Newbie, homemade arch. Would appreciate advise.

[berkshires]

How many more gallons of sap do you think I’ll need to run in order to sweeten the pan? Pan is roughly 40” x 20”.

How deep are you running it? If you were running it around an inch I would think you would start to see the temp come up soon, but at two inches you might only be halfway there.

GO

[Jigrod]

I was running 2" deep. From everything I've read on here 2" sounds like a safe place to run. Hoping to have at least 75 gallons to push through it later this week.

[berkshires]

I was running 2" deep. From everything I've read on here 2" sounds like a safe place to run. Hoping to have at least 75 gallons to push through it later this week.

At two inches deep, that should do it I'd think. Good luck!

Cheers,

GO

[Bgreisch]

I have the SL Dauntless and the pan is 20"x48" and it took like 100 gallons to start drawing off the first time, running about 1 3/4 to 2 inches.

Bryan

[Jigrod]

I was able to boil off another 100 gallons of sap this past weekend for a total of 180 gallons of sap and still waiting to draw off syrup. Sunday my temp gauge was creeping up to 217 so I started checking with my Murphys cup and hydrometer. Never doing this before what I ended up doing was screwing up my gradient. I was using the draw off valve to fill, dump and refill the Murphys cup and believe I pulled forward more sap than syrup. Over the course of an hour or so of checking density the temp started to drop to 214 and never recovered before we ran out of sap.

What’s the proper way to fill my test cup for checking density without screwing up the gradient? An old timer recommended using a ladle and filling and dumping from the back of the syrup channel away from the draw off.

We also noticed Sunday that our evaporation rate has slowed down (6-7) gallons per hour. It was warm out and no real change to firewood. My thought was the more “syrup” in the pan the less evaporation.

A couple other notes that may explain my lack of being able to draw off syrup. I drained the pan yesterday to get the sap/syrup in the fridge for the week as it will be pretty warm for a few day. I took out a solid 7 gallons and was expecting only 5 ish based on the sight glass depth and pan size using an online calculator. I’m guessing I got the ruler sticker on the sight glass off but will verify once I level and fill the evaporator this coming weekend. I’ve probably been running a lot deeper than I thought.

Again I appreciate all of the comments and suggestions, first year at this and just trying to learn.



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[berkshires]

Jigrod - a few thoughts:

If I were you, on this small evaporator, I would just draw off when you get to temp, and finish on propane or in the house.

Question: Do you have bungs between channels when you're not boiling? If not, all the gradient you created the first time will be gone before the second boil. So you've averaged the nearup in the last channel with the near-sap in the first channel.

I'm going to assume you don't have bungs set between boils, since you haven't mentioned them. Correct me if I'm wrong.

After doing this twice now if it's all mixed up again next time you boil, you're going to have a LOT of sugar in the pan. Including in the first two channels. This means that on your next boil when you do get to syrup, you are going to have a *monster* draw. This is especially true since you have only three channels. Be careful! You might start the draw at 219, and then before you know it, it's spiking to 240, foaming all over the place, and scorching the pan. If I were you I would:

1. Have an "oh s#it bucket" handy
2. Start your draw at least a degree under
3. If you see the temp starting to spike, crank open both the draw-off valve and the valve of sap entering the pan

As for your question about why it's taken so long to get to syrup, my thoughts are:

- If you don't have bungs between channels, it's all mixing back up
- As you say, you're probably running it somewhat high.
- With only three channels, assuming there's a lot of mixing within each channel, you need to make more syrup to get to syrup in the last channel than you would if your pan was divided into four channels.
- I don't know how sweet your sap is - if it's running at 1.5% that means more sap required
- If you have a lot of soot built up on the bottom of your pan, I don't know how much that affects heat transfer, but I'm sure it could be a factor.

Cheers,

Gabe

[Jigrod]

Thanks for the thoughts Gabe.

You are correct that I do not have bungs between the channels for down time. My master plan was to shear a couple pcs of stainless last week at work to make bungs and use them this past weekend. Wouldn’t ya know it I made it a whole year and finally got covid last Monday! Needless to say I haven’t been to work and didn’t have any stainless laying around. I’ll take care of that later this week when I’m back at work.

Sap started out around 3% and the stuff I checked recently was at 2%.

I agree there will be a lot of sugar in the pan next boil. I may have to come to realize that finishing in this pan at least this year isn’t going to happen. Hoping to have 50 gallons of sap by Saturday and will give it go.

Jigrod / Chris

[woodguyrob]

Chris, you mentioned your sticker being off on your sight glass. I have a site glass on my SL Flat pan on the Dauntless. I never used the sticker. When I boil now I fill the pan w/ 4 gallons (about 1"depth ) and use a red sharpie to make a line on the glass. I add another 2 gallons (2"depth) and mark the line with a Blue sharpie. Makes it easy top see where you are. This year I ran it closer to 1 " depth and it boiled really well. Sharpie washes off easily.

[Jigrod]

Well I finally got to draw off some syrup this past weekend! We only had 25 gallons of sap to run but it was enough to reestablish the gradient within about 45 minutes once boiling. Initial draw was only a quart or two. About an hour after that I drew off maybe another gallon. Still have at least three gallons of syrup in the pan and if the weather holds true I should have around 50 gallons of sap to push through this Friday. I’ll shut er down after that and finish what’s in the pan on a turkey fryer.

Pretty satisfying to see things finally come together. Like a stated earlier I was running too deep the previous weekend which prevented syrup draw off. Lesson learned. I’ll add another dozen or so taps next year so I have enough volume to get me to syrup a little faster. I would say if I’m running 1.50” deep I need a minimum of 150 gallons of sap before I’ll be able to draw off syrup.

Thanks again for everyone’s help and comments!