Eastern Ontario 2017

[JeffB]

The jury is still out on the Patrick Phenuef pan , this will be my second year boiling on it. Last year I had real issues getting the front pan to boil. I could never get the syrup section hot enough to draw off. Basically it was hybrid drop flue batch boiling pan.

I always had to finish everything i concentrated on a turkey fryer set up.
I think this was because of a combination of small small problems (IE pan not perfectly level, boiling in a 3 sided lean tou, to much air under fire) ect. Since then I have corrected all these little problems and even built a 10x12 actual sugar shack that my evaporator is now in.

I did alot of research and corrected all these problems ,I ever called and spoke with Jim at smokey lake who makes the same pan and explained my problem (couldnt get a hold of Patrick) Jim suggested and recommended that dividers be welded in and turn the drop flue area into a continuous flow drop flue area.
Jim calls this his pro pan set up and its a upgrade option when you purchase a smokey lake pan, it slows down and almosts stops the mixing of the gradient in the drop flue and syrup area . He said since the drop flue area boiled with such turbulence all my pan did was mix sap and concentrate so i have to slow this down.

So basically after 280 bucks of modifications I now have a new upgraded pan to use this year.


I will say last yr the boil rate was great, if i really fed the wood it and had it ripping, i could get 22 to 26 gph evaporation but never drew any actual syrup, i always ended up with 45 liters of super sweet concentrate.
I can keep you updated this year but looking back as of right now, I would have spent the extra 550 bucks a year ago and purchased Patricks 24x30 raised flue with the 24x18 syrup pan set.

20170212_101135.jpg20170212_102229.jpg20161022_164357.jpg20170212_102218.jpg