Micro maplers?

[Groves]

I'm only 5 years into this sugaring deal.

We're in Missouri, and there's quite a few trees around town, but rarely more than 2 per house, and usually just 1.

We did our first year on the turkey fryer, and like you all, we experienced the loooooong processing times and incredible costs of propane.

We moved to wood the next year and it's so nice not to spend 8+ hours at the burner anymore.

The revelation to me was learning that the evaporation rate was connected to surface area.

That made my tall and skinny turkey fryer look the wrong shape for what I wanted.

It was off to the races using steam pans and we've never looked back. We make 3-5 gallons a year.

If you're dead set on using the turkey fryer for whatever reason (I realize that open fires aren't going to fit everyone's situation.) then by all means invest in some insulation such that you can get the most out of your costly propane.

Fire bricks, ceramic blankets, whatever it takes to keep that spendy heat going to the sap and not blowing away (like mine was).

[emo]

As Groves said, if you can contain the fire, the better/faster you are going to evaporate. My first year took an entire weekend to boil down 10 gal. of sap using the grill. Second year used a 4qt and a 9qt dutch ovens over an open fire, I figured I was boiling off about 1/2 gal/hr. I boiled for almost a week and a half straight to make 5qts of syrup. Third year build the common foundatin block arch with 3 steam pans. The foundation block will crumble from the heat of boiling if it is not protected in some fashion from the heat of the fire; found that out the second year I boiled. Used sheet metal for a front cover/door and some 4in duct for a chimney. I had some old red brick that I used to line the fire box. I could boil about 3gal/hr with this setup.

Surface does make a difference on evaporation rate. The steam pans have more that a turkey fryer pot The turkey fryers are good setup though, burner and pot all together. The hard part is finding cheap method to contain the heat under whatever pan(s) you are boilng with.

[Groves]

Third year build the common foundatin block arch with 3 steam pans. The foundation block will crumble from the heat of boiling if it is not protected in some fashion from the heat of the fire; found that out the second year I boiled.

The crumbing is all relative. When I first laid a few blocks on the ground, I thought to myself, "This will get me by this year."



The blocks took all the abuse, and abuse them we did. There was a crack now and then, but everything held up. Every year since then, I've "needed" to rebuild it, but all I end up doing is adding more blocks to the front to make it longer. More pans, more GPH.



We're up to 8 pans, think I could use a few more, too.

Fire still just goes in the front.



If you have the space, I highly recommend it.



I could add firebrick and insulation, but wood is plentiful and cheap, and once the bricks heat up, it goes pretty fast.

[FameFlower]

Love the ingenuity!!! Nice work!

[girmann]

I'm only 5 years into this sugaring deal.

The revelation to me was learning that the evaporation rate was connected to surface area.

That made my tall and skinny turkey fryer look the wrong shape for what I wanted.

From the beginning, I understood that surface area was king. My first purchase was steam trays (okay, the second purchase was steam trays...after the beginner tapping kits).

I like the idea of just some concrete blocks holding them up. Sure appeals to my wallet, anyway...

[Ace_R]

Right now I have 10 taps and use a 75,000 BTU camp stove with a 2 x 3 welded SS pan. I have already made about a gallon of syrup this year and have yet to go through a 20 # tank of propane. The key, like everyone else has said.....is surface area.......I know this is supposed to be a labor of love, but spending days to boil down 10 gallons of sap is not my idea of fun. If you get the correct set-up you can really make your system work well. Good Luck!

[girmann]

Right now I have 10 taps and use a 75,000 BTU camp stove with a 2 x 3 welded SS pan. I have already made about a gallon of syrup this year and have yet to go through a 20 # tank of propane. The key, like everyone else has said.....is surface area.......I know this is supposed to be a labor of love, but spending days to boil down 10 gallons of sap is not my idea of fun. If you get the correct set-up you can really make your system work well. Good Luck!

Can you post a picture of what yours looks like?

[MJFlores]

I'm right there with you Girmann. This is actually my first year, and I did my first batch tonight. My property has only red maple, so in one week I collected 4 gallons of sap and boiled it down to 8oz. of the darkest maple syrup I've ever seen. Tasty too! I have old fashioned aluminum buckets, and aluminum taps. Every night after work my 5 year old son and I head out in the dark with a 5 gallon pail to fetch sap. We bring it home and use a coffee filter to strain it into cleaned milk jugs which we kept in the fridge until this weekend. I have a turkey fryer that I converted to turkey scalder for dressing Thanksgiving turkeys, so I used a clean stainless lobster pot on that to boil down our sap. I'm definitely mini-micro for sure. It is a heck of a lot of fun though, and really like browsing this board and seeing what others are up to. Glad to see there's plenty of small time bucket tenders like me out there LOL!

[Ace_R]

Girmann, sorry I don't have any pictures on hand, but give me a day or two and I can get one uploaded. The stove I have is 70,000 BTU not 75,000 like I said (my mistake). It is a northern tool special for around $100 bucks. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...8996_200408996 and then putting your pan of choice on the burners. I have some masonary blocks holding up the actual stove.....I still have some room for efficiency but you have to start somewhere. Hope this helps! (sorry minor edit.......the best thing I like about propane is that if I need to shutdown or walk away for a bit while I do things around the house is unbeatable; I know wood is probobly the cheapest way to go, but you can't beat the ease of propane......at least in my case).

[SDdave]

Yes exactly Ace R. That's what I love about propane...you can turn it off and walk away. get those pics up, i wanna see them too.

Happy boilin',
SDdave