Otsego Couny 2013

[Brian Ryther]

We spent the past two days replacing drop lines. At 3:30 today we began tapping. I hope to have one side of the valley (2100) tapped for the weekend. It feels a little over whelming the amount of things that need to happen before I can even consider boiling sap. My theory is that for the past few years my taps have ran well passed the end of the season. So why not try to make more quality syrup early. Jurry is still out on the CV2. The 10th one we put in shattered. I had to drill the tip of the spile out of the hole. It better be the last one that does that.
Brian

[Randy Brutkoski]

Good luck bryan. My dad is going to start tapping for me next thursday. Hope you get big sap. And keep us up to date with the cv2's. I am buying 500 of them for my taps on the other side of my sap ladders.

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

Brian, How did the dropline tool work for you? Pulled the trigger early huh? You should get a real good run this weekend. I think I will start drilling around Jan. 20, unless the long term changes and warms a little. Hopefully those CV2's work good. I am only using 1500 this year on one of my 1.5" mains so they are isolated. Everything else will be old style CV adapters. If you have trouble with cracking, try putting a damp sponge in the bags of CVs overnight. Humidity keeps the plastic from becoming brittle, especially in cold weather. We have done this when we were cracking the old style CVs in the past and had good results. Let me know when you get that tank done. Good luck with this first run. Neil

[Brian Ryther]

700 in today. We spent the morning replacing the drop lines then switched over to tapping around 11am. 3 man crew can crank out the taps. I have a man pressing on the CV2, I drill, another man taps the drop in. Rain and freezing rain might put a damper on attitudes and speed tomorrow. Only one broken cv2 today. Had a different CV2 issue but was quickly fixed by Dwayne Hill. Thanks Dwayne.
Randy, what is new for you this season?
Neil, the drop line tool is awsome. I can crank out over 200 an hour by my self. I was hoping you were also tapping. I wanted to buy some permiate from you to wash my ro with. Your wash tank will have to wait until the cold comes back next week.

[lew]

Brian,

what was the other issue you were having with the CV2?

[Brian Ryther]

1350 taps in. Sap is running / weeping. No more broken CV's today. Rain held of for most of the day. 600 more will get me to the top of the hill. Should have that by end of day tomorrow. When I finished for the day and went to the tank I was astounded to find the Vacuum a 26". Not a bad start to the season. 6270
Lew the CV's were missing there balls. They had not been put together yet. Fortunatly Shaver Hill had more to swap out.

[Amber Gold]

Brian, after I visited your woods last summer, I had two thoughts about your setup. You have two releasers in the field down the road. Why not run a temporary pipeline across the field, so you'd have one releaser and take to maintain? Just a thought. Also, your sugarhouse isn't too far from the woods. You could run a pump line back to the SH, and run a deep well pump off a generator. It works pretty slick, and it saves all the time trucking sap.

I see you use the liquid filled vac. gauges, which I prefer, but have had bad luck with them. I'd say about 50% of them fail within a couple of years. Last weekend, one I found on a branch mainline had the valve shutoff and had filled with sap, so the gauge was under pressure and was spun back all the way. Not sure if it'll come back around this season. Other's I've found the same way, for no reason I can find, or lose their accuracy compared to others. How are you doing with them?

Have fun tapping. We're about a month out here.

[Thad Blaisdell]

[QUOTE= the CV's were missing there balls. [/QUOTE]

Now I hate when that happens....

[West Mountain Maple]

they are not cvs missing the balls, they are a seasonal spout, same piece without the ball and tip, nice and cheap, 16 cents. Ill be using them this way with gravity setup after too many stuck balls last year, i think you really need the vac to pull the ball down even if it gets slightly stuck up, also clog with the slightest chips left in the hole.

[lew]

Thanks Bryan

[adk1]

wow, tapping in Otsego county already? That is not far from me in Fulton County. We never really got the warm up they were predicting here. this coming week back down to colder than seasonal temps..a few days in the single digits at night and not getting out of the teens in the day. I guess though with the number of taps that you have to put in and being on CV's you would be ok to make it through till April?

