Budget Friendly Small Hobby Maple Syrup Wood Fired Cookers/Evaporators

These simple basic maple syrup evaporators will fill a long needed void for the small backyard maple syrup hobbyist. While you will find plenty factory built maple syrup evaporators for the larger maple syrup processors, the small hobbyist or single family who can’t justify shelling out a couple thousand dollars or more has been basically stuck with making their own evaporators or using makeshift pans and kettles over fire pits.  

Some of these homemade setups can be very dangerous to use, are not very efficient and cook the syrup unevenly with hot spots.

Many companies have hobby sized evaporators but are priced out of the market for the really small operator. One company does make a small wood fired evaporator unit geared toward the small backyard hobbyist. It is rated to do 4 GPH but it’s still priced well over a thousand dollars. In comparison you can purchase an Amish built basic unit with a three channel stainless pan from Cottage Craft Works that will do 5 GPH for well under a thousand dollars. 

Cottage Craft Works also carries a budget friendly 12 GPH basic unit with a 26” x 46” four channel divided pan. Larger Amish built hobby units are also available for up to 35 GPH. 

The small basic evaporator’s uses a heavy gauge welded steel fire box and then it is topped with a 20 gauge 6 “deep divided stainless steel cooking pan. It is all factory made to fit and function together in a nice compact unit capable of being moved and stored in a shed for the off season.

They won’t have all the bells and whistles of the larger units but they are made solid to last for years.  They come unpainted without, the stove pipe, fire brick, or insulation. But you know a good solid fire box with a large factory made divided pan to sit squarely on top is a far cry from trying to cook maple syrup in open kettles over an open fire pit.

Customers can use some cement board along the sides to make things a bit more comfortable, stack some used brick in to make the Arch, purchase some fire brick (about 10), a valve and plug for the pan and you’re ready to make maple syrup.

Custom options include adding a lid and an open 8” tall pan on the smaller hobby unit allowing the cooker to double duty as an outdoor canner that will hold mason canning jars, or heat water for other self sufficient living needs.

Cottage Craft Works www.cottagecraftworks.com is a full line back-to-basics general store featuring all kinds of products for self-sufficient sustainable lifestyles. 

Stop Maple Syrup Sugar Sand | No Boil Water Jacket Canners | Filters

Don't risk your batch of maple syrup to sugar sand in the final bottling process this season.  

With all the work and time it takes  to  collect the sap and boil down maple syrup the quality of the final product all comes down to the finishing and bottling.  One boiling mistake can mess up the entire batch with sugar sand deposits.

Most will us finish pans or traditional canners over hot gas burners tediously trying to control the temperatures from boiling  which, is what creates sugar sand.

Keeping the safe bottling temps down to the last drop of syrup is also difficult.

These new water jacket finish canner/bottlers provide even temps without hot spots down to the last bottle of syrup.  This reduces the or chance of boiling  creating  the dreaded sugar sand deposits in bottled syrup.  Available in 10 and 16 Gallon Sizes with or without burner stand.

The 10 gallon two burner is just the right size for most hobby farm operations while the three burner 16 gallon canner will keep up with most wood fired maple syrup evaporators.

Featuring  stainless steel screen top to use both a pre-screen and main screen filter as the syrup is being poured in. Complete with thermometer and bottle filler valve these canners have it all in one package.

USA Amish made using 20 gauge mirror finish 304 stainless steel available to fit two or three burner gas stoves.  Complete packages available with canner and commercial grade gas stove with a collapsible stainless stand are available at Cottage Craft Works .com

Cottage Craft Works is an online back to basics general store featuring many hard to find quality Amish made produces.  Maple Syrup processing equipment made by the Amish is just one of many categories of over 5000 self-sufficient products offered.

Maple Syrup Processing Equipment | Cookers | Evaporators

Probably one of the best kept secrets in the maple syrup trade is  the Amish built Sunrise evaporators.

This small Amish metal shop has been producing maple syrup evaporators since 1971.  

Since they are Amish and not in the main stream of Internet traffic or trade magazines many may have never known about their evaporators.

Just do a side by side comparison of the Sunrise evaporators with others on the market and you will see why they are the best kept secret.

You may even have to ask the others for the specs as some don’t even publish them.

Sunrise focuses on long term durability, using 20 gauge 304 stainless steel in the pans, and 14 gauge galvanized metal on the sides.

They also build a larger fire box using heavier metal and then brick line them with fire brick.  The heavy duty steel fire grate is warp free.

Amish shops like Sunrise are hands on by the owner(s).  They simply don’t have the large corporate overhead structures, thus the savings in a evaporator using heavier metals can still be competitive with others on the market.

Cottage Craft Works .com is proud to be able to provide such high quality products to the general market place.

Although they list evaporators on their site for the small commercial and hobby farmers, you can still order the large Sunrise commercial evaporators and parts.

Custom pans can be built to any size to use on your own arch.  All types of maple syrup filtering tanks.

These popular evaporators sell out early in the season so consider purchasing early.

Cottage Craft Works .com online general store carries over 5000 hard to find quality made products.  Just like the Sunrise evaporators you can find quality  American made products just like they were made in the 1950s.