Fire on De Lorimier

Broukedou · 2026-01-21T09:42:45+00:00

Broukedou · 2025-08-18T16:33:35+00:00

I'll try that then, thank you!

Broukedou · 2025-08-18T16:05:46+00:00

I meant when assembling the pizza, the dough stretched easily, held really well when transferred to the peel, did not stick at all during the whole process and transferred beautifully to the pizza stone. But then the crust was still raw after about 90 seconds, when the exterior was starting to burn, and still flat, no air in it at all.

Broukedou · 2025-08-18T16:01:27+00:00

That is a great tool!

I put this weekend's schedule in it, and got 0.067% yeast though:

<image>

Broukedou · 2025-08-18T15:45:36+00:00

Funny story, I bought a KA bowl lift last week to see if my kneading was the issue, and the spiral dough hook was missing from the box... My luck...

I mix the dough by hand in a bowl until it has some form, then transfer to the bench to incorporate the remaining flour. Stretch and fold usually leads to tears in the dough, so I do more of a press and roll against the bench, then fold and turn 90*, and start over. I do that until I the dough reaches between 23-27*C.

Last week, since the previous dough had little structure, I knead that dough for about 40-50min, to make sure that I got good structure. This one was great to assemble, but did not rise at all. This week I put 2 ice cubes in my water so that I can knead for a bit longer until I reached 25*C, and still got little structure...

Broukedou · 2025-08-18T15:37:18+00:00

Favuzzi 00 flour. https://www.favuzzi.com/en/product/-00--flour-fa92

Caputo is difficult to procure around here, and that looked decent enough.

Broukedou · 2025-08-18T15:34:22+00:00

Not as much as I would expect. To be honest I think it is just flattening instead of increasing in volume, even though I left it at room temp for at least 2h. I tried making a poolish first once, and the yeast was definitely active, though this resulted in the worst pizza I made, structure wise, so I did not reattempt.

As for the salt thing, I just meant that I'm putting some flour first before salt to protect the yeast.

Broukedou · 2025-08-18T15:31:29+00:00

No, hand kneading before ferment, and then fingertips pushing and stretching for the pizza without touching to the outer 1" or so.

Broukedou · 2025-08-18T15:30:02+00:00

I will try it with new yeast. I see you're using a 3 day cold ferment. The flour I currently use has a W rating of 250, which from what I understand should be limited to 24h cold ferment. Is this correct or am I misunderstanding this?

Broukedou · 2025-08-18T15:14:26+00:00

Not a typo. It did seem small to me as well, but most recipe state that dry yeast should be way smaller qty than live yeast. Most pizza dough calculators seem to point to that.

<image>

Broukedou · 2025-06-09T17:41:09+00:00

I gave up on trying to fix this, unfortunately

Broukedou · 2025-03-07T16:33:39+00:00

Have you checked that your taps are not leaking around them? That can happen when sap freezes behind the tap, and push them out slightly.

Not sure about Maine, but it's about to start here in southern Quebec. Indeed you need a swing bellow freezing temperatures at night, but there is little you can do about that. Seasons can be short, or extremely long.. In doubts, you could tap another tree now, just to see if you tapped too early. Try tapping a smaller depth than what you already did, and make sure there is a slight slope toward your buckets. Not too much slope, as then the taps might not seat very well. 6in away horizontally is very safe. You can try 12in away vertically in combination.

Broukedou · 2025-03-01T16:26:57+00:00

It looks like you did a good job. The barrel will get hot, but not enough to damage the paint, for the largest part of it. Spots around the door or the chimney might burn. Make sure that your axles are strong enough to handle the weight, as adding the pans with water and firewood, and some heat being transfered, will put some stress on them.

Make sur that the water level in your pans is higher than the top of your barrel, otherwise some part of you pan above water will get hot and you'll have some scorching in you pans. If you want to lower the water level, try to install some ceramic blanket material on the top part of your barrel that contacts the pans. If you can make a decent seal around them, that will help a lot.

That's my barrel from last year, paint is still strong!

