Sweeten the pan for Batch makers?

[Mac_Muz]

I hope this isn't a really stupid question...

Anyway I read about guys who don't make a batch, and sort of continue to draw off, as syrup becomes in the pan section to draw from, which leaves the next fresh sap a more sugar content, which I assume makes the boiling go faster.

So since I make batches, one at a time, could I say, take a finshed off and bottled qt to add it to the next batch, when ever I do that?

If I did, what might I expect?

My pan is a flat pan, and it has 2 dividers I made into it when I made the pan of mild steel. It has a draw off valve, but that is used at the end of a batch to assist in getting the pan off the fire, and to pre-filter what I hope will be 5 qts of sugar water which will be finished on the kitchen stove to be around 4 qts of finished syrup.

I tend to fill a barrel at 40 to 55 gallons before I fire up, and have had a day of it, buy the time I am at 5qts of sugar water.

So would adding any syrup to start a batch help boil faster? The sweetened pan?

[3rdgen.maple]

In the end you are going to spend the same amount of time to get the same amount of syrup. It is all based on your evaporation rate and sugar content. Look at it this way. Lets say you are getting 10 gph and you have 40 gallons of sap with a ratio of 40 to 1. So it will take you 4 hours to boil it down. Now the next time you boil you have another 40 gallons of sap but you add a quart of syrup to it. Guess what it is going to take you 4 hours to boil it down but instead of getting 1 gallon of syrup you will get 1 gallon and a quart.

[Mac_Muz]

I can buy that, but then it leaves the question as to why do folks leave the pan sweetened? There must be some advantage somewhere.

Is the advantage no more than a semi constant draw off rate while new fresh sap enters the pan at the other side?

[3rdgen.maple]

Yes one reason is the constant drawoffs but you got to rememer we are running flue pans to get the max out of this. They hold so much sap and because of the flues we have to keep the depth of the sap above the flues so we do not burn them up. If we were to try and batch boil it would be close to impossible to use a flue pan. It just goes hand in hand. To get the maximum evaporation rate out of the evaporator we need a large surface area. With that large area it means we need more sap to run it. So if we were to try to batch boil at some point we either have to lift a really heavy flue pan off the arch or shut it down let it cool, drain the flues, fill with water, transfer the sap to the front pan and start the fire again. So it is alot easier just to shut the rig down when we get low on sap and wait for more. Which leaves the pans full of sweet and a constant drawoff. I hope this makes sense and maybe someone else can explain a little better.

[PerryW]

So would adding any syrup to start a batch help boil faster? The sweetened pan?

No. As 3rdgen said, concentrate on boiling faster and increasing your evaporation rate. Also, boiling with full pans is not as efficient as running the pans shallow and gradually adding sap.


I can buy that, but then it leaves the question as to why do folks leave the pan sweetened? There must be some advantage somewhere.

The only reason you leave the pans sweetened is because your con't boil the pans dry without burning them.

It is impractical with a large evaporator to drain the pans after every boil; so you just boil up all the fresh sap and boil the pans as low as you dare to and shut down and wait until the next sap run.

[RileySugarbush]

The other advantage is all the time you spend cleaning up if you finish a batch each day. It's better to draw off what you can ( dividers needed to make that work on a flat pan) and leave the pan sweet for the next day. Cover it up to keep bugs and varmints out and just fire it up when you get enough sap again!

For years I did a complete batch ever time I started up my steam table pans. I wish I had just kept it sweet and saved all that messing around!

[Mac_Muz]

I understand now. Thanks.

Also when a batch is done in my pan which has 2 dividers, I don't clean it well. I get the scudge off, but leave sugar on that other wise would be washed. With a mild steel pan this sugar coating seems to assist in preventing light rust scale.

In my case, after a batch I flop the pan upside down on a 1/2 sheet of ply wood, and drop a few sticks of wood on it to prevent critters from messing around under there ;D

My original problem was wondering if enough sugar left in the pan would increase the boil rate some how. I was just thinking,,,,,,, maybe some how the water temp might become a bit over 212'.

I understand no matter how much heat is applied, that water will only boil at 212' and get no hotter, but wasn't sure about when say 1 qt of syrup was added. (Assuming sea level)

The idea comes from cooking other foods and adding salt, which will change the boil temp slightly.