A Big Thanks To Russell re Bubbler Systems

[Bruce L]

With the bubbler system this year,syrup came out all extremely light,pans easy to clean up,as it was a light creamy coloured film on the flues,syrup is crystal clear and sparkling like you would expect from a filter press,but we use gravity filtration. Tested syrups this morning before I put all the testing equipment away. First syrup graded at 88 Lt. Last syrup graded at 84 Lt. My wife said quit cleaning the pans so much,but actually I only cleaned the steam away twice. Last syrup had a strong flavour to it but definitely golden in colour.

[Russell Lampron]

You're welcome and I'm glad that the bubbler helped you make some great syrup.

[DMF]

Bubbler system...?

[Russell Lampron]

Bubbler system...?

http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?20529-Bubblemaster-1.0!

A bubbler is a series of tubes with small holes drilled in them that directs air to the bottom of your pans. The purpose is to keep the nitre in the bottom of the flues suspended so that it doesn't burn in the bottom of the flues or on the bottom of the pan. The result is lighter syrup and cleaner pans. In my case it also increased the evaporation rate and cut down on the amount of defoamer that I had to use.

It's most beneficial when boiling concentrated sap because more nitre is released in the flue pan. When nitre settles in the bottom of the flues it will burn darkening the flue pan sap. When the sap coming into the front pan is already the color of finished syrup it only gets darker as it turns to syrup. I have seen where the nitre burned into a flue pan bad enough that it actually burned a hole through the flue.

[DMF]

Thank you for the information!

[ToadHill]

This was from Dr. Perkins at Proctor Research Center.

"No....making lighter syrup is the primary reason people use them. Although some producers report less niter in pans, research has not demonstrated that effect. The niter that is present is much lighter in color, which might be interpreted as less thick. However when measured, the thickness of scale-type niter (deposited on pans) and the amount of sugar sand produced (what is filtered out of the syrup) is the same.

See http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/air_injection.pdf for detailed information."