Maple sugaring 2021

[mike_belben]

Havent seen a cleaver brooks like that in a while.  S&W had 3 big ones when i left, just before the place became a solar farm.

[celliott]

Havent seen a cleaver brooks like that in a while.  S&W had 3 big ones when i left, just before the place became a solar farm.

Figured you'd like the industrial steam stuff.

[mike_belben]

I dont have a lot of steam experience but its interesting. With my proclivity for blowing stuff up its probably better if i just watch from the sidelines!

[SwampDonkey]

What a great photo Chris.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Chris, is the boiler in addition to or instead of RO
Just used for finishing concentrate?

[petefrom bearswamp]

Mike for a minute there I thought the S&W was in reference to a giant revolver

[celliott]

Chris, is the boiler in addition to or instead of RO
Just used for finishing concentrate?

The boiler is not used to boil sap, it only makes steam pressure, which is piped through coils in the evaporator, and provides the heat to boil the sap (or concentrate). Steam is incredibly efficient, and the way they build a steam evaporator, heat is transferred to the liquid so much better, it boils very fast. The pan is 6' wide and 10' long. 6 partitions inside the pan, 18" deep. There is 3 sets of 1" diameter SS steam coils stacked within each partition. So the sap is heated the whole diameter and length of each coil, VS heat just on the bottom of a pan or flues, on a regular evaporator. And you can't ever burn the syrup.
The boiler sits in an addition we built off to the side. It's kind of noisy. Steam piped through 6" iron pipe to a header. In the evaporator room, it's almost totally silent. 
The boiler and piping is sized so we can run a second 6x10 steam pan, probably next year. 

[mike_belben]

Okay, i think i get it. So the steam is inside the SS coils which are submerged in the sap pans, right?  And the evaporators are continuous flow rather than batch i assume..?  Thx for posting chris thats an awe inspiring contraption.


S&W used process steam to heat the plant and also several plating lines with wash tanks heated by steam through submerged SS stamped baffle exchangers.  They look like swimming pool air matresses made of stainless sheet and ive scrounged a lot of them.

Mike for a minute there I thought the S&W was in reference to a giant revolver

Nope, just a giant revolver factory.  52 acres of building and i was the only "facilities mechanic" in it for 10 years.  My dad for 28 before me.  He did 40 or 41 years and my brother is probably at 20 now.

[doc henderson]

so it gets progressively sweeter, up to and culminating with a picture of you and you baby!  @celliott 

[celliott]

You got it Mike, the coils are submerged. Evaporator is continuous flow, and we can reverse the flow on the fly using some valve trickery and science. Draw down a bunch while the raw feed is shut off, lowering the level in the whole rig. Get as much syrup as you can reasonably out of the pan. When ready, open the raw (concentrate) feed to the side you were just drawing on. The lower density sugars push the higher density back through the partitions. At the appropriate time, you open the draw on the other side and get things moving. We can also now, slow down the heat to the different partitions and steam coils and likely make the process go incredibly smooth and quick. This dramatically increase the amount we can boil. Niter (sugar sand, minerals) builds up on the pan and coils more where the syrup is being finished. When you throw the lower density at it, it helps dissolve and keep suspended the niter, and it's taken out in the filter press. If we didn't do this, we would probably have to shut down twice as soon as we normally would, because the draw side gets so built up with niter. On a regular rig, you can burn your pan with too much niter buildup. The steam pan and coils will simply become less efficient to the point of minimal heat transfer and a giant pain to clean.
Phosphoric acid eats it away and gets it clean again.

[celliott]

so it gets progressively sweeter, up to and culminating with a picture of you and you baby! @celliott

He is getting big fast now. Was a bit slow out of the gate, but he's coming into it. Was a wake up call when we had to take the newborn insert out of his car seat. He's almost too tall for a 3-6 month outfit. 3 months old tomorrow, it's flying by.
I'm thankful we have gotten so much done at work I have had the weekends at home to spend with him. After sugaring season is done, I'll be working 4 day weeks and get to spend every Friday with him. He will probably spend a few days at the sugarhouse with me too. We're all very happy and Isaac is very loved

[mike_belben]

Good stuff chris. I blame you for getting me hooked on this stuff, one spoonful at a time. 

[mike_belben]

Chris can you take a closeup of the long handle extensions on the outlet tank ballvalves some time please?  Ive wanted to make something like that several times but never have.  


