Printable View
Hi Brandon ,
I am curious how you do this vinegar wash , my machine is a 3x12 and the sweet is quite dark after 45 days .
The 1000 gallon tank is washed each nite and the sap is crystal but once it goes to b in the machine the system never recovers to a lighter grade
regards
ED
Ed,
The last cleaning I had only boiled 1100 since it was cleaned before that. I just put 1 gallon of vinegar in the front pan after removing all the syrup and it ate off all the buildup in about an hour or two and hardly no scrubbing needed. The first cleaning, I had ran 3400+ gallon thru so I drained flue pan and syrup pan and put gallon of vinegar in each one and about 4 inches water in the syrup pan and 2 inches in the flue pan and brought it up to a light boil and it cleaned off good. Best way is to put about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of vinegar in the syrup pan overnight and it washes everything out the next day with a water hose. I cleaned the steamaway today with syrup in the flue and syrup pan. I have it plumbed with soldered ball valves so I have an outlet that bypasses the flue pan for draining or cleaning and I dumped about 15 gallon of distilled water in and 1/2 gallon of vinegar and let it bubble for about 3 hours and looks like new. Just rinsed it good with water hose about 3 times and ready to roll for tomorrow without anything but cold distilled water.
Picked up about 680 gallon of sap this even. South sides running okay and north sides were rocking even with 7 week old taps. Hoping to get that boiled off tomorrow and collect whatever runs through night today and tomorrow and boil it on friday.
Ed,
Forgot to mention that when I drain evaporator, usually what is in the syrup pan is close to syrup or past syrup, so I drain it off and finish it next time I can. I try to run the flue pan down to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch and I drain everything out of it and run it through the filter press. This lightens it up a ton and cleans out the buildup out of syrup and flue pan. I then dump all that into the syrup pan after cleaning and start over with raw sap in the flue pan the next run. If I am boiling, I put a couple inches in the syrup pan and add a gallon or two at a time opposite the drawoff side if the level drops. If someone else is boiling I usually put all of it in the syrup pan and have them pull the plug out opposite the drawoff side when level drops to where it is supposed to. By running it through the press and starting out with raw sap, makes a big difference in getting grade way back up.
Hi Brandon ,
Thank you for that detailed relpy , this will save me a lot of experimenting .
Because of the ro I must run 2 inch deep pans and the pulls are 2gal to 10 gal , however even @2 in deep sometimes the pull will
do a (Run Away ) and the syrup will go up in temp until there is a disaster :( I call it freight train .... Once the syrup is 2 deg past set when this is happening I open the front doors to stop the (Run Away )
Because of this there is a lot of sweet in the front pan which wants to go to dark .
In my mind I was starting to ponder how to address sweet in the front pan / hot days this when I saw your post :)
These trees run hard ,13000 gal out of about 600 tapps . smallest run last nite 404 gl .largest 1827 gl in 27 hrs , had to do a 3am on that one only have a 1000 gl stainless holding tank .
We have a lot of 55 to 60 deg days also so keeping the system lite always a issue .
Again tx
ED
peepers came in side last nite :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward Howell
[QUOTE=WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER;248162]Ed,
The last cleaning I had only boiled 1100 since it was cleaned before that. I just put 1 gallon of vinegar in the front pan after removing all the syrup and it ate off all the buildup in about an hour or two and hardly no scrubbing needed.
Do you use white vinegar or cider vinegar or even wine vinegar?
Seems as though your season is still chugging a long and you will have a decent season total of syrup before all is said and done.
I use just white vinegar from Sams Club. 5% acidity. $ 3.58 for 2 gallons, can't beat the price. Yes, season is chugging along. Today started week # 11.
Ed,
I could probably put that much or more sap with vacuum but thats why you are seeing 1% sugar. Sucking up a lot of water. I got 7985 last year on 580 taps gravity and it was close to 2% sugar.
Helpers boiled off 690 today that I collected yesterday and I collected another 500+ gallon today after finishing boiling and shutting down evaporator. Still making medium syrup, might get to dark one of these days. Today started week # 11. UNBELIEVABLE how clear the sap was today considering how long the taps have been in and that it hit 61 degrees yesterday and never froze last night. 5890 gallon of sap boiled through today and aprox 114 gallon of syrup. Sugar content is lowest I have seen in at least 5 years but not terrible. Supposed to freeze 3 or 4 days in row next week and that will probably been the end. Should be able to collect another 100+ gallons tomorrow that is still running as of dark this pm which should put us over 6500 gallon of sap for the year. Hoping for few hundred more next week. Turing out to be a good season this year considering that the ground is finally almost thawed out.
Will have to give credit where it is due. The clear sap and trees still running have to be a result of the new droplines with the clear Leader seasonal spouts and thank the Lord for his blessing this season.