Boiling Maple Sap in a Roaster

Sford13 · #1 03/21/14, 12:20 PM

So has anyone tried this and will it work? Right now I am about half thru the season I would guess and have 30 gallon of sap so far from my trees.

7thswan · #2 03/21/14, 02:00 PM

Electric -yes.

Sford13 · #3 03/21/14, 02:14 PM

Yes electric. How did it work? And is this something you could fill and leave overnight. Will be doing it outside in the garage. Looking for how good it works. Otherwise I am going to have to try and find some steam table pans to try and build a place to use wood for boiling it down.

Chixarecute · #4 03/21/14, 05:06 PM

Our sheriff used to finish it in a pan on his wood cookstove in the house.

I think you could finish it this way (18 quart ? electric roaster), but you have 30 gallons of sap already, and depending on the temp, sap will only hold so long before it goes sour.

Good luck, report back!

Mickey · #5 03/21/14, 05:38 PM

Yes I have done it in the house in a roaster on my woodstove, but beware that you'll be living in a sauna while it's boiling down and it can make a mess of wall paper.

Sford13 · #6 03/21/14, 05:50 PM

How do you know if it has gone sour?

Mickey · #7 03/21/14, 05:55 PM

Taste it. It should have a nice sweet taste.

Sford13 · #8 03/21/14, 06:09 PM

So it would have a funny taste if it had soured? Hope to get it boiled down this week. But first batch is probably 2 weeks old.

Dixie Bee Acres · #9 03/21/14, 09:10 PM

When I first tapped my trees, the weather was up and down, and SAP flow was very sparatic.
At one point, I had 8 gallons of SAP in the fridge, and weather forecast showed below freezing for the next 7+ days.
I got out my 18 qt toaster, filled it with SAP, set to 400* and let it go. I added sap as needed, then once all 8 gallons were condensed down to 1 gallon, I shut off the toaster, once it cooled a little bit, I poured it in a milk jug and froze it.
It worked great, I ended up doing that two more times before temps stablized enough to get sap on a regular basis.

1shotwade · #10 03/21/14, 09:44 PM

Contrary to what most people believe you can freeze your sap down. The sugars is sap makes it Heavier than water. This changes the freezing point and the boiling point. If you leave it outside the cold will freeze the top which has no sugars and can be thrown out.The more you do this the less sap you have to boil down.
If you notice when you have what you think is a finished product it will separate with the low sugars on top and heavy sugars on the bottom because it is heavier.If you can maintain 219.1 degrees on your finish it will stop boiling at the correct sugar content.

Wade

Dixie Bee Acres · #11 03/21/14, 10:03 PM

Wade, I have heard that before too.

Mickey · #12 03/21/14, 10:11 PM

Found this, thought it might help.
http://mapletrader.com/community/sho...-will-sap-keep
Good luck :-)

Use Less · #13 03/22/14, 07:05 AM

Inside is NOT a plan

Sford13 · #14 03/23/14, 09:00 PM

Well finished up today. The roaster would have taken forever. Ended up using camping grate over wood fire with metal heat reflector on three sides. Used two deep aluminum foil pans one was the boil and one to preheat. Worked out pretty good. 25 gallons of sap yielded 6 1/2 pints of syrup.