Sublimes Maple adventure

[sublime68charger]

Im Year 4 now.

Pics on this thread are only up to year 2 but in the Garage journal Thread that I linked to on first page has all the sap stuff there every spring.

year 2 was Basement Stove, Fischer Stand alone stove small barrel stove and then Big Barrel stove on last weekend that we ran with 15 trees tapped.

year 3 was Basement Stove, Fischer Stand alone stove 2 big barrel stoves and small barrel stove runing like 20 trees. Avg was 40-50 gallons of sap weekend to weekend.

Year 4 I have a 5x 10 suger shack with 4 of the stoves inside and small barrel outside its gonna be warm and cozy but I hoping to cut down on the amount of wood that I go threw last year on boiling I burned threw 1 month of wood running the stoves for 5 day's. I have a outdoor wood boiler so wood supply is not really a problem but I don't need to be burning it up at high usage rate. also wont have to be outside and deal with the wind taking all the heat off the stoves or that is the plan.

Hoping to tap a bit early this year as I now have a place to cook and boil where I can be inside regardless of the outside weather.

[Pdiamond]

You better be careful having four evaporators in one building. Does your building have a metal roof? How are you running the chimneys? Are they single wall? When you boil sap its not like burning a wood stove or wood boiler. You are supposed to keep a rolling boil all the time. My stainless steel pipe will glow red, granted I have a blower and I am sure my temperature is around 1000+ degrees going up the chimney. I understand wanting to be out of the weather, you might want to consider everything before you put all of them into one building.

[sublime68charger]

Will most likley keep the door open the whole time and then I cut a vent hole in the back wall and will have a fan blowing out the vent hole at the peak as well.

3 Stove's Have 12" exhaust holes in the roof and the stove pipes are only 1 at 8" diameter and the other to are 6" stove pipes Metal roof. the 12" pipes Have whirly Vent on the top of them I test ran the Fischer wood stove this last weekend and it seemed to work okay.

Metal shed as well. The old basement stove the back end stick's out the front of the shed and its stove pipe runs independent.
have 4th 12" vent hole in roof as got 4 of the 12" whirly vents and since I had it I put in on the roof to act as a roof vent. Roor is not sealed at all either.

It may be Hot and steamy in there and I may only go inside to add wood and fill sap pans every 5 min or so when its all up and running. The first few hours I'll be sure to keep a close eye on as when the shack is running somebody will be around it the whole time.

I have run the basement stove with Red Hot Pipe but not had the other stove pipes have not gotten up to that level.

Shed was free as if I had made this it would have been bigger but its what I got to use and its got to be better than having the stoves running outside.

[sublime68charger]

Pics of Sugar shack and roof venting are here.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...5#post-9945172

If I can figure out how to post them here I will.

[Pdiamond]

You may have to put one more section of pipe on each evaporator to get a good draft under the pans. Man, that is really a tight fit in there. you'll be sweating on the inside and freezing outside. Good luck, but you will be out of the weather mostly.

[sublime68charger]

Yep it'll be cozy but it should be better than having all the stoves outside. It may be take a breath run in top off a pan, run back out. Run in throw some wood into a fire and run back out.

The very back of the basement stove is my warming pan it sits on top the stove pipe out the back of the fire box in that furnance so it might be scoop out of the warming tray into transfer pot then take pot in dump in boiling tray rinse repeat, so I can pull form the warming pan outside fill up the transfer pot take inside and dump into boiling pans where needed. Have a Glass cup we use for pulling out of warming pan and then would dump into a transfer pot and then take pot over to dump into boiling pans where needed.

may just have to sit my stool close to the door to stay a little warm but not be hot!.

I'm hoping this cuts down on my wood consuption as well last year in 5 days of sap boiling I burned threw enough wood that would have heated my house for a month.

Having all the stoves inside will help hold the heat and not loose it all to the wind like in years past.

Got this little shed for free so other than my time of 3 day's putting in metal floor covering and then putting in the roof vents will see how it goes.

[Pdiamond]

Do you take any of the sap down to syrup or do you transfer it to a smaller pot and finish it inside on the stove.?

[sublime68charger]

Do you take any of the sap down to syrup or do you transfer it to a smaller pot and finish it inside on the stove.?

Yes I get it down to 1.5 gallons or 2 gallons then the wife will finish on the regular stove in the kitichen or on the fisher wood stove as it has more even heat.

we have finished on the small 35 barrel round pot barrel stove that we have as well but you have to watch that one close when trying to due it on that one.

For finish sap she just goes by how it drips or drains off the strainer scoop that we have. would like to get a murphy cup for this year is on the wish list That way would have a better idea of where we are at.

[Pdiamond]

murphy cups the way to go for sure.

[maple flats]

Murphy cup, yes, but you still need a hydrometer. The Murphy cup only tells you what the hydrometer should read at the temperature of the sample, you still need a hydrometer. So, get at least a hydrometer, then add a Murphy cup as soon as it fits your budget. In fact, I always have 2 or 3 hydrometers, in case 1 gets broken.