The even-ness of that boil really is impressive.  How many coils in each bay?

[celliott]

Sorry Mike, I should probably owe you some money lol

I'll try to get a pic, I think it's just an L handle welded onto a nut on top of a ss ballvalve.

There is 3 stacks of steam coils in each bay.

You're gonna have a preheater and a blower and 3 more pans on that rig before you know it!

[mike_belben]

Well i always wanted a whiskey sugar still.


The rails are to hold more pans that ill just slide down the line as i take the hot one off and reset it at thecool end after a rinse and refill, i just have to buy a few more pans.


Gonna probably make a collector to keep the smoke and steam up over my face. 

the leaf blowers are ready though. Good idea!

[doc henderson]

my first little smoker would not maintain heat, so I added a copper tube, and hooked an adapter to my compressed air system.  had a regulator the would adjust to a tiny flow.

[Stephen1]

Now your getting it Mike, nice evapourator!  just like sawing wood, it gets in your bood, syrup sawdust both the same.

[mudfarmer]

Mike, rather than a leaf blower you can build a manifold for a squirrel cage blower out of pieces of black iron pipe with a lotta little holes drilled in it and make air under fire or air over fire forced draft.

This was possibly the best thing I ever added to my home brew evaporator (air under fire, big blower), partly because at the end of a long boil it is easier to "shut down" because it is not a firebox entirely full of coals. Rather than having to time everything just right it is easier to keep a full boil nearly up until you stop chucking wood in that way. Plus it just really kicks the boil up several notches through the whole deal  ;D

[celliott]

The big woods is finished tapping. I've been redoing tubing at an old lease, I think I mentioned. We've put up almost 300 rolls of 5/16 tubing so far, probably have another 70 or so to go.
We still have to tap the Cabot sugarhouse, that's around 24,000 that we have to tap. If we bring everyone on board, it'll be a little over a week to get that all done. Long range forecast looks a bit cold, not very much like sap weather for us. That's ok, we make the bulk of our crop in April anyways.

[Stephen1]

Our long range is winter! The snow has been sideways for 2 days now and we are going to get a lot of lake effext snow for the next week. 
Our usaul tapping is 1st week of march and our best runs come 1st week of April.

[mudfarmer]

A few years back everyone here that was ready in February had a bumper crop, everybody else complained about a poor season. Not looking like that this year :D 2ft snow and cold temps for as far as the crystal ball can see.

@celliott I gotta commend you on taking such an interest in and being so knowledgeable about your work. A lot of people would not put in the time and brain cycles to learn so much about it as you have! Thank you for sharing with us all.

[celliott]

That's why we start as early as we do. Can't afford to miss out on any runs or be behind. Just one run could be thousands of gallons of syrup. A week of runs missed out? Could be near 10,000 gallons. 

@mudfarmer  what can I say, I really do like my job. My boss (the owner) is a big time thinker. Always trying new stuff, inventing new methods or products, custom stuff. Used to be a teacher, sometimes doesn't stop teaching. We have done tubing and boiling and tapping seminars, I train every new employee also. It's funny, a few years ago, I was the youngest guy on the crew but still running it. A bit weird telling 40 year old guys what to do as a 25 year old, but they listened because I showed them I knew what I was talking about. Now I'm 2nd longest tenured and one of the oldest. They still listen to me though lol I can still bury any of them tapping or installing tubing if I want to. Gotta pick battles 😉.

[mike_belben]

Mike, rather than a leaf blower you can build a manifold for a squirrel cage blower out of pieces of black iron pipe with a lotta little holes drilled in it and make air under fire or air over fire forced draft.

This was possibly the best thing I ever added to my home brew evaporator (air under fire, big blower), partly because at the end of a long boil it is easier to "shut down" because it is not a firebox entirely full of coals. Rather than having to time everything just right it is easier to keep a full boil nearly up until you stop chucking wood in that way. Plus it just really kicks the boil up several notches through the whole deal  ;D

Yeah you were right.. A hair dryer in a pipe used in short cycles even will make a big difference. 
DIY wood fired evaporator for maple syrup homemade woodstove with blower free cheap - YouTube

[mudfarmer]

Yeah you were right..

Can I get that notarized and mailed to my wife please?  :D

[mike_belben]

Sure, I'll have my wife send your wife a photocopy of my framed certificate when she gets home.  At present im simply too tied up with doing my hair.

;D