Tapping the 2012 season

[Gary R]

I have two buckets, both sitting empty:emb: I know better, but have run so smooth nothing could go wrong, right?

[Dan W]

Gary, Sorry to hear about your pan. I know how it is. You know, as much as I like to show the operation and enjoy company, I really would rather be by myself while boiling. You just have to pay too much attention to things. Even then things can go south quickly.

[JBurkett]

Gary, sorry to hear about burning a pan. Guests at the sugarhouse can be a double Exeter.sword. Had my own mishap yesterday morning. Just firing up the RO and forgot to open a valve and blew out a fitting on a flow meter, had to bypass it and of course my machine is so old they don't even make parts for it anymore. I should have a new by next week. Also had two trucks go down in the same day, such is the life a sugarmaker.

[waysidemaple]

Boiled 1200 gallons today started at noon shut down at 7. Made 22 gallons of B. Plan to clean the pans and get ready for sunday and monday. Long day so I'm headed to bed.

Scott

[Gary R]

Thanks for the shoulder to cry on guys:) I know of a couple of guys that have faced some real adversity. I glad to hear they're still making it. About a 1/4" warp across the burnt compartment. I might have moved a little solder, but no leaks. All cleaned and boiled the sap last night.

Jim Brown's having an open house today. We're going to stop by for a while.

A couple of guys have asked about an after season dinner again. If anyone's interested PM me. Maybe we can get together late April or early May?

[Dennis H.]

Finished off the sap I had on hand. Made another 1-2 gals today.
Sap tank is clean an ready for what I believe will be the last sap of the season.
The wife is really eager for it to be over, she says it has gone on long enough.

[PATheron]

Been working steady here at Pierce and Sons. Vacuum pump has been on since second week of January. Been a normal season with plenty of opportunities. Evaperator has been down a couple of times for minor reasons. Burnt a syrup pan and some syrup. Early on had problems with all the releasers but weve just tackled whatever came up and just kept moving foreward. Over all with the extra equipment weve got its been the easiest season so far. The third ro has been working great. Weve had no decrease in the performance of any of the ro's so far. With all three runninng at four gallons per minute of concentrate output I can get rid of 1640 gallons of water indefinitely and once I run all the sap through at that rate at 6% plus or minus I can then feed the evaperator with 15% with two machines easily and start boiling. Really working good. Unreal sugarsand. Have to take the syrup pans off every boil to clean them for the next one. Thin sugar with just over one percent currently. Currently as of last night right at 1600 gallons near as I can tell plus two thirds of a drum of burnt syrup. Looks like big run next couple days and then the mersh. Gonna focus on making that next. Not turning the pump off till april no matter what. Gonna take the crappy sap and bring it right home single pass it to at least 8% and boil it on low on the evap. Not going to quit. Want the $$$. Theron
Ever

[Dennis H.]

Hey Theron is still around. Wow 1600 gals and you are still going!


Me, finished off another 4 gals 1 quart of syrup!
That brings my total so far right at 27 1/2 gals for the season.
We have a good run going right now. I am going to run and collect that sap in a few hours and then again Tues.

It looks like I can top 30 gals this season! That would be so cool.

[Gary R]

Terrible weather here. Barely made upper 30's yesterday and no freeze last night. I have about 100 gal. to boil. It will be well into the 60's and no freezes all week. I plan on pulling the buckets tomorrow. I'll shut the VAC off also and finish for the season:mad:

[Dennis H.]

Collect the sap from the buckets today and got another 60 gals.
They were running really good when I collected so I will go back up tomorrow. I was going to wait till Weds but I am worried that they may overflow by Weds.
The sap is starting to show signs of cloudyness. It amazes me how fast that happen. It was as clear as water on Fri and today it is slightly cloudy.
My plan is to pull the buckets tomorrow if they are not running when I empty them. It looks like the end.

[Springfield Acer]

We finished off the last of 290 taken in thru today, filtered and bottled 2 gal, 5 pint, drew off another three gal. What ever is in the buckets tomorrow will be pushed thru the pan Tuesday night and then adios muchacho!:mad:
2012 has been a good year for this 2nd year back yard cooker with somewhere around 15 gallon out of 850.
Only one slight boil over in the pan the first week and a boil over in the fryer today (~2 pints lost on the garage floor!!).
My brother in law across the road has become really interested and is all for helping. Now the question is: NOW WHAT???

