bit. I also cut a hole in the top of my stove set up so the pan sits right on the flame. Im using about half the wood as before, and reducing super fast.
Im having a hard time keeping up with the sap flow though. Not sure if its beginners luck but I am collecting pretty much twice a day and getting between 60-70 litres off 15 buckets.