2 x 4 smokey lake hybrid question

[devils11217]

Is it normal to boil roughly 100 gallons (first boil of the season) and not draw off any yet? i have a decent gradient going but temp never got high enough to draw. First time using this evaporator.

[Outdoorsman0490]

Yes.
I have a 2/5 smokey lake, takes a good 200 for me. At the end of last season, when I drew all the Sweet off from the pan, it was 6.25 gal of syrup; so on my pan (little larger than yours) I know I need to boil down about 6 gals worth of syrup before I draw any off

[lpakiz]

Mine is 2X10 with 8 feet of drop flue. I boiled 400 gallons and am nowhere near a draw yet. 1.8-1.9 sugar content.

[bowhunter]

That's probably ok. The hybrid pan holds quite a bit of inventory and also it depends on your sugar content. The lower the sugar content the more sap required to get to a draw. I have a 1/2 pint which is a 24 inch x 33 inch flat pan and before I started using the RO it required about 80 to 100 gallons of 2.3% sap to get syrup out the draw. Others with a similar pan can probably give you a better answer than I can.

[DoubleBrookMaple]

when you do get near, it will happen somewhat faster. I expanded mine this year with a finishing pan out front, and with my 1% sap it took over 6 hours at a 27 gph rate until ready to draw.
Make sure you salvage all your sweet sap in the pan when you shut it down and put it in a finishing pan or pot, as there is a lot of syrup remaining. Last year with just my 2X4 Hybrid, the drop flue compartment would get somewhat dark, so I know it was good sweet sap that just needed more boiling. I used a pump to suck out all the drops.

[devils11217]

ok great i figured most of my front syrup pan was decent amount of inventory in almost syrup... makes sense. when you shut down for the day do you leave everything in the pans and start again another time or do you remove all the front sweet and finish it that day?

[mellondome]

Either way works. Just make sure the sweet from the syrup pan and the flue pan cannot mix.