[waysidemaple]

My season is ending tomorrow. My sap hauler snapped in half tonight, only 15" in the woods and I cant find the problem. One generator down but thanks to Theron I had the pumps on today with his generator. Seems like I get one thing fixed and two things break down. Overall not a bad season made 225 gallons plus what sap is in the woods right now. Might hit 240 who knows. Good luck to all

Scott

[Paddymountain]

threw the last wood in the evaporator at 9:19pm tonite, one of the grates had fallen out about 8:30. boiled some odds and ends of sap we had collected today, and some that had been boiled down to 5 1/2 % on Friday. Didn't get a draw off but finished some on the side,more than likely grade B. tomorrow nite I'll finish what's in the the syrup
pan and call it a year. we are planning on bottling whatever we get tomorrow night; so I'll have my totals maybe then or Tues, I'm not sure if we beat last year or not, but I know it will be really close.

[Maplewalnut]

I'm still hanigng on, will boil tonight and probably tomorrow night...after that all bets are off. I'll leave the vacuum on for a couple days or when the flow stops whatever happens first. Doesnt look like I'll get a mersh check this year...

[JBurkett]

What is everyone's take the buds coming on? We tap 99% hard maple and I have not seen any change in the last few days. Forecast is for 60'sthe all week...

[waysidemaple]

Managed to get 950 gallons today. Sap had all but stopped by 7 tonight. Hit the 230 gallon mark with some good tasting B. Going to clean all the woods tanks and releaseres tomorrow and hope for a freeze on Wednesdaynight. I'd really like to cap 4 barrels this year.

Scott

[PATheron]

Still making syrup here. Saps slowing down but still running. Looks like a week of warm and then cold nights again. No sign of buds. Gonna keep going with the pump and wait for the freeze. Tapped late this year second week of January,, holes should still be good? All checkvalves, gonna give them the test and see if we can make syrup with leaves on. Theron

[Gary R]

Last night was it for me. All of March sucked. I only got 67 gal. of sap. I pulled all the buckets and shut the pump off. I boiled about 70 gal. of water after the sap. I'll finish the front pan on a turkey fryer. It will be a few days to get totals. I have about 10 gal. to filter and can.

I stopped and seen Dave Y yesterday. Sap haul has been bad up there. The big problem is the releaser keeps flooding on the vac bush. I just have to laugh watching him fire. Wood as big as you'd want to pick up. Heave some in and shut the door:D

Joe, I'm just a beginner, but things look bad. Half of my reds don't have buds, but with the 7 day calling for all 60's?:( My guess is your Cherry Tree trees will make it. But, syrup will probably be "C". Good luck!

[Springfield Acer]

I pulled the taps and buckets last night along with 22 gal of very cloudy sap. I boiled a gallon and a half to test and got 7 oz. of good tasting dark syrup. I can't explain the 7 oz. out of maybe 200 oz. since it was 1.5% on the hydrometer. I brought all 22 gal to boil on the turkey fryer to slow bacteria and will push that into the pan tonight and then empty it out for good. Time will be short by then so we'll probabaly finish, filter, and bottle Wed PM. Hopefully another 2 gal to clear 15 for the season. The sap total is an even 900 gal with a season average of around 60 taps and apparently 1.5% sugar over 39 days. Finally, I must have pulled the taps at the right time. I heard peepers last night! Now the cleaning: arghhhh!

[Paddymountain]

Finished and bottled the last of our syrup last night,went out and pulled about half my buckets this afternoon,going to post my totals on Dan W's year end stats
thread, I don't want to sound pushy, but maybe everyone in Pa would post there so it will be easier to find!!!

[Dan W]

I finished washing my buckets tonight (about 10 hours total). 287 buckets stacked in pyramids take up a whole garage! I'll let them dry for a week or so before stacking them and putting them away. Tomorrow I am gonig to throw some vinegar in the pans, get it hot, and let that work for a few days. With a little luck I will be all cleaned up by Sunday and anxiously waiting for next January or February. Weird, weird season but I'll take it!!!

[andyp]

Boiled 225 gal. yesterday thats it for this year. It is still running some but the sap is turning yellow.
Will drain the syrup pan and finish in the turkey frier. Made about 80 gal.
Now the clean up starts.
Andyp

[Dennis H.]

It looks like I am done along with the rest of you.
Went and checked on my buckets and only got about 20 gals of yellow sap, still was at 1.5% though.
While at the cabin I scrubbed the buckets so they are NW cleaned and drying.
I have about 70 gal of sap to boil then I will be done.

[Gary R]

We filtered and canned 8 gal. tonight, Dark "B". I drained the front pan but need to finish.

I stopped to see JBurkett on the way home from work today. He was boiling away. Things look like there running very well. I'm going to have to spend more time talking to him about his gadgets. He even has remote sap monitor. Alerts to the cell phone every hour. Sap volumes and temperature:)

[mapleack]

Hung it up as of last night, probably could've gotten a little more but the sap was nasty and only 0.7% ! Still have to drain the flue pan and boil it out with the syrup pan tonight to get a syrup total. Sap total for the season was 19,380 gal. Raw statistic there is 28 gal of sap per tap. Have to do some more in depth figuring since 95 of our taps got put in a week later than the rest. I'll update when I have a syrup total, but it should be around 220.

