Author	[Modern View]
MarkWV 03-18-2013 18:16:13 173.80.76.11 Report to Moderator	So is the barrel stove the first evaporator pan with raw sap coming from bucket? in the second pic what is white LP tank hooked to, some kinda double boiler, guess coffee urn is to heat and bottle. very good, tried first time this year tapped 1 tree, got around 13 gallon sap down to a quart of syrup, gonna try more next year [Reply]   [No Email]
Indiana Ken 03-19-2013 05:55:32 66.249.235.83 Report to Moderator	Re: Maple Syrup Operation at Green Acres in reply to MarkWV, 03-18-2013 18:16:13   Quoting Removed, click Modern View to see To your questions: The raw sap is pumped from the tractor mounted collection tank to 1 of 2 storage barrels. One of the barrels is visible in the second picture at the right. The pump is on the floor and not visible. From the storage barrel the sap is pumped into the white resorvior bucket hanging obove the barrel stove evaporator. This pump is visible sitting on top of the barrel with the plastic tubing going upward. You can also see the end of this tubing just above the white bucket. Yes, the major part of the sap boiling is done in the barrel stove evaporator. Once the boiling temperature begins to increase I transfer the sap to the LP gas stove evaporator for finishing. The LP gas is easier to control than the wood fired barrel stove. The "double boiler" is simply an old turkey fryer that I put a metal wind shield around to save LP. The shield allowed me to turn down the LP about 30% and still maintain a boil. The coffe pot has a filter inside and is used for filtering and then bottling of the syrup. I am not using the heater inside the coffee pot as the syrup is hotter than coffee and the thermostat immediately shuts off the heater. The heater would be useful and I plan to incorporate it for next year by bypassing the thermostat. Also, I will add a diode to the circuit to reduce the wattage - I think it could burn the syrup other wise. Congratulations on your "Lone Tree" Maple Syrup operation. Ken [Reply]  [No Email]
Bill in IL 03-19-2013 13:09:54 132.3.49.79 Report to Moderator	Re: Maple Syrup Operation at Green Acres in reply to Indiana Ken, 03-19-2013 05:55:32   I like the idea of the wind sheild around your burner. I have thought about that just never done it. I see you only run one pan on your cooker. I have 2 and thinking of going to 4. Just can't get through it fast enough to keep swmbo happy. [Reply]  [No Email]