[Brian Ryther]

about 1700 tapped in. Had to stop for a while to find a few leaks. It wont take long to finish tomorrow morning. Brought home 1000 gallons tonight to prevent the tanks from over flowing. Sap is running as good as it ran on the best days last season. Sap tested 1.8%. 6286 Weather looks good for a few more days.

[Randy Brutkoski]

Brian, we want a video of that releaser filling up. Make it happen.

[Brian Ryther]

Randy I tried. Stupid blackberry pos.
Sap is running strong. Just shy of 2 gallons per tap today. Sugar is 1.7%. I finished tapping this morning. Got the sugar house put together. Typical start up issues. I could not find the drain plug to the ro feed pump. Drove 45 minuites to Utica, got a plug, drove home, wrong size plug. Stole the float box plug from the evaporator and was able to get the ro working. Found my missing plug an hour later. Mid day boil tomorrow. Hope to make 2 barrels.

[Brian Ryther]

http://youtu.be/jh-DvvYfLxkReleaser Dumping
6323First steam of 2013.
Syrup is dark, 3 day old fist run sap, the taste and smell is top shelf.
CV2's, So far I like them. I only broke two out of 2,000. They seat well in the tree. I love that you can see the sap comming out of thee tree. I like that there is only one piece. They are a tight connection to the drop line. I found that they seat well in the old style cup tee, better than the new tee for blank tubing. I like that the ball can not get loose and plug the laterial line at the main line entrance.

[Brian Ryther]

It took until 2pm for the sap to start running today. I am hoping that it will run all night until 7-8am. "Sugar Snow" tonight.

[Gary R]

Brian, how much have you made in this wild weather?

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

Brian how did the sap run for you? I have one test bucket by the sugarhouse and that started running about 2 also. Ran about a gallonn last night . Has ran 4 gallons so far. Tested yesterday's at 2.2 on the refractometer. Was pretty surprised. Waiting for the cold to pass during the first few days of this week, then start drilling around thursday or friday. Only thing left to do is put membranes in posts.

[Brian Ryther]

Gary, I will let you know after today.
Sap ran well last night. Tanks were overflowing much to my superise. Sap testing 2.1%. Going to boil this morning once the temp drops. I am going to push the sweet out of the evaporator today before the big freeze up.

[Brian Ryther]

Round one boil for the day finished. Sap is running the strongest I have seen so far. West wind 39 degrees. It was going to freeze at 6am but no sign of it yet. Once the temps do drop I will gather, boil and then push the sweet out of the pans.

[Brian Ryther]

I love with the cv2 that you can see the sap and gass running out of the tree.

http://youtu.be/rthRuvOgg-w

[Brian Ryther]

75 gallons ytd. Great run today. Ready for the cold spell.

[sugarman3]

Great video Brian,GOOD LUCK THIS SEASON

[Brian Ryther]

After a zub zero week sap has been slow to start today. It is running but could be better. Should have full tanks by sun rise tomorrow.

[sapman]

Whenever I read your posts, Brian, it feels like you're rubbing my nose in it, LOL! JK! I hope to be starting tapping this weekend. Keep us updated! I really do enjoy keeping up with how your season is going!

[Brian Ryther]

Tim, I post because I have always enjoyed reading other tapping logs like "started in The Catskills" and the one for PA and some of the ones from VT. It is fun to compare the regions.
As of 4pm 2k taps have yeilded 2,500 gallons of 1.4% sap. I am going to wait until the freeze up tomorrow am to boil. I hope to have 5k of sap before I begin boiling. After tomorrow I will only need a few days of changing out the last drop lines then the last 1200 will be drilled.

[adk1]

I heard you were tapped Brian, alittle early for us up here yet. Shooting for Feb 23

[sapman]

You did things the smarter way, Brian. I've been working on changing out all my drops, and just finished. Probably should've tapped sooner, then changed more, like you did. My problem is I still need to get some stuff done before I can haul sap.

