End of the year totals

[TRAILGUY]

2011 2010

40 Gallons syrup 18 Gallons syrup

240 taps 220

2 1/4 cord mixed 1 cord

50/1 55/1

this year started at 35/1 when to 60/1 ended at 50 to 1. 20% M/a-25%D/A-45%B- 10%just under B with good favor pull tap before real dark.
PS no over time for months started with first good run and ended day after last good run everything is normal

[Cardigan99]

Ok, we finished up last nite:

2011 46 Gal vs 2010 33.5

2011 410 taps vs 2010 381

2011 1916 Gal sap vs 2010 1765.

Not sure how much wood, but better than 3 cord this year.

Sugar content was much higher this year than last. It never went below 2% and was as high as 3% last weekend. Definitely helped the evaporation rate this year. Sap quality was excellent right to the end.

[red maples]

2010...
27 gallons syrup
250 on vac,
25 buckets & gravity
approx 1900 g sap(didn't keep good records)

2011
55 gallons syrup
280 on vac
27 buckets & gravity
Approx 3700 gal sap

and ran outta wood!!! or I would have had more!!!

[maple connection]

2011
187 gallons of syrup all from purchased sap!
Thanks to everyone who helped me out my first year of cooking was a big sucess. I was hoping to make 75 gallons and I had no problem doing that.
I can't wait until next year, with a filter press and adding one or two membranes to my R.O..
Now its time to start the asphalt plant for the road constuction season.

[Tmeeeh]

Very good season. Turned off the vacuum pumps last night.
We made 1,270 gallons from 1,940 taps. All on high vacuum and check valve adapters. Our woods have been managed for maple production for 30 years.
180 gallons per cord of hardwood.
.65 gallons of syrup per tap.
Lots of nitre this year and easy filtering.
The first barrel we filled was B color and delicate flavor. We bade 200 gallons of dark 120 gallons of light and the rest was medium and light medium. The last syrup we made was a light medium.
The new vortex evaporator runs hotter and faster than any we've used before.
Had some trouble with smoke leaking from under the syrup pan until we strapped it down.
This is the first night out of the sugar house in 30 days and we hear the peepers for the first time.

[spud]

Tim,

Sounds like you had an outstanding season. Your numbers are great. You must have done everything right. Is it safe to say you are happy with the CVs? You have got to be the New Hampshire Rock Star of sugaring. I bet you wish you had 10,000 taps. Do you replace your drop lines every year along with your CVs? Nice job Tim.

Spud

[Hop Kiln Road]

253 1/2" gravity line taps
30 buckets
4,746 gal of sap or 16.8 gpt
1,406 gal of sap sold
3,340 gal boiled
84 gal of syrup
3.5 cords

Depending on how the sold sap is taken into account, .40+ gal of syrup per tap.

Still considerable room for low cost improvement.

[Tmeeeh]

Tim,

Sounds like you had an outstanding season. Your numbers are great. You must have done everything right. Is it safe to say you are happy with the CVs? You have got to be the New Hampshire Rock Star of sugaring. I bet you wish you had 10,000 taps. Do you replace your drop lines every year along with your CVs? Nice job Tim.

Spud
Yes we had a good season but last year wasn't bad either with 1,020 gallons from 1,900 taps .53 gallons per tap. We farm here full time here and can find time to find and repair vacuum leaks promptly. We put only one tap per tree except for ones over 30" get two. We do tap 8" trees. We cut non-maple trees that are competing with the sugar maples and have done so for over 30 years. We don't replace droplines every year. Our tubing probably averages 5 years old. This year we finished a multi-year tubing and pipeline upgrade. We try to keep the tubing laterals short and steep. For the 4 years prior to last year our per tap average was around .45 gal per tap. The new tubing layout and the CVs make about a .2 gallon per tap difference for us. We will continue to use them for the foreseeable future although it is possible the CVs keep the sap running late enough so the extra syrup has bad late season flavor. That was not the case for us this year. Our syrup tasted good until the end. Last year the last 120 gallons was medium color and tasted very strong like burned caramel.. had to sell it for 2.20 per pound.

