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been holding out on you all, I showed you my evaporator build, here i will show you all the start of the 2013 maple season. It was a cold spring and just wouldnt warm up and kick the trees in gear, but when it finally happened well I am really glad i was prepared.
first off you need some sap, these are early season pics(last week), with the snow it looks alot more winterlike out, mebe i grab some new pics on todays run.
Got the new evaporator all set up and level, started out with one inch of sap in the pan and fired it up.
the first signs of evaporation taking place...
and then it started to boil.
then the trick was to figure out how fast the sap was evaporating and set the valve for the incoming fresh sap to maintain the one inch level while not letting it get below either. Once i got the fire figured out and got it burning right, you will see in the next pics, but this is the flow i needed to maintain one inch.
now i got the thing cooking, this does some serious work on that sap and can reduce it pretty quick.
the thermos i have on here are specially made for maple syrup making, they dont have the normal scale. as the sap gets hot the thermo makes one revolution and when it hits zero that is 212 or boiling. if you take it up to the 7 then your at 219 or syrup stage. I havnot taken any right up to 219 in the pan but draw off at around 217 and when i got a bunch in a stock pot I finish it down in a batch.
here is the thermo where the sap is incoming... aprox 180 deg on that corner of the pan.
here is the opposite corner where the sap is boiling and is at zero or boiling.
here are some pics of the dividers after it has been up and running a bit.
first is the section where the fresh sap is incoming, note the color.
here is center divider, compare color to above pic.
and here is the final section.
and of all 3 at once, see how it progresses...
finishing off first boil of the year and broke in the new pan.
pretty looking stuff, tastes better than it looks.
the last cupla pics the syrup looks dark but that is from the background color. I will add more from another boil if i have something interesting or may just post some more pics to bore ya with.
first boil and ended up with 9 pints, just over a gallon and some extra for pancakes and ice cream. most i ever finished off at one shot. have a bigger batch to finish off in am and will be boiling a bunch of sap this weekend giving the evaporator a workout. The more i use it the better i figure it out.
first off you need some sap, these are early season pics(last week), with the snow it looks alot more winterlike out, mebe i grab some new pics on todays run.
Got the new evaporator all set up and level, started out with one inch of sap in the pan and fired it up.
the first signs of evaporation taking place...
and then it started to boil.
then the trick was to figure out how fast the sap was evaporating and set the valve for the incoming fresh sap to maintain the one inch level while not letting it get below either. Once i got the fire figured out and got it burning right, you will see in the next pics, but this is the flow i needed to maintain one inch.
now i got the thing cooking, this does some serious work on that sap and can reduce it pretty quick.
the thermos i have on here are specially made for maple syrup making, they dont have the normal scale. as the sap gets hot the thermo makes one revolution and when it hits zero that is 212 or boiling. if you take it up to the 7 then your at 219 or syrup stage. I havnot taken any right up to 219 in the pan but draw off at around 217 and when i got a bunch in a stock pot I finish it down in a batch.
here is the thermo where the sap is incoming... aprox 180 deg on that corner of the pan.
here is the opposite corner where the sap is boiling and is at zero or boiling.
here are some pics of the dividers after it has been up and running a bit.
first is the section where the fresh sap is incoming, note the color.
here is center divider, compare color to above pic.
and here is the final section.
and of all 3 at once, see how it progresses...
finishing off first boil of the year and broke in the new pan.
pretty looking stuff, tastes better than it looks.
the last cupla pics the syrup looks dark but that is from the background color. I will add more from another boil if i have something interesting or may just post some more pics to bore ya with.
first boil and ended up with 9 pints, just over a gallon and some extra for pancakes and ice cream. most i ever finished off at one shot. have a bigger batch to finish off in am and will be boiling a bunch of sap this weekend giving the evaporator a workout. The more i use it the better i figure it out.
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