Eastern Ontario 2016

Good morning Lesley. I saw your new signature stats and CONGRATS on surpassing last year's total! I'm sure there is going to be a tsunami of sap over the weekend with temps like we are expecting. :D

I set up a little make shift wood burning arch a month ago in case I needed it this season, but haven't tried it yet. The jury is still out on whether or not I'll need it this year. Since you've tried yours, I have one question for you. What impact has an open wood fire had on the flavour of your syrup vs. the propane boiled syrup? I know that smoke and ash will get into the pans, and wonder how much change there is in the taste? Any thoughts so far?

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Originally Posted by Run Forest Run!

Good morning Lesley. I saw your new signature stats and CONGRATS on surpassing last year's total! I'm sure there is going to be a tsunami of sap over the weekend with temps like we are expecting. :D

I set up a little make shift wood burning arch a month ago in case I needed it this season, but haven't tried it yet. The jury is still out on whether or not I'll need it this year. Since you've tried yours, I have one question for you. What impact has an open wood fire had on the flavour of your syrup vs. the propane boiled syrup? I know that smoke and ash will get into the pans, and wonder how much change there is in the taste? Any thoughts so far?

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That's a very fair and good question, and one that we have been wondering about ourselves. The jury is still out on it so I will definitely let you know when we finish our first wood batch. It's true that lots of ash float into the boil, and am hoping that this adds to the flavour and not the contrary, but time will tell.
The greatest part about this system is the money.. We were able to boil down 70 litres in 6 hours yesterday... Roughly the same speed of propane with two steamer pans for nothing where as propane would have cost $20 to do that amount.
Also the ease of this system surprised us. I thought it was gonna be a big ordeal with getting enough wood to keep an even boil, but as the coals built up in the fire pit (mainly using yard scraps and dead fall) the boil got bigger and better - way more btu and efficiency than we ever got with propane though it took the first 4 hours to get the fire up to that quality. In fact, if it hadn't been for the packs of coyotes in our neighbouring farmers field, I would have kept going and prob couldve finished another 70 litres in half the time - we still have 260 litres awaiting boil down..
I would give your arch a whirl Karen, if nothing else but to test out the flavour difference!

Lesley, this is what I put together with materials that were here, and at my Dad's. I put it inside our existing fire pit. The chairs are the most important element. ;) I also got a length of stove pipe from my father's collection of odds and ends that I'll install should the arch get fired up this year.

Attachment 13997Attachment 13998

This is a really good set up. I would try it out. Do you use turkey pots? ( I know you have the burners) but was wondering about the surface area you get for evaporation.

I use 4" deep restaurant steam trays. There's more surface area for evaporation than a pot. I also have a 6" deep one that I haven't put into service yet.

Lesley
If you make up some kind of grate to get your fire up off the ground it will help a lot. And find a piece of sheet metal to use as a makeshift door to stop the cold air from getting under the and and you will increase the boil rate substantially. Just leave a couple of inch gap under the "door" to let air in.

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Originally Posted by Big_Eddy

Lesley
If you make up some kind of grate to get your fire up off the ground it will help a lot. And find a piece of sheet metal to use as a makeshift door to stop the cold air from getting under the and and you will increase the boil rate substantially. Just leave a couple of inch gap under the "door" to let air in.

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Good tip on the grate.. As for door, we left both ends open for an escape as there is no flue on this set up.. Is it necessary to have an escape?

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Originally Posted by Run Forest Run!

I use 4" deep restaurant steam trays. There's more surface area for evaporation than a pot. I also have a 6" deep one that I haven't put into service yet.

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Oh that's good..We have same, we actually have 4 of them and so added a third pan today.. Possibly fourth if things get crazy, I'll keep u posted on our progress

Yep, step in the right direction for sure, Lesley!

Now, much as I love this crazy hobby, the one part of it that drives me absolutely around the bend is getting it to Brix. Which I didn't care about before too much. But now I want to enter competitions so that means getting it Brix or at least in that area. So after a nice scenic drive to Covell's, I have some more 1/2g jugs, plastic lids and a so-called Quebec hydrotherm - meaning it can be used in hot or cold syrup.

So after checking the therm's calibration using my resident jar of grocery store syrup (and using Bruce's patented, shatterproof way of using the therm and therm cup :-) I filled the therm cup with cold syrup from my two best batches so far. Well, one batch finished a good 8 hashmarks or more below the red line, and the other was 1 or 2 hashmarks over! Rinsed off and dried the therm between uses with warm water, don't think that affects anything in terms of the reading, just keep syrup still clinging to it.

Oh, and my therm cup is only 10 inches...do I really need one that's 12 inches? And why?

There is no need for an escape you will loose a lot of heat that can be directed on to the pans. I found to get the best boil in hot table pans in my first ever cinder block arch keep the bottom of the pans no more then 15 to 18 inches Ave your fire. I have never boiled down on propane (only to finish) I have never had anybody hint or say my syrup has a smoke flavour to it.