Sugar sand nightmare

[sweet spot maple addict]

I know sugar sand is an inevitable thing.
I boil concentrate at 6 brix , and mid season , after a 2 hours boil,
by the touch of a spoon you can feel the sand buildup on the bottom of the pan.
The syrup pan begin to foam or i would say froth , like a milky froth , cause by the
calcium malate in suspension , that is precipitated , but cannot bond to the surface of the pan which is already saturated.
Any clue on how to "mitigate" the onset of the sugar build up ?
Is the front pan boiling to hard ?

[ecolbeck]

I don’t think there’s aren’t way to prevent sugar sand. A hard boil not the issue and is what you want. Frequent cleaning may be the only cure.

[Galena]

Just don't go over 190 and you'll be fine, that's when sugar sand aka nitre starts to form. And apparently if there are hot spots in your pans then they may help nitre form. Some years nitre is a nightmare, other years it's a tame lil pony. Good luck!

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Sweet spot I have all the same issues. I usually have to clean my front pan after each boil. I use permeate water and a shurflo pump to recirculate water through the pan for a few hours. Works great. If I have heavy buildup I put a little citric acid or vinegar but I don't like that because it makes more work with the extra rinsing. I starting running my pan deeper this year and it seems to help a little but because niter can vary from year to year, there's no solid way to know for sure. Some people use air injection systems which may help but I don't have any experience with that.