Maple syrup.

**Mangler** · 03-26-2012, 11:54 PM

I volunteer at a friends when the sap is running. They tap hundreds of trees and use a vacuum system to collect the sap into bulk tanks. This year the season was a total of three days. They were able to only make 48 quarts of syrup. So, buy your pure maple syrup now, because the price will skyrocket soon.

Oh, for your evaporator pan do not make it deep. Shallow and wide is much more efficient use of your heat. Of course that means you need to watch it with a bucket of sap ready to pour on to a hot spots to prevent scorching and boil over.

Good luck.

**Bullet-Caster** · 04-07-2012, 10:55 PM

Here are my Maple Syrup Makin pics. My pan is custom made by a friend why makes items for hospital use. Its 18 by 24 by 8 high 12 gauge medical grade SS. I never fill it more than half way so I keep a good rolling boil.

**Omegaman** · 04-09-2012, 10:23 AM

Very nice set up you have going there, great pan. We had such a short poor season this year that we only put up 3 quarts. I will weld up a custom SS pan over the summer and build a more efficient arch. I think I will stick with a wood fired boiler just because I use all of the wood that comes down during the winter storms.

**countryboy6685** · 04-09-2012, 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by Mangler

I volunteer at a friends when the sap is running. They tap hundreds of trees and use a vacuum system to collect the sap into bulk tanks. This year the season was a total of three days. They were able to only make 48 quarts of syrup. So, buy your pure maple syrup now, because the price will skyrocket soon.

Oh, for your evaporator pan do not make it deep. Shallow and wide is much more efficient use of your heat. Of course that means you need to watch it with a bucket of sap ready to pour on to a hot spots to prevent scorching and boil over.

Good luck.

Thanks for the info . I will pick some up this week . Why was the season so short this year?
Robert W

**Bullet-Caster** · 04-09-2012, 12:31 PM

I woud also rather use wood but at the time didn't have anything set up.

Originally Posted by Omegaman

Very nice set up you have going there, great pan. We had such a short poor season this year that we only put up 3 quarts. I will weld up a custom SS pan over the summer and build a more efficient arch. I think I will stick with a wood fired boiler just because I use all of the wood that comes down during the winter storms.

**Mangler** · 04-09-2012, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by countryboy6685

Thanks for the info . I will pick some up this week . Why was the season so short this year?
Robert W

The weather warmed up too soon.

**JLBIII** · 04-13-2012, 01:34 AM

As Mangler mentioned for a good sap flow you must have cold weather, up here in New England we had one of the warmest winters on record. For optimal flow you need temps in the high 30's and low 40's during the day and below freezing temps at night. We just didn't have many of those this year. Hell by this time of year in NH we would usually have snow totals over 175 inches, this year we barely made it into 30 inches total IIRC. Pure Maple syrup will definitely be very expensive this year.

Joe