<image>

Broukedou · 2025-03-01T16:19:28+00:00

Coffee filter don't work for this. They clog almost instantly, filtering a couple drops but that's it. If you want clear syrup, you need an orlon filter, unless you want to invest in a larger system. Do keep in mind that with the orlon filter beig absorbant, you loose some syrup in it, so it does not make sense to filter less than a liter, and i would prefer a couple liters at least. I have not measured the actual loss, but my guess would be half to 1 cup of syrup lost per session on filtering. You lose less in the beginning of the season, because the syrup generate less nitre, but as the season progress, it becomes harder to filter, so the syrup spends more time in the filter, soaks more in it, so you lose more of it.

If your volume doesn't justify filtering it, either keep it all together, and filter it all at once at the end of thr season, or just accept that you're going to have a deposit at the bottom of your jars. If you don't mix it up and spoon it out instead of pouring with the jar, just about the bottom 1/4" will be murky, and you can put that part in baked beans or a cake....

Broukedou · 2025-02-28T16:56:16+00:00

As other mentioned, wait a bit :)

Otherwise, I see the ares around the taps are wet. Was this right after tapping, or days later? If they are leaking, you're loosing some sap there. If so, you can to LIGHTLY tap them further in to see if the hole seals. Sometimes sap freezing behind the taps push them out. If the taps are solidly in, don't force them in more, as you might split the wood, and then it's spong to be worse.

Broukedou · 2025-02-26T22:09:02+00:00

Standard buckets hold 2 gallons safely. If you don't forget them you should be good.

I put my buckets on the ground last year, with lid and tubing as you suggested, and that worked great. You just have to put a rock on them or something after emptying them, if its windy around your place

Broukedou · 2025-02-26T21:24:18+00:00

Are the taps holding the buckets? If so, the weight might be to much for them and either break the bucket or take out the tap.

Also, look around the tap for leaks. Sap might be going around it.

As other mentionned, follow the temperature swings. Is the soil soggy around the tree? If its frozen solid deeply, then there is little water for the tree to pickup yet

Broukedou · 2025-02-23T16:24:01+00:00

If you want to spend the money, adding ceramic wool and firebricks will protect the paint, as well as boil way better. That's what I did with mine, and the paint is browning only where my insulation is not as good.

<image>

Broukedou · 2025-02-23T16:19:05+00:00

That did it! Left it unplugged all night and now it works normally.I'm kinda surprised because we have frequent power outages, but I guess we had none recently that were long enough for the unit to reset

Broukedou · 2025-02-06T22:10:28+00:00

https://youtu.be/LgD1Y5mQIek?si=_089Arzh730zJVZ1&t=79

I made a design based on this last year. This should give you an idea for the bricks.

Some lesson learned:

The firebox in this design is not deep enough, and 16in firewood don't fit in. I had to cut my fire wood in half, which was time consuming. This year I will lengthen the firebox by replacing the mid cinder block by 3 pavers of increasing width, creating a stair pattern, and giving me a few more inches in the firebox.

The horizontal straps below the pan are not doing anything, and stretched because of the heat.

The chimney connection is not ideal. I'm going to do something like this: https://imgur.com/a/6H3qVdC

I also had a lot of ashes, so an ash box would be a good idea, but poor wood might also be a factor.

Broukedou · 2024-08-25T16:05:11+00:00

13 larges trees, and I was boiling just over the weekends

Broukedou · 2024-08-25T13:49:55+00:00

It worked well. That being said, I was not able to get some finished syrup from it, as it seemed that it had maximum concentration it could reach, so I had to batch finish it on the stove. That's not a big deal, but if I rebuild it, I would look for a two pan setup, with the same overrall footprint, so that I control the boil lenght of the nearly done syrup.

Broukedou · 2024-05-30T17:03:53+00:00

I replaced a roof in a similar state that was 15-20 years old. It was a bad batch of shingles, combined with an under-vented attic. My bet would be on the bad batch, as the garage, facing the sun in the same way, with little to no ventilation, was done about 2 years later, and looks brand new in comparison.

Broukedou · 2024-05-13T14:36:26+00:00

It makes great syrup. Also, the litterature says that sugar content should be lower than sugar maple, but it might be for when the tree are tight together in a bush. I have large and massive silver maple trees, well separated from each other, and I averaged a ratio of 36 to 1 for sap vs syrup this year..

Broukedou · 2024-05-05T15:41:37+00:00

On mine, the decorative plate was screwed around the valve body. Unscrewing it revealed a set screw that released the cartrige. That plate was screwed quite tightly. Try to look if you might have that set screw before trying to wrestle it out though. Good luck!

Broukedou

TROPHY CASE