help with establishing a gradiant

[Lethalbowman]

IMG_20170219_123828532.jpg
I ran mine at 1 1/2" yesterday and with a little bit of coaxing ended up with this when I ran out of sap. I drew off what I could to finish under a controlled heat.

[bigschuss]

Thanks for everyone's suggestion.

We're out of sap now and waiting to collect more.

I shut down the evaporator last night with a full flue and syrup pan. Sap in the syrup pan is at about 58% sugar.

We're having a few days of unseasonably warm weather. Temp's near 60 degrees.

I hope the sap in the pans does not spoil.

Also, I hope the warm weather doesn't kill the sap run.

I'll restart when I get about 100 gallons or so of sap. This time, I'll try to run the pan at 1 1/2 -2 inches and see how it goes.

Appreciate all the feedback.

Mark

Mark...be careful with that "sweet" in the pan. When I first started I did something very similar with my Mason and by the time I got around to boiling again when I fired up the evaporator I got a funky smell. It did not take long. I lost the initial boil of 100 gallons of sap. The temps. look mild all week...spooky mild Thursday through Sunday. I would either 1) boil down what you have carefully to an inch or so and then finish on a turkey fryer or 2) fire your evaporator each day just at a boil to keep the sweet from spoiling.

[Buckfever]

I'm also boiling on a real evaporator for the first time and seem to be boiling away a lot of sap and not getting anything close to syrup. So from what I gather from the posts is that the pan needs to sort of break in before the sap begins to flow properly? Also I have a steam hood that's raised above the pan about 30" so I can watch what's going on in the pan. Of coarse some of the steam escapes around the hood. I'm wondering if I put an inline fan in the steam stack if it would draw more of the steam up the stack instead of the steam going out and around the hood?

[adk1]

Consistency is key if you keep messing with the float you are going to be mixing sap. Go down to an inch of sap. Just be watchful. Make sure you are ready cause your first draw is going to be a big one. Make sure sap is still going into your pans

[mspina14]

Mark...be careful with that "sweet" in the pan. When I first started I did something very similar with my Mason and by the time I got around to boiling again when I fired up the evaporator I got a funky smell. It did not take long. I lost the initial boil of 100 gallons of sap. The temps. look mild all week...spooky mild Thursday through Sunday. I would either 1) boil down what you have carefully to an inch or so and then finish on a turkey fryer or 2) fire your evaporator each day just at a boil to keep the sweet from spoiling.

Yeah, I agree. The sweet is not going to last with this warm weather.

I'll drain it and finish it in my turkey fryer. Hate to loose a couple gallons of syrup.

thanks.

Mark

[bigschuss]

from what I gather from the posts is that the pan needs to sort of break in before the sap begins to flow properly?

Not so much a break in....it's called "sweetening the pan." You just have to boil a lot more sap than you'd think to even begin to think about drawing off. Still, in a 2x4 hobby evaporator you should begin to see a hint of a gradient after the first 50 gallons of sap boiled. By 100 gallons I always have a clear and well defined gradient. At 150 gallons of boiled sap can draw off for the first time.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

This was my gradient after about an hour and a half of boiling on Sunday....my 1st time using my new 2x6 evaporator. By the end of the day all 3 channels were dark, but I was still drawing off from my left channel, drew off about 2.5 gallons from my 125 gallons of 4.5% (after running through the RO) What caused my gradient to disappear? will I ever get it back? Is it because of the float box is feeding too slow? too fast? I kept my depth at about 1.5", my firing may have been too inconsistent, I was trying to put wood every 9 minutes or so, but when I open the door the boil does stop.

thanks everyone!

IMG_4082.jpg

[Sugarmaker]

This was my gradient after about an hour and a half of boiling on Sunday....my 1st time using my new 2x6 evaporator. By the end of the day all 3 channels were dark, but I was still drawing off from my left channel, drew off about 2.5 gallons from my 125 gallons of 4.5% (after running through the RO) What caused my gradient to disappear? will I ever get it back? Is it because of the float box is feeding too slow? too fast? I kept my depth at about 1.5", my firing may have been too inconsistent, I was trying to put wood every 9 minutes or so, but when I open the door the boil does stop.

thanks everyone!

Attachment 15568

Gradient may have changed when you got into new sap. it will res establish as you boil more.
your doing good!
Regards,
Chris

[Big_Eddy]

This was my gradient after about an hour and a half of boiling on Sunday....my 1st time using my new 2x6 evaporator. By the end of the day all 3 channels were dark, but I was still drawing off from my left channel, drew off about 2.5 gallons from my 125 gallons of 4.5% (after running through the RO) What caused my gradient to disappear? will I ever get it back? Is it because of the float box is feeding too slow? too fast? I kept my depth at about 1.5", my firing may have been too inconsistent, I was trying to put wood every 9 minutes or so, but when I open the door the boil does stop.

thanks everyone!

Attachment 15568

Your gradient is still there. It may not be visible, but if you were to test it, there will be a definite difference in concentration from the inlet (raw sap) to the outlet. Keep feeding sap in, letting steam off, and the syrup will come out.

Instead of worrying about "maintaining" the gradient, focus on trying to keep your evaporation rate as high and as consistent as possible, and you'll get the best performance possible out of your evaporator.

[Russell Lampron]

You will lose the boil when you fire. Try opening 1 door and throwing a few sticks in then do the same on the other side to help minimize that. Nine minutes is a long time,try adding wood every 5 minutes or so.