We fill 40 gallon stainless barrels during the season and transfer it to retail containers all year and sell to stores, restaurants, gift shops and farmer's markets. That gives us part time work all year. If we had syrup from 10,000 taps... our local market might not absorb it and we probably would have to sell bulk. I don't like doing that because we don't set the price.. the buyers do. Sometimes you get a reasonable price sometimes not.

[tuckermtn]

Nice season totals Tim and Hop Kiln...

Another question for tim...what range of GPH can your Vortex-max flu- steamaway do?

[wally]

2010 - 16 gallons 2011 - 21 gallons

2010 - 260 taps 2011 - 160 taps

2010 - 1.8 to 2.0% 2011 - 2.2 to 2.5%

same amount of wood

[Brian Ledoux]

2011
150 taps
25 gallons of syrup (not a bad batch)
1250 gallons of sap
mostly medium with some dark in last couple batches
used somewhere around 1.5 cords of mixed hardwood/pine

2010
100 taps
2 gallons of syrup
200 gallons of sap
1 gallon light syrup, 1 gallon of dark syrup (2 gallons of buddy crap)
used 1/4 cord of wood

[Tmeeeh]

Nice season totals Tim and Hop Kiln...

Another question for tim...what range of GPH can your Vortex-max flu- steamaway do?

Last fall we boiled water and averaged around 160 GPH the typical short term speed is between 150 and 170 GPH. With 12% concentrate we average 20 to 25 GPH of syrup. So we consume 12% sap at around 190GPH. We burn mostly hardwood but some pine and hemlock...not much slab wood. These evaporation rates are roughly the same as our old 4X12 inferno with a preheater.

[tuckermtn]

Tim- those are some impressive evaporation rates. From a 2 x 10 especially.

Also- congratulations on being chosen Tree Farm of the Year. See you at the field day.

[Bill'sSugarShack]

2010
14 taps
25 days taped
114 gal of sap total
1/2pint shy of 3 gal syrup made.

2011
14 taps
33 days taped
211 gal of sap
6 1/2 gal&1/2 pint of syrup

[SWEETSAP]

Well we did do pretty good for our third season.
2009 238 taps 19 gallons of syrup
2010 270 taps 9 gallons of syrup
2011 346 taps 104 gallons of syrup approximately 6000 gallons sap.

Rick & Dan

[Haynes Forest Products]

950 taps 260 or so gallons syrup $4700.00 in #2 fuel:cry:

[wally]

950 taps 260 or so gallons syrup $4700.00 in #2 fuel:cry:

must have been expensive to transport that sap, the sugar house, and the equipment to new hampshire, eh? :cry:

[Brokermike]

160 taps (a long way from my 200 goal), on 120 trees
50 gallons of syrup, and could have made more but I was plumb worn out!

[spud]

950 taps 260 or so gallons syrup $4700.00 in #2 fuel:cry:

Haynes,

A Waterguy's RO might be what you need for next year. I have been talking a lot with GM COOPER who bought one and he really likes it. Everyone is saying they are easy to operate and two passes gets you about 8% The 7500 model does 500 GPH and might work real well for your size operation. With fuel prices as high as they are a low priced (yet great quality) Waterguy's RO might make a nice Christmas present from your wife.:)

Spud

[3% Solution]

Here's our totals;

63 gallons of syrup

2083 gallons of sap.

[Russell Lampron]

2010 153 gallons syrup from 11815 gallons of sap.

2011 275 gallons syrup from 13980 gallons of sap. Dumped 350 gallons of sap not in total after membrane plugged and ran out of wood.

2010 650 taps on vacuum and 88 buckets.

2011 between 650 and 700 taps on vacuum. Will know exact count after I pull the taps and count the adapters and 96 buckets.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Ran out of wood??? Is that like ran out of runway? Make a bet the siding is still on the sugarhouse!

[Russell Lampron]

The siding is still on the sugar house but some of the wood for the outdoor furnace is gone and didn't make it to the furnace!!!

By the way that 275 gallons of syrup was made with 3 cords of wood!!!

