A very strange question

[Person25]

So I have a question. I realize it’s odd and strange, but still I’m going to ask it. I have a 2x3 mason with 3 section pan. Does anyone have any ideas on materials I could use to plug the trianglur holes between dividers? It would need to be heat resistant and provide a seal. My predicament is I can only boil on weekends. Weeknight boiling is not an option to keep up with sap production. What I would like to be able to do is on Sunday night be able to pour off the sweet from the individual sections and store them separately until Friday night when I can fire up again at which point I could pour the sweet back into their respective section, let settle so it won’t remix , then pull the divider plugs and hit it for the weekend. My issue is basically it takes me forever to get any draw offs because I have to empty the pan ever weekend and finish inside on the stove. the way I run now I basically just batch boil in a divided pan. Any suggestions appreciated.

[MarkL]

Not strange at all, to me! I have the same predicament. Luckily my Smoky Lake full pint pan has round holes; I get plugs from the local home-brew shop and put them in with long bbq tongs at the end of each night.

With the triangular holes, I'd find some food safe and heat resistant material - perhaps neoprene? - in a large stopper and trim it to fit. If you taper it you should be able to get a snug seal.

[Cjadamec]

Possibly just get some sheet metal, either aluminum or stainless steel, then use a spring clamp to hold the sheet metal in place on the divider blocking your pass thrus. You don't need a water tight seal to hold your gradient in place you just need to make it hard for the water to move.

If you really wanted to get a seal get a cheap silicon baking /grilling mat cut that up into a pieces then use the sheet metal trick above just sandwich the silicon mat between the divider and sheet metal.

[wnybassman]

Back when I was using my divided 2x4 flat pan I would just let it sit between boils, and let it mix. It didn't really take all that long to reestablish a gradient again once boiling started again. If you wanted, you could slowly draw off the sweetest you have and store that, then pour it back in near the draw-off once you start back up. Gives you a little head start on gradient again.

[bigschuss]

I use a 2x4 Mason and like wnybassman, I just let it sit and mix. On Saturday AM I reestablish the gradient pretty quickly.

However, if you're not boiling all week and temps. warm up there is something to be said for removing and storing your sweet so it doesn't spoil.

How about some kind of extra long C clamp like this:

https://express.google.com/u/0/produ...waAs9BEALw_wcB

Find somebody to then weld up two pieces of triangular steel to each side to match the openings in your pan.

[MarkL]

I would NEVER put any metal in my syrup that isn’t stainless steel or copper.

I once lost an entire weekend’s batch due to a metallic off flavor from a tiny bit of steel wool I foolishly cleaned with and didn’t get all out of the pan.


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[ecolbeck]

I agree with those who say that there is no reason to keep the sections separated. What I typically do if I need to empty a pan is draw off various grades of sweet into separate containers. Then (as suggested by others) during the next boil the sweet can be reintroduced slowly into the proper channel.

[n8hutch]

How deep do you run your pan? Only reason I ask is the deeper you run it the longer it is going to take to re establish a gradient.

[steve J]

If you don't empty pan the sweet tends to mix.
but I have found that when restarting the boiling process the center is first to boil and that is where most of the sweet is. So you need to move the boil. So I draw off a quart at a time and pour back in at the start of the middle section. I do this several times and wait a few mins and do it again. And before you know it you have moved the sweet and the boil to the last section.

[kingOFgEEEks]

I'll agree with a few above. I have a 2-1/2 x 6 flat pan, and all I do is draw off some of the sweet while the fire is coasting to a stop, and let the rest mix back to equilibrium. When I go to fire back up, I'll start the fire and once the boil starts, slowly add fresh sap to the beginning of the pan, and sweet to the end of the pan. The gradient is back in about 1/2 an hour that way, and I'm back to the races.