Maple Syrup producers: Saw this at TSC.

Saw this on the Tractor Supply website.


STARTER BOILING KIT
- Starter Boiler Kit
- Supports up to 15 taps
- 65,000 BTU propane burner
- Stainless steel construction

Includes:
- 1 16" X 16" sugar pan cover
- 1 16" X 16" sugar pan
- 1 propane R-65 burner
- 1 wooden handle thermometer 18.5"
- 1 orlon filter #8
- 1 syrup hydrometer 55-70brix
- 1 8" stainless steel cup
- 1 3/4" stainless steel nipple
- 1 3/4" FIPT stainless steel ball valve
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My questions are:

1. How many gallons on Sap will that boil off per hour ?

2. It's got a 65,000 BTU Propane Burner. Assuming you hook up a 20 Lb Propane tank to it, how long is that tank going to last till it goes empty ?

I have a 2x8 so I can’t answer your question but I certainly wouldn’t go over 15 taps. Remember like trapping this is an addiction. lol. So plan on getting bigger. Also I would purchase additional filters. Would a turkey fryer accomplish the same thing?

Supporting 15 taps is not much. If you get 15 gallon per tap over 20 days that is 225 gallons of sap at 35 to 1 or about 6 gallons of syrup. 65K BTU sounds like a lot but it takes a lot of heat to boil off water, especially if uncovered and outside.

Bryce

make a good finishing pan

16 x 16 is pretty low surface in my not so humble opinion. I don't think my 24 x 48 is enough.

Just started this year. One thing I learned is exactly what the others are saying. It’s very surprising how much heat and time it takes to boil outside. I don’t use propane just because wood is free for me. I have an old boxwood stove with no top on it. It took a while to figure out the easiest way. I used standing dead locust trees for firewood. Once I figured it out my time was cut down significantly. Sorry I cannot answer all of your questions.

Do not boil sap indoors. Your mom, wife, girlfriend will kill you when the walls and ceiling come down.

We pulled today. Enough Is enough. Now we have 300 some gallons to boil off. We are going to break the 50 gallon mark.
Now comes the clean up of all the gear.

We have had very slow or poor collections to date. We have now collected about just shy of 2500 gallons, but from nearly 500 taps and we tapped in late February!!
The only good thing so far is our sugar content is staying very good. We are running about 4% the last 1,500 gallons or so. That will change when and if it runs good.
We had some at 4.5% Sunday. It only takes about 19 plus gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup with that high of sugar in the sap.


Bryce

That’s sweet sugar content! Since 2/28 we have averaged 2.9 on 2400 gal. but still going on 290 buckets. I’m getting tired, lol

I shut my little operation down Sunday evening, got the last sap finishing down right now. I had couple trees run a bucket full Sunday others that still hadn't run?? can only think frost in ground?
I burned a lot of wood cooking a guestemated 70 some gallons sap Sunday. I don't keep real close track but think I'm at around 3 gallons finished syrup so far? Hoping what is in the pan now finished at 2 maybe close to 3 gallons??
I agree the rig listed at the top would probably be best as finish pan. I'm small scale and cooking out side with LP is tough. I'm cooking this morning because I got rained out yesterday. Wind seemed to help stoke fire cooking over wood Sunday. Wind steals tons of heat when I finish with LP makes it slow going.


Mac

Are you not going backwards making syrup with propane? Seems like wood is a far more sustainable cost effective option, even for someone making a few gallons a year. Liquid just takes so darn much to get to boil.

Propane will eat you alive unless your running your sap through a reverse osmosis set up.

Ya, a friend of mine does a few hundred liters of syrup a year. More some years and he burns up 20-30 cord of wood a year. And he always ends up dumping sap. He has a 16x4 foot evaporating chamber. I have fed the fire with him and when you calculate the BTUs needed to make a gallon of syrup, holy moly. The propane used would remove any profit you make. Even for a home system, it seems like money would be better spent on a better/larger evaporating pan, set it on some blocks, make a basic chimney system and go for it.

My buddy told me about a friend of his who wanted to make some syrup. He got all set up and started with the propane. Three propane tanks later he was blaming my buddy for not giving him good info, despite telling him not to use propane!

The compny i work for has a 30,000 tap operation all vacum and gravity fed.You should see the syrup comming off there boiler at full production.

You better have a well insulated fire box or your just wasting heat.

Well I don't measure things to close with my sap collecting and cooking time all that. I'm pretty sure what I make cost me more than I could buy from someone else that is big operator? My hopes were dashed today when my last batch finished out just under the 2 gallon mark. I got to quit licking the spoon, drinking it like tea and spilling so much..I now having done an official count on my jars? Calculator say I'm at 5.25 gallons of finished syrup? I been using some as I made it too. I don't keep a log book or anything but think last year I was just over 4 gallons.. Don't really matter I start when I want, cook what I get, quit when I feel like it, don't do it as a competition. Probably could have left my taps out this week yet. But I'm going fishing instead.

Beav
I think you nailed it with the well insulated wood heater box. I'm using a 55 gallon steel drum for my fire box on my wood cooker. I know I'm pushing plenty heat out the stack with the small fan I have as a blower. Can't stand for long along side it pouring sap or my legs about catch fire. Lot of heat going places other than into the sap pan.. Pretty sure I'd shorten my run time and wood use if I had fire brick box under that pan. But then I'd just want to run more taps.. vicious cycle I don't want to ride..LMAO!

Mac

I also use a 55 gallon drum. If you take some Sheetrock and line the inside of the barrel you will be surprised on how much heat that holds back

I am glad we don't cook the stuff. Sounds like the last two years in CA were huge production years so the wholesale price of sap and syrup may well drop even more. We have a limited retail market and our tree providers where we can sell about 30-40 gallons of syrup. My partner is gone for 8 out of the next 10 days! Today we collected about 350 gallons and the sugar was 3.1% We will see what the next days are like.

Bryce

Your tapping 400 trees and your only collecting 350 gallons?

Hey Beav

What did you catch in your garage set last night??

Yes it is not good for sure. Today we collected 450 gallons from 200 trees roughly. This was one of the better days. Too much frost here and now that the ground is thawing a bit we are getting some better run days. Should be good tomorrow too. With a cold weekend we might get another run next week. Last year at this time we had about 6500 gallons of sap.
The last two years we have averaged about 20 gallons of sap per tree or about 8000 gallons. This year to date we have about 3300 gallons out of a few more trees. The only good thing so far is we are holding over 3% on sugar.

Bryce