BTW, how do you do your first wash/rinse on your RO? and with water or sap?


Thanks,
Tim

[lakeview maple]

39°Lo 20°




Sun

Feb 10


Mostly sunny40°Lo 14°
more



Mon

Feb 11


A wintry mix in the morning43°Lo 20°
more



Tue

Feb 12


Cloudy40°Lo 19°
more



Wed

Feb 13


Mostly cloudy40°Lo 13°
Ill be tapping around the 7th or 8th of Feb ,the forcast according to accuweather looks good to me ,let it start Ive been waiting ,Al

[Brian Ryther]

Tim I run sap to wash the ro. I will have extra perimate the next time the sap runs. If any one wants some to wash there ro let me know.
4700 gallons of sap, 60 gallons of syrup today. January syrup total 135gal. all dark amber. 18% of last seasons crop already made.

[sapman]

Thanks, Brian! Think I'll use sap this year. I haven't been too sure about my well water last couple years. Think some iron is coming through.

Nice start to your season! I'm starting tapping tomorrow if work isn't too busy. Almost made it to January tapping. :)

[Dan Bolton]

I have been busy here as well. Making drops and so on. Last week i started getting things in order. Put up a new line with 155 taps on it. A diffrent woods then where are other's are. This week i have 400 more to add to our already 425. We have all the main line up and pulled tight. Just running the lat's and putting all the manifold's on. We are looking at 1,100 for this year all on gravity. Can not wait. All new sugar house as well as pans and arch.:D

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Brian, we want a video of that releaser filling up. Make it happen.
we want a video of your sap ladder working

[Brian Ryther]

we want a video of your sap ladder working
I do not vent my sap ladders so I would compare it to watching paint dry. So how do I know they work? There is sap in the tank.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

I do not vent my sap ladders so I would compare it to watching paint dry. So how do I know they work? There is sap in the tank.
Sorry Brian was directed towards Randy

[Dan Bolton]

Well, i have some bad news. Blew my knee out on monday night playing basketball in one of two leagues i play in. Saw my doc and he schedualed a mri for next thursday. He thinks multipal tears. I can walk but slowly. I could have had the rest of the main line side tied and lats up and mani's in. SOB. Hopefully in a week or two i can get around better. Bad timing for sure. Big snow to hit the area too.

[Brian Ryther]

Long day. Leaks non stop, late night boil. In the end another 70 gallons in the barrell, 200 gallons fo the year. Good sugar today, 2.0 - 2.8.

[Mark Wengert]

Cool this week. Hoping to hang buckets next weekend. Got the itch seeing and hearing everyone boiling. Fingers crossed for a better year than last year for me.

[Dan Bolton]

Good to see you at it Mark. On the other hand a torn acl couldn't keep me down. Thursday and friday of last week me and my dad as well as marty and a friend got the rest of the main line up and tied back. 2,500' of lats up. 500 drop's put in and all of our 1,100 taps in. Got a weak run around 275 gallons of sap. Boiled it in in no time. This new arch is going to take a few times to get it diled in. Got a chance to see Brian and his plans for the Butternut Valley Maple weekend and sugar house tour. Great idea brian. Thanks for including Marty and myself. Take care all and let the sap start running. Good luck all.

[sapman]

Long day. Leaks non stop, late night boil. In the end another 70 gallons in the barrell, 200 gallons fo the year. Good sugar today, 2.0 - 2.8.

Brian, did the cold weather between runs loosen up the new cv's in the taphole? I can remember endless trouble with that when using stubbies and old cv's and/or seasonal spouts.

That is good sugar content! So far my high is 1.4, low 1.2.

[Brian Ryther]

Tim,
The CV2's are tight. No re pounding necessary. I bet it will be difficult to pull the taps out. I did have a tree fall on a laterial line. Two drops pulled off the CV's. It was no problem to plug them back in. It was a big tree so I figure the drops did not pull off the spouts then somthing else would have broken.

