2012 Season West Virginia Mapler

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Don't get on here much anymore but will try to get on here to post season update from time to time. Put in 259 taps in on Feb 7th on one of the south bushes and got 100+ gallons of sap from that in 4 to 5 hours before it got too cold. Boiled off the 120 gallons yesterday evening from that run and got the bugs worked out of everything and sweetened the pans a little and got the steamaway going. Everything is working good and only boiled about 1.5 hours, so just starting to get evaporator warmed up and not to peak capacity when I had to shut down. Steamaway was really starting to take off and when I had to shut down. Plan on putting in 142 taps in other south bush first of next week and the other 230 on the North side around the first of March. Hoping to get several hundred gallon to get a few hours to boil this week as looks like some sap weather. Very cold this weekend and supposed to get up to 12 inches of snow. Snow will keep the ground from freezing as it is supposed to get down to 7 tonight.

[heus]

Brandon do you have to drain the steamaway when you are expecting a freeze?

[Sugarmaker]

Brandon,
Glad to hear from you. Hope your season is a good one too.
Regards,
Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

The steamaway drains itself when you are shutting down for the night. I have a valve on the air box and on the float box that I drain about 2 gallons out of so it is dry when I shut down. Only boiled on it once with only 120 gallons so far.

[Dennis H.]

Glad to see that you are still kicking down there Brandon.
Have the temps finally allowed the trees to run or did you wait till a set date?

Up here I have been going now for a little over 2 weeks. Had some real nice sap runs so far.

Did you add any more taps this year?

[Edward Howell]

Brandon ,

Grateful to see your post about the 120 gallons on 259 taps , I went in feb 3 and had 4 short runs around 100 to 150 gallons on 255 taps.
takes around 500 to 600 gallons to get the 3x12 running , next boil we should see some syrup :)

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Had a good week last week and a lot more sap than expected. Put in around 142 on Tues valentines days to put me just over 400 with ones I tapped last week and they were running some and ran good wed and collected 360 on Thurs. Boiled off 360 on Friday and it got to 25 Friday night and they were running like gangbusters on Saturday and got about 350 gallons in about 8 hours on Saturday and with 300+ that was in woods at dark Friday night, I boiled off 660 gallon last night. Steamaway is awesome. Boiled 360 off in 4 hours and 660 off last night in less than 7 hours. Got 90 gph with the 4 hour boil and 96 gph last night with the 660. So far, 1140 gallons of sap in just over a week and hardly made a dent in the wood with steamaway. Have to give Leader credit, the quality and welds are phenomenal and it does what they say it will do. I was burning trees last night, wood up to 10" in diameter up to 30" long, so be interested to see if it will do better than that when I get back to normal wood. Wood my brother wanted rid of, so I took it and it was too long for splitter to split, so I burned it as is. On 4 hour boil, it was running 108 gph right before I shut it down with normal wood when I checked it. Already pushing 6" snow today since 2 oclock and no end in sight and it is the very heavy wet snow. 18 tonight and cold tomorrow night and looks like another good sap week.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Forgot to say that I have drawn off about 20 gallons of very light syrup. Guess that blows away the myth of not being able to make light syrup with a steamaway.

[Edward Howell]

Brandon ,

I have had the ro for 6 years but one of these days a steamaway is going to replace the ro. No one tells you about the constant cleaning issues with the ro in order to keep the sap squeeky clean , no worry about freeze with the steamaway either or nasties growing all year long in the membrane between sugar seasons . Also if you have a run less than 400 with this unit gallons ther is not enough permate to back wash the ro after the boil . Yes I know the ro gives a faster rate of overall boiling but .......
Glad to hear the weather is helping ,I am worriued about the hot spells also ....

ED

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

It's been a good year so far in southern WV. At 40%+ of crop in 2 weeks with 2,050 gallon of sap and today thru Wed looks like we could get another 1500 gallon of sap or possibly more. Never seen this much sap in February right out of the gate. So far, weather has been great and syrup is light. Likely somewhere around 40 gallon of syrup and maybe a few gallons of medium, but nearly all light. Did a vinegar acid wash on entire evaporator and steamaway last night and tapped in about 220 more on the north side it should be running good today and even better tomorrow. Never seen a year when I could possibly make 70 to 80 percent of a crop in February and I started tapping at the normal tapping time.

Hope everyone up north gets a fast start right out of the gate. Steamaway is making a huge difference in boil time and wood useage.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Amazing February it was. About 70% crop in less than 3 weeks of February. 3,450 gallons of sap so far and been too warm for last three days. Supposed to get a 3 to 4 day freeze this weekend and hopefully another good run. 65+ gallons of syrup so far not counting 2 I scorched in syrup pan trying to train my dad. He got to asking too many questions and I didn't open back up valve after reversing flow and probably scorched couple gallons or more. Hope to make another 30 to 40 in March would be awesome as I haven't ever made over 100 gallons and this might not be the year, but it has been good so far.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Boiled off 950 more on Thursday 03/08 and that is about all she wrote for March. May another 100 to 150 gallons tomorrow and about 20% of a crop in March. As good as Feb was is as bad as March is. Normally make about 70% of the syrup in March but this year, it was backwards. Very happy with a 90% crop in a 4 week season this year. Appears it will be much better than most of the rest of the US but hopefully that won't be the case. 60's and 70's for next 10 days. South side taps dried up in 4 weeks with so much warm weather.