Once a week boil on divided pan

[bigschuss]

You'll get the feel for it the first few times you shut it down. Letting your fire burn down and feeling comfortable enough to walk away from it is a fairly lengthy process. I do not watch my pan during the process...I gather some sap, clean the shack, return to the house and eat dinner, etc. Bring something to Chester to do while you're waiting, as you're probably looking at least 2 hours (maybe even 3) before you're comfortable leaving the shack and heading home. If you have any doubts, add 2 or 3 gallons to your pre-heater and crack the valve while the evaporator cools.

Do you have anybody you trust in Chester who might be able to bring your pan to a boil mid-week if temps. get warm? I'd hate to see you go through all of this work and travel just to end up losing your sweet to bacteria. Late season when temps. get warmer it might be a good idea to do a Wednesday boil to sterilize your sweet and the pan. Or take the sweet home and freeze it which I think was your plan, correct?

[DrTimPerkins]

Do you have anybody you trust in Chester who might be able to bring your pan to a boil mid-week if temps. get warm? I'd hate to see you go through all of this work and travel just to end up losing your sweet to bacteria. Late season when temps. get warmer it might be a good idea to do a Wednesday boil to sterilize your sweet and the pan. Or take the sweet home and freeze it which I think was your plan, correct?

+1 on this suggestion

[berkshires]

+1 on this suggestion

I'm not sure if there's anyone I would want to ask, but assuming there was, how would this work? I mean, there's 2" in the pan when I shut down the evaporator, and that reduces to 1" over the next day. If they get a fire going good enough to start a boil in the whole pan, and then stop adding wood and walk away, won't that 1" of sap it boil away and burn? I may not be very good at math, but it seems to me that If no-one's adding sap, then 1" of sweet minus 1" of boiling off = very bad. LOL

Or is the concept that a quick fire won't put much heat into the bricks, and won't boil off as much sap. I'd be pretty spooked about putting this to the test without me (or anyone!) around, if it doesn't go according to plan.

GO

[Maplelane1]

I purchased my first evaporator this fall, Lapierre Vision 2x6, so I'm researching and planning for my first boil in the spring and the info in this thread is excellent !

Thank you all for your contributions !