[Randy Brutkoski]

Your right, the cv2s seat very good. I think they finally got it right this time. I only bought 500 of them and i put them on the down side of my sap ladders. They are still too expensive for me. I will stick with my 13 cent cst's.

[sapman]

So far I fully agree on the cv2's. Hope my spout puller will pull them this spring. Looking forward to not having to reseat them after cold snaps.

[Brian Ryther]

Finally, another boil day. Pretty lousy sap / tap #'s, but the sugar is the best I have ever seen. My sap was 2.5%, one guy brought me sap that was 3.3%. So after meny miles of leak checking, releaser hang ups, east winds knocking down trees, 18 holes of golf, we were able to put up 55 gallons of syrup tonight.

[sugarman3]

We finally got day #2 boiling also-25 gallons Lt also

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

Finally, another boil day. Pretty lousy sap / tap #'s, but the sugar is the best I have ever seen. My sap was 2.5%, one guy brought me sap that was 3.3%. So after meny miles of leak checking, releaser hang ups, east winds knocking down trees, 18 holes of golf, we were able to put up 55 gallons of syrup tonight.18 holes of golf; thats alot! I only played half a course yesterday-9 holes.

[maplehillbros7179]

just startin to tap today, got 60 in and it was running a little, gettin colder though

[Brian Ryther]

Strange run today. Ran well last night. Slow during the day, then kicked back in strong at dark. Finaly had time to fine tune some of the micro leaks today. 26" was the best I could do, 1/2" to go. Another 55 gallons in the barrell.
Neil, I wasn't kidding about the 18 holes of golf. I play in a league at Colonial Ridge.

[Brian Ryther]

Sap Kicked into hig gear this afternoon. Lower elevation lines running better than the hill tops. Should be a good boil tonight.

[Randy Brutkoski]

how many gallons are you up to brian?

[Brian Ryther]

Short boil tonight. The sap ran well today when it was only 31 degrees. The problem(s) were the releasers. Moisture in the vapors durring the trip cycle would freeze in the small tubes that controll the shuttle. Only about 25 gallons. Still stuck in medium, can't break into light syrup no matter how hard I try. 330 gallons so far. Looking foreward to a few days to catch up. By next weekend the season starts big time.

[sapman]

I haven't made anything but medium. Almost dark one day. Might try some lower % concentrate and see if we can actually make light anymore.

[doocat]

That is odd. We let our first stuff sit 5 days or so and it still made light. We always concentrate to 15 % even that stuff. Your weather had not been all that much different than down here by Binghamton. I wonder why the grade difference.

Craig

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

I haven't made anything but medium. Almost dark one day. Might try some lower % concentrate and see if we can actually make light anymore. We found concentrating higher makes lighter syrup. I think it has something to do with less time under the heat before draw-off. I have been concentrating to around 18% this year and my dad has been around 16% and we have made only light syrup. Do you have air injectors? They make all the difference in the world. Raise your syrup at least one grade. I don't think air in syrup pans matter that much, but air in the flue pan makes a huge difference. Neil

[Brian Ryther]

I bought a small ss tank yesterday so I can dump the flue pan into it, wash the flue pan and filter the sweet back into it. The only thing I can figure for me is that there is dark sedement in the flue pan from the January sap that is darkening my syrup.

[doocat]

How high do you concentrate to Brian? I was told before as well that higher concentration usually will produce lighter syrup as long as you don't let it sit.

[Brian Ryther]

Depends on the day. Normal day I aim for 15%. If I am short on sap I will go lower to make boiling worth while.

[sapman]

The reason I think going high % makes darker for me is that I must recirculate for hours. 1500-2000 gal. sap takes 8~ hours of concentrating to get to 16-18%. By that time the concentrate is up to around 50 degrees. I need to single pass. When I first got the RO and tapped roadside trees (2.5-3% sap), I'd go to 8% one pass and made the lightest syrup ever.