[waysidemaple]

FInishing the sweet now on the turkey fryer. Total syrup is 243 gallons plus the sweet. Not a bad year, but could have been better.

Scott

[Gary R]

Pulled and cleaned all the vacuum taps. I used water and bleach at each tap under vacuum. Hopefully not too many creatures will chew on the tubing. I also boiled down the sweet tonight, filtered and canned it. Very dark "B". Tastes great so I'll keep it for us. Syrup total for the year was 35 gal. all dark amber and B. I was hoping for 50 gal. Our sap is very weak so that might have been optimistic. I'll post details on Dan W's thread.

Is anyone still boiling?

[Springfield Acer]

I had four able bodied helpers tonight and we finished and bottled 3 gallons for the last hurrah. We also cleaned all the buckets and lids. Tomorrow night I'll clean all the taps/tubes, the pan and the 600 gal Zero tank. Totals for the year are: 863 gal of sap, 16 gal of syrup, 1.6% overall sugar average, 13.9 gal sap per tap, .25 gal of syrup per tap, 39 days tapped with 24 days where we at least collected something. All sugar maples this year. Work like crazy for eight weeks, wait like crazy for 44 weeks; what a hobby! No wonder I like this. It's just like grouse season only shorter. I can site all kinda stats on my grouse season too.:cool:

[Dennis H.]

I am now official out of sap, and besides what is still in the pans I am done. Put out the taps Jan 22th and pulled the buckets Mar 13th. So a nice long season. Now I did relocate my buckets a little over 2 weeks ago.
I'll try and finish it all this week sometime.
Almost everything is cleaned and ready for storage. I just am not looking forward to cleaning the pans!
I'll get my finally numbers in a few days. Like Gary R my sap sugar content was kind of low. Now the buckets trees that were at my dads cabin helped a little they were running about 2% for a week then dropped to 1.7% till I pulled them.

Syrup sales are already going strong. Once people heard I was making syrup they started calling.

[mapleack]

Boiled out the evaporator last night, final syrup total of 233 gal. That's 39 gal less than last year, still pretty happy with that considering it was with 221 fewer taps. Figured out to be 0.337 gal per tap, not bad at all for a bunch of red maples and 21 inches of vac. Have to do a bunch of cleaning tonight and make some mustard. Openhouse coming on Sunday, guess I'll be boiling well water.

[JBurkett]

Today will be our last boil. I'm not sure if I'm boiling skim milk or sap. Making grade c for sure. Not a bad year all in all, made just a shade over 1,000 gallons. We should have tapped in January but who would have thought the middle of March would be our early summer. Really enjoyed reading all the posts.

[Maplewalnut]

I'm out. Turned off the pump yesterday, the sap had slowed to a trickle and the flys were getting a little much around the tank. Will leave evaporator full so I can chase the sweet with water at tomorrows open house and at least have the smell of syrup in the air. Never made commercal, even the last few days were a good tasting B. Tough year and like most in Pa probably should of tapped 2 weeks earlier than I did. The season for me ended three weeks earlier than last year. Will have numbers soon but I am guessing I only made 60% of what I expected to do.

[Dennis H.]

There is NW water in the flue pan.
Took all sap out of it and boiled it down in the syrup pan.
Tomorrow i 'll finish off all the syrup I have waiting. Looks like my be 3 gals.
Most things are already cleaned so that much is done. Then it will be time to work on the honey do list.

[Dennis H.]

I am officially done making syrup for this season. Just got done finishing and filtering the let of the syrup.
Added another 3 gal 1 1/2 guarts to the total.

[Paddymountain]

finished washing buckets today, whew!! 5 hours, syrup sales have been good.
Dennis H: 100 gallon total?????

[Dennis H.]

The year end total is 30 gals 3 quarts.
2 gal more than last year, now I did have to work for it and relocate the buckets at the end but it was worth it.

Holy cow, 5 hrs worth of cleaning buckets! That would make my mind up to goto tubing for sure.

[waysidemaple]

Bottled 8 gallons tonight in plastic and a little bit of glass. Went to a few open houses today and checked stuff out, had fun as well. It was hot today, high of 77! Going to pack a 5 gallon jug tomorrow to make candy and cream and such later on when I have more time.

Scott

[Gary R]

The evaporator is all cleaned inside and out. Wood pile almost refilled. I'm going to add a steam stack for the front pan, relocated a sugar house door and add a sink.

Springfield Acer, congratulations too enthusiast. No plans for an RO yet. How about you?:)

[molineutu]

Well all the taps are clean the main line flushed. my last boil was on the 10th. all in all not a bad year. boiled 703gallons and got 10 gallons of syrup. yes not a good ratio but at least i have syrup,and thats what's it all about , the syrup.