One other advantage of doing a fifth test boil, besides checking to see how the roof might drip and testing the fifth pan for boiling, is I am still thinking about doing two batches during one boil. The downside is ash rising into the other pans.
I designed my evaporator so I can easily lift the pans, I want to see how that works in practice and if I have ash rising into the pans. I will have steam pan lids that I can place on three of the pans to help prevent that as well.
I might find with a lesser boil time because of the RO, that I might not have to go for two batches.
2022 - 5 pan block arch - 109 taps, 73 on 3/16 lines, 36 on drops into 5 gallon pails.
930 gallons boiled, 109 L (28.8 gals) of delicious syrup made.
DYI Vacuum Filter
2023 - 170 taps, mostly on lines, 1153 gallons boiled, 130 L (34.34 gals) of delicious syrup made, on a 2x4 divided pan and base stack, 8 pipe, on a block arch that boiled at a rate of 13 gallons per hour.
2024 - made 48 L, December to March, primarily over two fire bowls.
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