[MillbrookMaple]

Tim,
I was wondering if you could RO in smaller batches? We found that Large batches concentrating in one tank take longer than multiple smaller batches. I don't know why but it does. We have 2 tanks and will run 500-1000 gallons 1st pass from the raw tank to the concentrating tank. Then switch and feed the RO from the concentrating tank and send it to the the evaporator tank and start boiling at 15% while the next batch is ROed. By your stats I am guessing your RO is a 250GPH and your evaporator does about 80-90gph. We have a 600GPH RO and only a 50 GPH evaporator so I don't know if that our system would work for you but I figured I would share. Another possible option is to put a UV on your RO output to keep the bacteria at bay. Lastly, my points could be moot if you like dark syrup. We try to make light because we sell half of ours bulk. I personally prefer darker syrup and so do our customer base. Demand for Grade B is actually more than the demand for all 3 other grades combined at this point for our internet sales and our local customers tend to buy Medium and Dark. VT is probably shaking their heads right now.

[Brian Ryther]

7195
Open house this Sunday. I hope everyone on the trader is to busy making there own syrup to check us out. If not feel free to stop by.

[treehugger]

I wish it would just let loose already. The weather forecasts are a total tease! I was hoping to be boiling tomorrow, does not look like it's going to be that way. I must be in a cold pocket, still have 3-4 inches of snow on the ground.

[sapman]

[QUOTE=MillbrookMaple;211304]Tim,
I was wondering if you could RO in smaller batches? We found that Large batches concentrating in one tank take longer than multiple smaller batches.

That's an interesting idea! Might try it. Think I'll still have to recirc into same tank for awhile, though. Taking 1.5% to 15 will probably take more than two passes, so to speak. Evap does 100-110/hour, so I need close to 2 gpm feeding it. Was going to hook up a heat exchanger to cool the concentrate back down, but didn't get to it this year.

[sapman]

Tim,
By your stats I am guessing your RO is a 250GPH and your evaporator does about 80-90gph. We have a 600GPH RO and only a 50 GPH evaporator so I don't know if that our system would work for you but I figured I would share. Another possible option is to put a UV on your RO output to keep the bacteria at bay. Lastly, my points could be moot if you like dark syrup. We try to make light because we sell half of ours bulk. I personally prefer darker syrup and so do our customer base. Demand for Grade B is actually more than the demand for all 3 other grades combined at this point for our internet sales and our local customers tend to buy Medium and Dark. VT is probably shaking their heads right now.


I actually prefer light syrup, and that is my goal. My RO is also a 600. What do you set your concentrate/permeate flow at? I just think unless I'm squeezing it down pretty good, I'd never make it to 15% in two passes.

[MillbrookMaple]

I actually prefer light syrup, and that is my goal. My RO is also a 600. What do you set your concentrate/permeate flow at? I just think unless I'm squeezing it down pretty good, I'd never make it to 15% in two passes.

Last week we had our one and only boil so far and our sugar content was 1.75 with 1100 gallons.
I ran our RO at 450-475 PSI and first pass I got around 7gpm permeate and the concentrate sat around 1-2gpm for the first pass. The second pass I recirculated and set it to 450 to start and adjusted it down as the pressure climbed above 475 as the sugar increased. At this point I only got about 4gpm permeate and didn't pay a lot of attention to the ratios since I knew the numbers would keep getting lower and lower and I was just getting what the machine would give me. Once I got around 15% I started sending it to our evaporator tank. First pass we were putting out near 8%. On the second pass we recirculated for about 20min and then we were up above 15%. I would say it took about 2.5 hours to get from raw sap to the evaporator. We are using a brand new Mark E8 membrane this year so I'm not sure if it is the fact that it is new, or that it is a Osmosis membrane vs the Mark I that we were using the last 3 years which is considered a nano-filtration membrane , but we are getting between 1-2gpm permeate better than before. Your evaporator would run through the 125-150 gallons of concentrate in an hour to hour and 1/2 so in your case the next batch would only be a little over half done by the time you were done boiling the first in this process. With my handy dandy oil burner switch stopping and starting never bothers me too much but I don't know if running for 1.5 hours and off for 1 would work for you. Also I don't know how much that off time would work towards darkening your syrup. You might be ahead or you might still be in the same boat. Hope this helps.

