Boiling Seminar

[Brian]

Goodriches boiling seminar is feb 5. This covers the evaporator, oil or wood, Filtering syrup ect and more.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Wish I were closer as I would love to be there! :( :(

[mapleman3]

hehehe FLY UP AGAIN!!! this time bring the whole family :wink:

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Would be nice but I have too much to do and season is bearing down on me. Probably 4 to 5 weeks from Sat until I tap.

[mapleman3]

I know, it was a nice thought though :wink: I can't make it up to the seminar this year, Mass maple assoc. meeting this sat with trade show, I'll be seminared out(says wife) :wink: lots to do and the seminar would help but....

[steve J]

Were is Goodriches located?

[Brian]

Goodrich's Sugarhouse is located in Cabot, Vermont about 5 miles north of Marshfield village on Route 2. They have a yellow building with a bright red roof, you can't miss it. It goes from 9:00 to 3:00 and there is a 20.00 fee with lunch included.

[steve J]

Thanks for the directions I will try to go .

[Parker]

Ill be heading up this sat.,,anyone want to carpool, I am close to 93 or 89

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Parker,

How's the sugarhouse coming along?? Have you gotten your pan fixed yet??

[Parker]

the sugar house lacks doors and windows,,no tank room or wood room yet,,no cap on the roof or coupolo,,,,,,other than that its all there,,keeps the snow out,,could boil like it is,,I do have 20 cords of wood worked up with 20 more cords ready to be cut and split,,just started thinning the new bush,,have 600 drops made up,,i think I have all the tubing I need for 1000 taps,,,,,,,since i have never really boiled for a full day I thought the seminar would be a good refresher, I am pretty nervouse about burning the rig up,pluse I am getting a Vac. pump from brian up there,,,,,,,the pan has not been repaired yet,,I need to give that fellow a call,,,I was thinking of looking at the set Bascom has,,,,,all stainless would be nice but I am running out of $$$$$

[mapleman3]

AND TIME !!!!! 8O

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Parker,

The set at Bascoms is all stainless and comes with a preheater. Good luck at whatever happens and keep us posted! :D :D

[Brian]

Goodrich's boiling seminar is on the first Saturday in February
Registration is $20 and includes the cost of your lunch. Seminars start at 9 am and run through 3 pm.

[Parker]

I wanted to go but had to work in Hill,,,,anyone go? when did Glenn say he would be tapping?? Comments on the season?

[WF MASON]

A friend of mine went over to Goodrich's saturday,he has a 4'x12'raised flue evaporator, said he asked about depth of sap in flue pan , his wife who helps him in the sugarhouse had always gotten after him about running his fluepan to shallow, 1'' or less , she ran it deeper 1 1/2''-2'' , Goodrich told them generally a 1/2'' over the flues was fine, when your looking at the boil with a half inch of sap much of the top of the flue itself is exposed. But the sap flying around keeps the pan from burning up. Another thing they we told was drawoff slow, very slow , open valve half way so the movement all the way through the evaporator is minor. Glen said he hates auto drawoffs becouse they open and the syrup comes blasting out ,causing a major disruption thoughout the pans.
He said he enjoyed it.

[maple flats]

Yea, but then Glen is big enough to draw continuosly. I believe he told me once he uses a 14' flue pan and no syrup pan, now that is a lot of evaporation/hr. My little 2 x 6 would be too small to get away with trying to draw all the time I believe.

[Parker]

I think he has 2 big R.O's and a 6x16 all flue evap with a 2x7? finisher,,could be wrong ,,,but yeah if is very fast!!!

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[maplwrks]

Glen Goodrich has a 6x16 flue pan with an "enhanced "steamaway, (an extra set of steampipes). The steamaway is also 6x16. He finishes on a 2x10 syrup pan. The unique thing he does is he filters the sap before it goes into the finisher. He sends it through a 10" filter press.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

What kind of evap rate is Glenn getting with that evaporator and how many gph syrup is he taking off?? I know Brian would know the answer to that??

[sapman]

I can certainly understand and agree with how Glen draws off his syrup, but smaller evaporators like mine would be hard pressed to keep a continuous draw off, I would think. I have an auto draw-off, and love it. I usually throttle the manual valve down so that when the draw-off opens, it still is only letting a small stream through. It is amazing watching it sometimes, as it will draw for very long periods, or short periods very often. Then I know I've got a good flow. But then there are days when it seems like you can't get a good flow for anything.

If Glen filters before the finishing pan, he must obviously have to filter a second time, correct? I tried this for awhile to try to keep the finishing pan cleaner, but I usually prefer to eliminate a step and just finish on the evaporator.

Tim

[Lance]

Brandon - I just went back over my notes from Glenn's seminar last Sat. He said with his 2 ROs and big evap and steamaway, he never has to boil more than 10 hrs a day. On a 10 hr day, he makes about 800 gal. of syrup. He doesn't concentrates his sap more than 8% and said he prefers wood to oil to boil with but...... The last year he used wood they went through 70 cords...... said it really got to his back, both firing the rig and laying in that much wood every summer. His evap is **** near as big as a railroad car - you gotta go up 5 or 6 steps up the side of it to see what's going on in the pans. Almost seems more like a factory than a sugarhouse but at that size, I guess you gotta go with the latest in high tech.

[super sappy]

Lance- I noticed that the steam stacks had bends in them to get them into the cupola.Did glen mention if they were assisted by any sort of In line fan.Brian pointed out the big ag fan on the back of the cupola, But it seems that the hood over the finish pan might need some assistance or maybe not? I was just describing that evaporator to a guy and " Rail Car" was just what I thought It looked like.Makes my rig look like a dust speck.-SS

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

80 gph, sounds like he has it down to a science. Bascom has a similar setup, but they have a 6x16 flat pan that is heated with steam. They are like a factory and have it down to a science also. Don't think they get that many gph with a flat pan unless they are double RO'ing the sap, but they will run theirs around the clock I believe. :D

I don't know why it took him that many cords of wood, that seems insane. At 80 gph, I don't think he made but less than 5,000 gallons last year, so that is over 1 cord per hour. 8O

[Brian]

Brandon, Glen didn't have the ro's when he burned wood.I belive he said he lost 200 gph by switching to oil.
The big fan on the roof is for the steam -a-way, the hood on his finisher does have some kind of forced air or draw.The sap is 55 brix comming off the evaporator into the finisher.It is fun to watch him in action. His evaporator is 6 x 16 and all flue pans, his finisher pan is about 2.5 x 10 Glen swiches finishing pans about every 3 hrs.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Brian,

Makes more sense and it would reason that he could now get by with around 17 or 18 cords of wood with the RO's. :)

[maplwrks]

Brandon,
Bascoms concentrate their sap to 20%+ before boiling on steam.
I believe they make 80-100 gallons an hour also. There are 5-6 producers in Vt. using steam to boil. the neat thing about steam is that you can't burn your pan! The steam pipes lay on the bottom of the pan and the sap boils around them. Bruce once told me that they burn 50 gallons of fuel an hour!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

50 gph sounds like a lot, but when it is around .5 to .6 gallons per gallon of syrup, can't beat that ratio! :D

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Seems coal would be a lot cheaper. :?

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Kevin,

Down south they use coal. Bet they wish they were still using it up there with the price of oil now. :?

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[Parker]

The power plant in Bow burns 60-100 carloads a day.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Back when they switched, oil was next to nothing and that was the biggest factor, it was cheaper. Not now. 8O