[chrisnjake9]

240 taps on vacuum 60 gallons of syrup about 100 gallons oil used

[Haynes Forest Products]

Spud I will give you her Cell number and you can suggest it:lol: something will change Im sure

[Amber Gold]

2010
Taps 380 on vac.
Sap ~5000 gal (13gpt)
Syrup 83 gal (0.21 gpt)
9 chord of wood

2011
Taps 600 on vac.
Sap ~20,400 (32 gpt)
Syrup ~360 from my woods and ~60 gal from delivered sap (420 gal total)
~0.6 gpt of syrup
6.5-7 chord of wood (gotta love RO's!)
I'd say a hell of a year and that's w/ 3-4 lost days due to vac. problems and found the tank overflowing 3 times...I'll take it.

Glad to see everybody had good years...makes up for last year I guess.

[tuckermtn]

2010 - 155 gallons from 630 taps

2011- 519 gallons total

Sap from others helped us make 27 gallons

So from our taps we did .427 gallon per tap.

Will have my sap totals next week when I sit down with my daily tally sheets.

[Backyard Sapper66]

Here are my totals for 2011:
560 gallons of sap, 57 taps, 9.82 GPT
560 gal sap, 12.5 gal syrup, 1.91 % sug content
560 gal sap, 105 hrs boiling, 5.33 GPH avg
12.5 gal syrup, 57 taps, .21 GPT
I only expected to make 3 gallons of syrup so I met my expectations 4 times over.
Had to scramble last night to find storage containers for the remaining 4-1/2 gallons I got from cleaning out the pan. What a great year I had.
Hope everybody had a great year as well!!!
Doug
:)

[chipa]

2011 Results
245 gallons on 523 Taps

[Dill]

55 gallons of retail and 8 gallons of commerical also sold some sap.
Much better than last years 22 gallons of retail and 7 commerical.
And I way way over estimate my taps. I had 210 on the vac bush and 85 on gravity. The only number I got right was the 3 bucket trees. But I did hold off tapping a section of gravity tubing this year because of snow and being overwhelmed in sap.

[gearpump]

648 taps on gravity
150 on vacuum

11,256.7 gallons of sap on gravity
4,995 gallons of sap on vacuum

348 gallons of syrup total

.375 gals of syrup per tap gravity
.700 gals of syrup per tap vacuum

Yep....need more taps on vacuum

[maple flats]

Decent season but should have done better. I lost my hired hand just as tapping started. I ended up finishing tapping about 2 weeks late. On 710 taps I made 205 gal from 8390 gal of sap, and additionally I sold 1150 gal sap at the fastest flow time that would have made 28 gal more based on the sugar test. Next year an RO is a must, because I plan to have 1200-1400 taps, all but 160 on vacuum. I'm thinking a 250 GPH as minimum, maybe larger.

[GramaCindy]

50 taps
270 gallons of sap
4 boils, draw offs
53-8oz bottles
equals 5.18 gallons
ratio of 53 to 1….YIKES!

[PerryW]

50 taps
270 gallons of sap
4 boils, draw offs
53-8oz bottles
equals 5.18 gallons
ratio of 53 to 1….YIKES!

Your probably did a lot better than 53:1. You just forgot to include all the syrup you drank during the boiling process.:D

[GramaCindy]

Your probably did a lot better than 53:1. You just forgot to include all the syrup you drank during the boiling process.:D

I DID drink quite a bit in coffee while boiling LOL!

[wiam]

Decent season but should have done better. I lost my hired hand just as tapping started. I ended up finishing tapping about 2 weeks late. On 710 taps I made 205 gal from 8390 gal of sap, and additionally I sold 1150 gal sap at the fastest flow time that would have made 28 gal more based on the sugar test. Next year an RO is a must, because I plan to have 1200-1400 taps, all but 160 on vacuum. I'm thinking a 250 GPH as minimum, maybe larger.

I have a 225GPH with 1000 taps and It will not make concentrate as fast as my 2x6 will use it.(60 GPH) And I thought you were going to add more eventually.

William