[sapman]

Thanks for the explanation. That all makes sense. I guess I haven't really considered pushing the membrane that hard, but it sure would get the job done a lot faster. I run an XLE440, so basically the same membrane you have. And I also have an oil burner, so shutting down and restarting isn't a problem. Amazing how similar our operations are!

As long as the membrane cleans up fine, this sounds pretty good.

[Dan Bolton]

I wish it would just let loose already. The weather forecasts are a total tease! I was hoping to be boiling tomorrow, does not look like it's going to be that way. I must be in a cold pocket, still have 3-4 inches of snow on the ground. Don't feel bad bro! We are all in the same boat. Every time i watch the local forecast for my town we are always 4 to 5 degree's colder. It sucks and i don't know how they manage to forcast it consistently wrong. All this week they were forecasting 40 we got to 36 one day. The rest were freezing or just above. Thats why i am optimistic that this weekend its gonna start. They are predicting 43 sat 47 sun, 50 mon 44 tues 40 wed 38 thurs and cooling down again. Even if we are 3 to 4 degrees colder its still going to be a good run. Time will tell.

[Brian Ryther]

Hang on, we are about to drown in sap. Sunday should be perfect for our open house. I am going to save Saturdays sap and boil all day Sunday.

[Dan Bolton]

I just watched the utica news and it looks awesome Brian. We will do the same. Gather sunday morning around 8 and settle in. They are predicting sun and clouds and 50 degrees for the open house and tour. Thats great.

[MillbrookMaple]

Thanks for the explanation. That all makes sense. I guess I haven't really considered pushing the membrane that hard, but it sure would get the job done a lot faster. I run an XLE440, so basically the same membrane you have. And I also have an oil burner, so shutting down and restarting isn't a problem. Amazing how similar our operations are!

As long as the membrane cleans up fine, this sounds pretty good.

It is funny how similar, If only I had a steam-away then we would really be on par.

Also good luck you guys with your open house this weekend. I was thinking of going to O-town this weekend for some shopping and was considering traveling up to check out some of your open houses up there but it looks like the Holy Sap floodgates might final open Sunday - Tuesday so I'm not leaving the farm.

[sapman]

Finally! Made a little light today! Emptied out the evaporator the other day to finish in the 2x4, and the new stuff was beautiful. Hope it keeps up awhile.

[Brian Ryther]

Sap ran hard today. Kirk and I ran just as hard. As things thawed out leaks would appear. We worked our buts off today and were rewarded with good vacuum levels and tons of sap. Saving it for tomorrows open house.

[sapman]

Hard runs Friday and Saturday. Vacuum is maintaining at 28". Never thought I'd see that! Gotta love the cv2s.

Good luck on the open house, Brian. Wish you were closer so I could stop in between boiling.

[maplehillbros7179]

great run yesterday today looks even better

[Brian Ryther]

Record day for Mill Holllow Maple. 125 gallons, over 7,000 gallons of sap processed. With open house and a 4-H tour.

[tuckermtn]

go man go!

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

When things slow down in the off season, you won't know what to do with yourself. should pass 500 here today.

[Brian Ryther]

Another 70 gallons today. 550 for the year. Getting tired, need to go collect.

[Maplewalnut]

Keep at it Brian, cold spell coming which will give everyone a break for a day or two

[Brian Ryther]

It was a good day. 4,000+ gallons of sap processed into 80 gallons of syrup in 2.5 hours, including start up and shut down.

[Brian Ryther]

Broken record. 4k sap, 70 gallons of sryup, 2.5 hours of processing.

[Dan Bolton]

We haven't had a run since last wed! Decided to add water and chase all of the sweet sap onto the syrup pan. We ended up making another 8 gallons total. Pulled both the syrup pan and flue pan off to clean. Figured with this whole week predicted to be cold this would be a good time to get this done. Next week looks good. I see us boiling into the second week of april.

