Currently I draw syrup off my cooker a little light (around 30 degrees Baume). I cool it in stainless cans then transfer to buckets. Once I start making some darker syrup and get caught up on other beginning-of-season stuff, I start bottling.
Until today, I have always drained my front pan, cleaned it, filled it with syrup, and reheated it with a small wood fire. This works, but it's not my favorite. It's hard to control the wood fire. I can't filter and bottle everything that's in the pan because I can't drain it fully with a fire underneath, etc.
Yesterday while buying some cases of bottles, I bought a 2x4 propane finisher on an impulse. It's not a fancy one. It just uses a double turkey burner setup under the pan. No sides or insulation on the frame to keep the heat in. No divider, just a flat pan. Anyway, I was excited to use it today. So after peeling the stickers off this morning I put 30 gallons of syrup in it and fired it up. And waited. And waited and WAITED. It took about 3.5 hours until I had the syrup up to temp. A little longer to bring it to the right density. Normally I would like to be able to bottle 60+ gallons in an afternoon, but that wasn't happening today. I was lucky to get 37 through it.
So, anyway, hopefully my dealer will take it back without too much of a penalty, but moving forward, what are my options? Will a nicer finisher with tube burners be faster? How long will it take to heat 30 gallons of syrup? I don't have 220 power at the shack, and that's unlikely to change, so propane seems like the best choice unless I'm missing something.
I did briefly consider finishing syrup all the way on the rig, filtering into super clean containers, and later reheating with a water jacketed canner, but it seems like most guys who reheat filter again too, so I don't see that working real well unless I had two canners. Plus, the water jacket canner doesn't seem real fast either.
Anyway, I'd love to hear what you guys do and I appreciate your advice.
Thanks Ryan