How long is too long of a boil

[jwmiller]

I have a small setup that I usually do 40 gallon batches with. It usually takes me a full day of boiling to do a 40 gallon batch, about 8 hours outside on the wood fired boil and another hour or so finishing inside. Due to timing of when the sap has been running lately, I didn't do a boil last weekend, so I am doing my first boil of the season starting tomorrow. Only issue is I have about twice as much sap as I usually do in a boil. I estimate after collecting tonight, I will have around 80 gallons. My plan was to do a 2 day boil. Start it up satutday morning, boil as long into Saturday night as I can and finish up Sunday. It will likely be 2 full days of boiling. Is that too long of a boil for one batch? I can't remember the term but I thought there is a point at which you shouldn't boil the batch any longer. I'm assuming doing about 16 hours of boiling across 2 days would be fine for a single batch but want to confirm with some of you experts. I suppose I could break it into two batches and finish the first one the first night, but ideally I'd just do one long boil. Any issues with that?

[TheNamelessPoet]

Maybe split it in 2/5 and 3/5th. Do 3/5ths on the 1st day and the 2 5ths on day 2 then after the 2nd day is done add what was left on day 1? Just spitballing. I mean you can alwas do 1/2 each day then add whats left the day before at the end of day 2. just thinking 2/5 and 3/5 might make the time more even overall.

[red/one]

Not a problem with your boiling schedule. I'd be more concerned with how long the sap sits before you start boiling. Your syrup may be slightly darker due to the long boil but still will get a sweet product. Have fun!

[berkshires]

Two things:

1 - The longer you boil, the darker the syrup will be.
2 - The bigger the batch, the more nearup you'll wind up with in the pan. If you're used to an inch in the pan, you may not be able to get away with that at the end of the boil.

Cheers,

Gabe

[bigschuss]

I think I would just do half on Saturday, empty your pan and finish and make your gallon of syrup. Then do a second boil on Sunday.

[Sugarmaker]

The term your looking for might be "sleep deprivation"?:) Sounds like you have a good solid 2 day plan! Keep boiling!
Regards,
Chris

[Ravenseye]

When I get in that situation I try to boil and finish at least half the batch and while I'm finishing the first half, I'm boiling the second half. That way, if I run out of time I can more easily store the boiled....but not close enough to be finished....sap without so much worry about spoilage. At some point you still have to catch up but I'm a lot more comfortable storing boiled product that just sap.

[TheNamelessPoet]

Did you survive?!?

I know I went hard with boiling 17-18 gallons of sap yesterday on my little 1.5-2 GPH setup. Never boiled 8.5 hours straight like that before.

You don't realize how tiring the work is while you are doing it.

[lulugrein]

I have a 2 x 2 1/2' batch pan and will boil up to 60 gallons which takes about 12 hours on my set up. I cook it down to about an inch in the pan, add about 4 gallons of fresh sap to cool it down, cover it up for the night and then start over the next day. Day 2 I'll cook down about 40 more gallons over 8 hours which is as much as I can handle over a 2 day period of being outdoors and in the elements. I end up with really rich and tasty syrup. No ill effects to boiling a batch that long.🙂

[levic900rr]

I think you should get an RO and finish it all in 5 hours :lol:

[lulugrein]

I think you should get an RO and finish it all in 5 hours :lol:

A minor detail that I forgot to mention is that I just got the RO bucket this year so 100 gallons started out at 200. I waited way to long to make that purchase:-|

[fishman]

I gotta try the bucket ro. 16-24 hour boils are aging me.

[Trapper2]

The term your looking for might be "sleep deprivation"?:) Sounds like you have a good solid 2 day plan! Keep boiling!
Regards,
Chris Good one Chris.

[Trapper2]

JW, This may be a shock to you but it may be the answer you're looking for. I use a 42" X 42" flat pan and I typically started boiling on Friday afternoons and boiled continuously until Sunday mornings. Granted, it wasn't always at a rolling boil, but I would process 250-300 gallons per batch. Since then, I retired, I increased tap count and purchased 2 RO buckets and now I will do about 500-600 gallons per batch over 2 days. Good luck to you.