[Dan Bolton]

go man go! Do you guys have vac on that 1350?

[Brian Ryther]

I might push the syrup out of the pans this week also. If the evap is clean maybe I will be able to make light syrup after this cold snap. I am so bored, all I have been doing is going to pancake breakfasts and getting fat. I extended a main line and added another 30 taps. Got the itch to add more taps. I think I might call the land owner who has turned me down three times to see if he might change his mind.

[doocat]

I can't believe that I am saying this but I was a little bored teday as well! Can't control the weather.

[danno]

hmmm good idea. Got nothing better to do. Got 600 gal of sap been sitting in the holding tank since I don't remember. Think I'll run that through and chase with water and clean the pans...

[sapman]

At least I got to visit friends' open houses this weekend. Can't wait to make syrup again. Looks like Tuesday might run here. Only supposed to get down to 32 tomorrow night. 2/3 crop here.

[Brian Ryther]

Just shy of two weeks with out sap. Flood gates opend yesterday afternoon. Boiled that run this morning. Sap is running at 100% all day today. Forecast looks perfect for the ten day.

[Brian Ryther]

120 gallons yesterday. HP pump keeps tripping on high heat. Sap happy, equiptment angry.

[treehugger]

Anybody having a lot of sugar sand/slime? The syrup is beautiful, light and very flavorful. My last two boils have had more than the usual amount. Just wondering. -Rich.

[Riverdale]

I have had a noticeable increase in sugar sand in recent days compared to 2 weeks ago.

[Brian Ryther]

Most producers I have spoken with have had terrable time with the sugar sand but I have not seen it. I filtered 70 gallons last night and only hit 20 psi on the filterpress.
I spent the day in the car. Full trip to Swanton and back. Lapierre was very fair to my situation. The Hp pump that had problems was on it's 4th trip in 4 years to be repaired. They offered to swap for one of there loaner pumps even steven. I was home and back in business by 8 pm. I blame the full moon. While I was gone al day I missed one of the best 12 hour runs of the season. I had to call in back up to draw down tanks, thanks to good neighbors and my dad not a drop of sap was lost.

[SWEETER CREATIONS]

We have sugar sand by the truck load if anybody wants some. Plugged the filter press the last 4 nights this is the worst I've ever seen it. Anyone wants some let me know

[Brian Ryther]

Almost finished collecting yesterdays sap. Isolated freeze pockets last night. Lower elevation lines froze for an hour, upper elevation never froze. Boil at 10:30.

[Maplewalnut]

Glad you got your pump straightened out. Nothing worse than equipment issues in middle of season. At least weather was good for a ride to Swanton!

[Brian Ryther]

I dont know why but my equiptment always breaks durring the season, never in the summer when I can put off fixing it.

[doocat]

One plunger on my bernard double releaser flew/blew/popped off this morning so I had one bush running on gravity for 1/2 the day. That never happens in summer either. Oh well duct tape should do the trick.

[Brian Ryther]

90 gallons for the day. For those having a hard time filtering due to sugar sand and I was not, I found my sugar sand. The middle three compartments of my syrup pan is caked with a heavy coating. No elbow will remove this 1/4" layer. I went to BJ's and picked up 10 gallons of vinegar. I hope that does the trick.

[sapman]

Down to 20-25 gallon days here. Sure adds up slow when it's like this. Hope we get a decent freeze and wake things up.

Brian, I assume you put permeate in the pans sometimes after boiling? Has worked pretty well for me. I usually end up circulating it from one side to the other with a pump, and that really takes the niter off. Let us know how the vinegar works.

[danno]

Tim, how well does that permeate bath work? Give us some specifics. Are you draining your syrup pan every night? How long do you rinse with permeate? Do you heat it? How much elbow grease? I try to clean the syrup pan every other boil. Big PIA! First cleaning this season we a piece of cake, never seen it so eazy. Second cleaning after 3 boils was brutal. Vinegar would not touch it. Had to move to the heavy duty stuff. Works great, but I hate using that stuff. Yup, the middle channels always get it worst. We're still getting a gallon/day down the block from you, Tim. Surprised you've slowed down.

