Maple syrup

[Bill Loser]

Tapped 15 trees on Tuesday. Got 100 gallons from those 15 by Thursday. Didn't make it down to the woods yesterday, trying to get everything set up to cook today. Hoping to get another 40 tapped today. conditions look perfect next week.
Pic is 1 bag about 15 minutes after hanging. That tree wasn't dripping sap but literally a small stream running out, crazy!
Not gonna lie, got caught with my pants down and not ready for this. Wasn't thinking about syrup yet! About a month early.

 

[chucker66]

Sorry been so busy I meant to respond earlier to the question about early tapping. My sugar content was the same as it usually is 2 to 3 depending on the tree. One thing I changed up this year as I got an RO system from RO Bucket. It is amazing and has cut my cook time and wood usage in half.. I usually only do 4 to 5 gallons and this really makes that go fast. So far Ive gotten about 120 gallons on 24 trees. Has not been running good the last week but next week looks god. I am about out of sap and ready for the 2nd season LOL

 

[Bill Loser]

I cooked 80ish on Sunday, and have another 100 waiting in the tank. Went down to the woods this afternoon , I have probably 60 or 70 gallons I could have gathered, but didn't. Lazy today
Up to 35 trees tapped. Ran out of tube somehow so couldn't finish

 

[Bill Loser]

I cooked 80ish on Sunday, and have another 100 waiting in the tank. Went down to the woods this afternoon , I have probably 60 or 70 gallons I could have gathered, but didn't. Lazy today
Up to 35 trees tapped. Ran out of tube somehow so couldn't finish

I should add, I had to dump a bunch of sap, I bought another tank, it originally held liquid smoke. I thought I had it cleaned enough...I was wrong. Sap was smoky and smelled bad. Decided it wasn't worth it to mess with it. Sucks, it was at 2.75%.

 

[chucker66]

Up here it ran fast early but not so much lately. My buddy in Eau Claire is getting a lot currently. Next 2 weeks should be good. Calling for 50 Feb 29th Crazy.

 

[Peeps]

Tapped our trees today.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

First boil of the season here in NW Mass. today. Normally I don't even tap until March 7th or so...but crazy weather this winter. Tapped last weekend. Had full buckets by Wednesday but work got in the way. Then a cold front came through on Thursday and this morning I am boiling 90 3 gallon blocks of ice. Going to be a long weekend!

Who's been there?

 

[Peeps]

Collected last night and this morning. Mostly still frozen blocks from the cold snap earlier in the week where we got below zero. It ran a bit overnight. Trees really varied in what they put out. Started cooking the sap this morning.

 

[Peeps]

My last year with my homemade evaporator. Next season we will be stepping up to a Smokey Lake Dauntless with a blower. Either a flat pan or a divided pan. Haven’t decided yet.

 

[Bill Loser]

Wrapping my season up today. Should end with around 8 gallons finished. Weird year. I didn't start as early as I should have. The early warm up fooled.me I guess.
A lot of lessons learned this year and 2 projectS to make next year better, a warming pan and float valve to control levels better, and a vacuum filter have a couple things in mind to try. Other than that, hopefully get a shock built and have a permanent place to cook out of the weather.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Smokey Lakes are nice. Know several fellas that are using and great to support a local WI business. The welds on those things are sweet which thin stainless and food grade are way beyond this welding hack

 

[Natty Bumppo]

My last year with my homemade evaporator. Next season we will be stepping up to a Smokey Lake Dauntless with a blower. Either a flat pan or a divided pan. Haven’t decided yet. View attachment 62848

Nice set up Peeps. Divided pans are nice because if you have enough sap you get the benefit of continuous flow of your sap and can pretty much replicate what the pros do. If you don't have great sap flow you can still use it to batch boil like you're doing now.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Wrapping my season up today. Should end with around 8 gallons finished. Weird year. I didn't start as early as I should have. The early warm up fooled.me I guess.
A lot of lessons learned this year and 2 projectS to make next year better, a warming pan and float valve to control levels better, and a vacuum filter have a couple things in mind to try. Other than that, hopefully get a shock built and have a permanent place to cook out of the weather.

8 gallons is a good year! I didn't tap either back in Feb. when we had that mild spell. I knew it wouldn't last, and didn't feel like tapping early and sweetening the pan just to have to drain it and start all over a month later.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Smokey Lakes are nice. Know several fellas that are using and great to support a local WI business. The welds on those things are sweet which thin stainless and food grade are way beyond this welding hack

Mine is a little 2x4 by a guy named Bill Mason. He's a welder up in Maine and makes them on the side. Great product and as you said, supporting a local guy.

 

[Bill Loser]

8 gallons is a good year! I didn't tap either back in Feb. when we had that mild spell. I knew it wouldn't last, and didn't feel like tapping early and sweetening the pan just to have to drain it and start all over a month later.

Thanks natty, not a horrible season but was hoping for the same as last years 14.

 

[Peeps]

I first tapped last weekend. Should have done so way sooner but just didn’t have time with other obligations. Hoping to do another boil next weekend, weather looks like it should flow this week. Just cracked my first beer for this cooking session .

 

[chucker66]

Starting my 2nd boil this morning. Have about 120 gallons to cook off. Having the Reverse Osmosis machine is a game changer. I have a small one that does 4 gallons per hour but that still cuts down my boil time and wood use way down. Might add another filter next year so I can do 8 gallons.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Starting my 2nd boil this morning. Have about 120 gallons to cook off. Having the Reverse Osmosis machine is a game changer. I have a small one that does 4 gallons per hour but that still cuts down my boil time and wood use way down. Might add another filter next year so I can do 8 gallons.

I've been thinking about building a small RO unit but I'm not sure if it would benefit me at my size. Not sure if I fully understand the math.

You say yours will do 4 gallons an hour. If I had 100 gallons of sap (which is typical) it would take me 25 hours just to reduce it to 50 gallons via RO. Then I would have to boil that 50 gallons for another 4 hours to make syrup. Or...I could just boil that 100 gallons of sap for 10 hours and call it a day. RO would not have saved me any time. Am I thinking about this correctly? Or am I missing something?

Even at 8 gph on an RO that's still 12 hours plus the boil. Boiling would be quicker.

I can see that it definitely cuts down on boil time once run through. Just wondering if I'd be gaining anything during the actual RO process.

Thanks.

 

[chucker66]

It processes 8 gallon of sap to give me 4 gallons of concentrate per hour. I run it as I'm cooking and generally keep pace. My home made cooker (barrel stove kit) doesn't cook that fast. Maybe I need to upgrade my cooker? You can cook 100 gallons in 10 hours? I was going to build one but as I priced it, RO Bucket was about the same price if I bought all the components separately.

 

[b116757]

We don’t have RO but maybe after I retire I’ll invest in one when I have time to devote to syrup operation. From my reading it cuts the water in half which for a small scale operation maybe the wood/fuel savings don’t out weigh the expense of RO if you doing larger quantities then it would be worth it. Our best year was around 600gallons or syrup.