My plan 2022/23

[Swingpure]

Before I start off with my plan, I just want to say as I hand out my syrup to more neighbour’s, I keep getting compliments like it was the best syrup they have ever tasted, so I did something right in my first season. I have to admit I have not gone back and tested any of the syrup to see what Brix it is. (I did that at the time of finishing) I just know it looks like syrup, pours like syrup and tastes really good.

I have mentioned before that I am actually going to downsize my taps, not have any pails and just have lines and may add up to 10 more trees on the lines. Might have like 85 taps, including counting double taps. This is just a hobby.

I was just told two days ago that I am a Diabetic. No biggie yet, as I can control it with lifestyle changes, but eating my own Maple Syrup, other than a taste here or there, is not on the menu. I did enjoy making it and still want to make syrup for my kids, grandkids, family and close friends.

Biggest changes for this coming summer is to build a permanent shelter for my cinder block evaporator, and getting a 2x4 divided pan, perhaps with a float box. If I do not get a float box, I will get some stainless steel tubing to go around the stovepipe as a preheater. I guess with a float box there is no easy way to preheat the sap. 90% sure I will get a float box.


I will have to make changes to the evaporator, it will be shorter and wider. I will have to figure out a way to keep the fire bricks in place on the sides. I think I have a way. My top row of blocks will be one solid block and hopefully this will help with not allowing smoke to escape through the cracks between blocks.

I know my evaporator would be better with a base stack and 8” pipe, but for this coming season, I will stick with the same setup as last year, with the 6” pipe coming out the back. That could be something to add for the following season. Right now the cost of the base stack, 8” stainless steel piping and whatever pipe components to go through the roof, is an extra cost, that will not be in the budget.

Time savers with be the new pan, hopefully a more air tight evaporator, the RO working, more seasoned wood than this year and more pieces of wood that are wrist size. Because the pan will sit on top of the blocks instead of down into the firebox, I will have 4 more inches of headroom in the firebox, to add more wood. I likely will get the float box and that will keep my sap level at a much better level than scaredy cat me would allow on my own. With these efficiencies and less taps, it should really help to reduce overall boil time.

Another change is I will pump the sap from my collection barrels into the garage where my RO will be. That should mean a lot less of carrying pails of sap. The one disadvantage is at one point during the boil, I will have to take about three or four minutes to go to the garage, pump the concentrate into a collection tank, then go back to the shelter and pump that into the head tank. That is a lot less work and a lot less distraction than my process last year.

The one other thing I will do in the off-season, is to add the over centre clamps to my DYI vacuum filter that worked really well.

[Swingpure]

I am ordering my 2x4 divided pan today and will have it fitted to have a float box. I might not get it until the fall, as there are many evaporator orders ahead of me. They make both evaporators and pans. We will see when I get it.

I also lucked into new 2x6 PT wood that will make all of the trusses for my shelter. I will have a sort of cupola at the peak of the roof, that will run the length of the shelter. The cupola opening will be left open with no windows. The opening as presently planned will only be 4.5” to 6”, tall. Is that enough? I know some opening is better than nothing, but would 6” be enough to make a difference?

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0612...NnEhi-csao8bKA

The shelter will look something like this, except only two posts a side and the cupola up top. I will have my existing concrete pad for the cinder block evaporator to sit on, then a wood deck surrounding the pad which will be 14’x14’. In the fall, I will stack my wood for the evaporator on the edges of the deck to act as a four foot high wall and also be very handy when I start boiling. I will also add the support for a head tank.

[Brien]

where are you ordering your pan from? I am intrigued with a divided pan but I am building a 10x20 shack this year, so all my fun money will go towards that. I also will be using mostly reclaimed lumber, but I will still have to buy the metal for the roof and some rough lumber for the board and batton walls

Also I saw in another post you were asking if you can get light coloured syrup in a flat pan. What I do with my 2x3 pan when I'm doing a big batch is remove 10litre of close to near syrup and keep on boiling down and then when I'm at the end I add it back in

[Swingpure]

[QUOTE=Brien;404574]where are you ordering your pan from? I am intrigued with a divided pan …. [\QUOTE]

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-view-details...dId=1592285302

Ryan is the sellers name: +1 (519) 278-6160. The 2x4 divided pan is $750 Cdn. All tig welded. 22 gauge stainless steel. The thermometer is an extra $100 and the float box is $250.

My hope with the divided pan and float box is that my boils will be more efficient with a consistent level, that is lower than I would dare by eye, peering through the steam, that it will be easier, not having to ladle all of the time and perhaps make lighter and better syrup, although to be honest, I don’t know how I can make better syrup than I did with my five steam pans this year, and I loved the amber colour they made. Also with my steam pans, I could do two batches in one boil, although I guess with the divided pan you are essentially making a small batch every time you draw it off.

The one unknown for me is how often you have to draw it off. I guess that is variable based on your boil rate, but I don’t know if it is on average every 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour?

[Swingpure]

Would a vented roof cap on a metal roof, that runs the length of the roof, act as quasi cupola? Would it allow at least a fair amount of steam out?

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0dfG...JlVNnqt_DEWQeg

My gable peak ends will be wide open and so will be the walls, except where it is lined with my fire wood.

Thanks

Gary

[aamyotte]

From the size of cupolas I have seen I don't think you would get the exhaust rate with those.

[Swingpure]

I walked up the hill today where I will be putting my new lines. It is steep all the way with no flat spots and lots of maple trees and there will be a good long stretch at the end that will be steep leading up to my collection barrels, that will be the “crux”, the engine of the lines.

It will be ideal. I have to get permission each year to use it, so I will be grateful for any year that I am allowed to use it.

I am also going to redo some lines I did last year and also will not do two lines. I won’t know how many taps I will have for sure until the fall when I actually put all of the lines out, but it will be between 100 and 120. No buckets. And I will have the same number of collection areas and barrels. I will have a better collection pump and piping into the RO in my garage, so a lot less carrying and a lot less pails to clean.

Today I dug out three medium sized roots with the help of my ATV pulling them out. I am also grading the area around my concrete pad. Not much more will happen until I get the backhoe here to dig out the two large stumps on the left side of the picture. Orange pail lids show the approximate placement of the four posts for the 10x10 structure. There will be a fairly large deck surrounding the pad. All of the wood except the four posts is free wood.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/045S...gPFm16uqZma5Ag

[Pdiamond]

Gary, I tried that with mine and it didn't work. I now have a 2 x 4 cupola, works great. Open one side or the other depends on the wind, sometimes I drop them both.

[Swingpure]

Thanks.

The two guys that will be helping me with the roof, who have more experience, seem to be reluctant to build the cupola, but I guess I will have to insist.

I am still a few weeks from that. I am waiting for a backhoe to dig out two stumps that are in the way of my deck area, and it will dig out my four post holes. Then comes sono tubes and concrete, and then the build starts.

It will be dual purpose, a sort of gazebo, (pavilion) with a large deck in the summer and a “sugar pavilion” in the spring. The deck will surround the concrete pad I used last year, that the evaporator sat on.

[Swingpure]

Gary, I tried that with mine and it didn't work. I now have a 2 x 4 cupola, works great. Open one side or the other depends on the wind, sometimes I drop them both.

Thanks

I have a friend, who has a cupola that runs the length of the shack and both sides are open with no windows. Works well for him.

I will do something.