Anyone Ever Made Finished Syrup On A Half Pint

[sapbrush]

hi I CANT FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE SYRUP ON my half pint, always have to finish in the house and the wifey is sarting to complain a bit, just wondering if anyone has made it in the evaporator to finish syrup, and tips and tricks would be great thanks jim

[stoweski]

Only my first year boiling on the 1/2 pint (and probably my last) I was never able to draw off syrup. I got the temp up to about 215 and then drew off into a turkey fryer to finish.

I suppose one could boil down close to 150 gallons of sap or so and then do a batch finish on the 1/2 pint and make syrup but I think doing a continuous flow somehow mixes some of the sap with the 'close to syrup' and it never truly becomes syrup. Maybe I'm wrong, dunno.

Next year I'll have either a 2x4, 2x6 or something in between. Then I can draw off syrup. :)

[benchmark]

Sure you can. You just have to watch your depth and make sure you always have raw sap entering the first chamber. If you keep adding more sap then whats evaporating, your never going to be able to draw off correctly. I made a lot of syrup on a 2x3 divided pan, which i believe is similar to a half pint.

[Farmboy]

I've made about 4 gallons so far this year on a half pint. I've gotten up to 222* and my drawoffs are between a half gallon to a gallon.

[sapbrush]

What Do You Just Keep Adding Till There Is What Looks Like Syrup In The Pan I Guess I Dont Understand What Your Telling Me, I Usually Have To Finish Inside, So Do You Leave The Pan Sweet And Boil And Boil Till You Get Syrup In The End Im Confused, What Else Is New , AND IS YOUR HALF PINT WITH THE 3 DEVIDERS OR THE 4 LIKE MINE, HOW MUCH DO YOU RUN IN THE PAN AND INCH 2 INCHES Jim

[3rdgen.maple]

You should be able to finish on your rig with dividers or not. Since you have dividers it is really no different than finishing on a 2x4 or larger for that matter. What you have is the finishing pan on a bigger rig. The bigger rig just has a flue pan to evaporate sap quicker before it enters the finishing pan. It will make syrup in the last divider at the drawoff as long as you are adding raw sap in the first divider at the rate it is evaporating. If not you could make a big batch all at once on the whole pan. It can be done and is done all the time. Don't give up at 215 keep going it will get there.

[johnallin]

Sapbrush & Stoweski, Tap the brakes for a minute and hang in there guys it's not hard at all. I boiled on a 1/2 Pint for two years and always pulled finished syrup off.

Some key points are:
The depth in the pan - try for 1¼ -1½" max. any more and you won't get the boil you need. That pan should be hopping.
Keep the new sap coming in at the same rate as your boiling off - this takes some paying attention and again watching the depth of the pan. Too deep and you'll never get there, you'll end up with a pan full of almost syrup. I maintained just a trickle and if the boil slowed down would shut if off for a few minutes. Again, keep checking your depth. Use whatever you can as a depth gauge and don't get too deep.
I installed a thermometer at the draw off, right into the side of the pan. Drilled hole with a step drill and used a brass washer to seal if off. Watch the thermometer, when you get to 7° over boiling point of water take a draw and test it with your hydrometer. It probably won't be ready - don't ask why but I always had to go to about 9° before I could pull syrup. I could draw 3-5 test cups at a time off at a time, spaced about 1 hour apart.
Keep the fire hot, that means firing every 5-8 minutes and use really thin pieces of wood, the drier the better. This is not a fireplace, big logs need not apply.

What ever you do don't give up, those are great rigs for 30-50 taps and you don't need 100 gallons of sap to fire it up!

I have attached some pictures of my rig last year showing the boil and the themometer I installed.
Good luck

[BarrelBoiler]

nice self portrait:D

[sapbrush]

WOW yeh i have never been able to make it on that evaporator, i have realy never gotten it to a boil either any tips on that also i do use palletts cut small and fire every 10 mins i have blocked the arch but never used the arch board everyone talks about, any help would be great, from someone like yourself that has used one and has a grip on what im talking about, not so sure i do half the time jim

[adk1]

Well, I am curious to know if the new 1/2 pints have 4 chambers? What would be the difference in the 3 chambers compared to the 4? I like this rig..
Those tips are great. when I get mine setup (god willing someday) I also plan on running my feed line via flex copper wound around my stove pipe and then into the "pre-heater" pan..The hotter you have that sap the better before It drops into the actual evaporator pans.

[Saw Filer]

We ran a half -pint for a couple of years. Found that our wood could never be too dry. Also don't put anything in there larger than your wrist. Ten minutes is about twice as long as we went between firings.Be sure you have enough stack, we found a real difference between eight feet and twelve feet, at twelve it seemed like a different machine. We bricked from the top of the firewall to the back wall of the arch above the stack collar (an idea we stole from some guy on a website called mapletrader) to direct the heat to the back CORNERS of the pan. This is a great little rig ,we made almost twenty gallons with it last year. We have a homemade pre heater. We prefer to finish on gas, but like the others said, keep your fire as hot and as even as possible,watch your depth, keep the fresh sap coming, and don't lose hope; it can be done and you can do it.

george

[GANGGREEN]

This was the first year that I finished in the half pint. Previously I was always too anxious to have syrup and didn't really sweeten the pan. This year I boiled the first day without any draw off and each boil after that it was pretty easy. As the others have pointed out, you have to have a hot fire, keep the sap in the pans reasonably shallow and have a constant flow of sap coming in to push the syrup but I didn't have any trouble taking it the whole way to syrup this year.