Maple syrup
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Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Looks great Peeps. Great time of year!
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Good luck with the sap flow guys! Nothing quite like the smell of maple steam in the air.
Northbound
5 year old buck +
This is my first year but I dived in with a 12x20 shack, 3x4 pan on barrel evaporator.
Small RO. 100 taps on tubes ran right to the shack and 30 buckets.
Did my first ever boil and failed. Burnt pan and 8 gallons worth of syrup on Sunday.
Monday I succeeded with 4 gallons of syrup finished with rest of sap I had. Unfortunately with such little syrup in fairly large pan it burnt some edges and is darker than id hoped for.
Small RO. 100 taps on tubes ran right to the shack and 30 buckets.
Did my first ever boil and failed. Burnt pan and 8 gallons worth of syrup on Sunday.
Monday I succeeded with 4 gallons of syrup finished with rest of sap I had. Unfortunately with such little syrup in fairly large pan it burnt some edges and is darker than id hoped for.
Apple Junkie
5 year old buck +
You did jump in with both feet northbound! That is an impressive set up ya got there. The hardest part of making good syrup is the final finishing step. I do the mass boiling like you (not quite as big), but then do the finishing step over a smaller gas pot boiler to avoid burning. I should say - TRY – to avoid burning, since I have “burned” my fair share of batches too. Nice set up, and nice to have a little helper too - Welcome to the club!
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Northbound - I've never made maple syrup myself, but I've had relatives and friends try it. Burning and scorching is not uncommon. It happens to a fair number of people.
Like Apple Junkie said above, my relatives did the finish cooking on a smaller rig or on a gas burner to fine tune it.
Early-start woodsman/woman in the bucket! (Can't tell from pic or clothing). Either way, it's great to see Dad with his helper! Good luck with the rest of maple time.
Like Apple Junkie said above, my relatives did the finish cooking on a smaller rig or on a gas burner to fine tune it.
Early-start woodsman/woman in the bucket! (Can't tell from pic or clothing). Either way, it's great to see Dad with his helper! Good luck with the rest of maple time.
Apple Junkie
5 year old buck +
A nice warm spell after freeze will really get that sap flowing. Looks good peeps - yummy!!
Peeps
5 year old buck +
Finished off another gallon and a half tonight. Will probably finish about 2 gallons tomorrow night. Then back up to the cabin on Wednesday through at least Sunday to collect and evaporate more sap. Weather looks perfect every day coming up for good flow up there. Still 2+ feet of snow and I’m pulling the sap out from my back 40 in a 55 gallon tub on a sled so don’t know how much more I’ll do this week. Definitely not easy getting it up to the house. I think I’ll pick up a cheap beater snowmobile next year for this.
Bill Loser
5 year old buck +
Who's makin syrup this year?
Any uggrades or changes planned?
Im building a new evaporator and hopefully getting a new pan, planning on roughly 24"×48". Was thinking of doing baffle dividers but not sure if the results are worth the extra cost?
Any uggrades or changes planned?
Im building a new evaporator and hopefully getting a new pan, planning on roughly 24"×48". Was thinking of doing baffle dividers but not sure if the results are worth the extra cost?
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Getting ready here in western Mass. I'm on a 2x4' flat pan with 3 channels...90 trees or so on buckets. The divided pan definitely helps. Without them all you can do is batch boil, which is fine. With the dividers the raw sap goes in one end and the almost syrup comes out the other, spending less time over the heat and less cooking. Without dividers the sap is all boiled in one batch and it cooks longer and thus typically comes our darker. You'll never get the very light, early syrup without a divided pan. I happen to prefer darker syrup anyway, so when I was batch boiling it didn't really matter anyway.
One upgrade I am working on now is a head tank to a float valve. We've always just hauled in 5 gallon buckets of sap one at a time. Trying to make our small hobby operation a little more efficient.
Still thigh deep snow here...so we're still several weeks away from tapping.
Bill Loser
5 year old buck +
yeah about 18 to 24 on the ground here yet too.
I may just spring for dividers, not sure yet.
Im hoping to double my output . Did 7 or so last year looking foe 14 or so this year. Hope for that every year though!!
I may just spring for dividers, not sure yet.
Im hoping to double my output . Did 7 or so last year looking foe 14 or so this year. Hope for that every year though!!
Bill Loser
5 year old buck +
You should be able to get syrup from any maple. Just a matter of how much. I do mostly sugar but i have some norways i tap also.
Another tree i tap that most people think I'm crazy for is box elder. My property is lousy with them . Those are what i started on and honestly i like that syrup better than sugar. Its a different flavor, kind of a bitter edge to it that some people really like. And yeilds are mostly better than sugar maple. Usually 25 to 30 to 1, the sugars are usually around 30.
Another tree i tap that most people think I'm crazy for is box elder. My property is lousy with them . Those are what i started on and honestly i like that syrup better than sugar. Its a different flavor, kind of a bitter edge to it that some people really like. And yeilds are mostly better than sugar maple. Usually 25 to 30 to 1, the sugars are usually around 30.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
I'm with you Natty on the darker syrup. It has a bolder, stronger maple flavor, IMO. I won't turn up my nose at the lighter stuff though!!!! It's ALL good!!!
Good luck on the sap flows this year, guys.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Another question - How do the divided pans work exactly?? Are they connected so sap can flow out of one and into the next one as viscosity / thickness changes, or must you ladle it out or open a valve between pans??
Bill Loser
5 year old buck +
This is how I understand the divided pans work.
Each divider has one opening, each opening is on the opposite side of the other. There is a draw off valve on one side and you add raw sap on the other. The raw sap pushes the heavier cooked sap down each chamber and through the opening , ultimately to the draw off valve on the other end. The side by the valve being closer to syrup the end furthest away is raw sap.
Hopefully that makes sense?
Each divider has one opening, each opening is on the opposite side of the other. There is a draw off valve on one side and you add raw sap on the other. The raw sap pushes the heavier cooked sap down each chamber and through the opening , ultimately to the draw off valve on the other end. The side by the valve being closer to syrup the end furthest away is raw sap.
Hopefully that makes sense?
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Yes, as Bill said....the pan is divided into 3 sections with openings at opposite ends of each channel. Fresh sap enters the pan on one end and kind of "s turns" along the pan. The more time the sap spends on the fire the less water it has and the more syrup-like it becomes. By the time it arrives in the last channel at the opposite end of the pan it is almost syrup. After a few hours of boiling you get a real nice concentration gradient...the first channel is mostly clear...the middle channel is a bit darker...and the last channel is dark maple syrup looking.
There is a draw off valve on the syrup end that you then use to remove some of the pre-syrup. I then finish that pre-syrup on a small propane burner.