[Brian Ryther]

I have never seen sap run as hard as it did this morning. largest syrup in a single boil for us today. over 100 gallons. had to hire the neighbor to collect for me this afternoon. I could not keep up with collecting and getting the sugar house set up for boiling. Vinegar soak over night worked perfect. Syrup pan was shiny new when I began tonight. I can guarantee it is not shiny any longer after tonight's boil. I am happy the weather man screwed up in our favor tonight. It is already in the mid 20's, forecast was for a low of 32*. Tomorrow looks promising.

[sapman]

The permeate does work well for me. Sometimes I heat it up, but that doesn't really seem to matter as much as circulating it for a few hours. I've been doing it every couple boils, or when it looks like it needs it. Trying not to let it build up before I hit it. One time I did take some steel wool to it to remove the discoloration left after the niter was gone. But I'm glad to hear the vinegar worked! Will have to try that some time when it gets real stubborn.

Today gave over 2/3 gal. per tap. Pretty sad compared to what most of you got. I think I blame the high % of soft maples I tap. The hill (sugars) is always a steady clip, but the swamp is a different story, except for a couple runs this year. I'd really like to get a 2nd bush of all sugar maple by next year.

[Dan Bolton]

90 gallons for the day. For those having a hard time filtering due to sugar sand and I was not, I found my sugar sand. The middle three compartments of my syrup pan is caked with a heavy coating. No elbow will remove this 1/4" layer. I went to BJ's and picked up 10 gallons of vinegar. I hope that does the trick. Vinegar is the best way! Like you say pour it in the pan and add water and let it sit over night. Pretty much wipes right of. Sap is running hard again here. Hard freezes the last two night have made it perfect. Getting really windy out there right now. We boiled 600 gallons in last night and are gonna fire up around 2 and do it all over again.

[Amber Gold]

What's the vinegar to water ratio? My flue pan's getting pretty bad, but season's almost over.

Every night, we run the syrup pan through the filter press and made 300 gal on the front pan before I swapped it.

[Brian Ryther]

It was gusher yesterday. Full tanks again this morning

[Brian Ryther]

"Life is good until you Weaken." BP 3:13, I had several moments yesterday when I gave up. Found a tank with the valve open all day, 400 gallons of sap on the ground. Went to start the RO and one hp pump broke it's shaft. Accepted the fact that I could only use one hp pump to concentrate 5k of sap. 5 hours later found that the ro was being fed by the sap tanks and the permeate tank. Permeate tank valve cracked open on it's own. This meant I was only sending 5% sap to the feed tank until I figured out why tank levels weren't going down. 3 hours to boil in 5k of 1.5% sap was a waste of wood. Went to Swanton today for the second time within a week to have a HP pump repaired. 10 hours of windshield time. When I left, the service manager didn't care if it was a mfg. issue only cared how old the pump was, 2 years. We parted knowing I would never buy a Lapierre product ever again. Hour later he called to tell me that shaft breakage was a common problem and that it was going to be under warrantee. I am reconsidering my felling about Lapierre service. Yes, in the end they have always do good by me, but several times it has been a unnecessary fight.
Thursday looks to be the season rally. The bottom of the 9th for table grade. Then a few weeks of commercial. No sign of budding temps in the 10 day, but also marginal low temps.

[Brian Ryther]

It never ends. Full load of sap tonight with a flat tire. At least the sap let loose this evening. running very good right now. I hope it freezes tonight so I can get the tire replaced in the am before the tanks overflow.

[Brian Ryther]

2 gallons of sap per tap in the last 24 hours. January taps are blowing every other tank out of the water. And they are 40% red maples. With sap in the ro feed tank I called it quits after 105 gallons of syrup tonight. Even with starting with clean pans and switching sides mid boil, sugar sand in syrup pan became too much for my comfort level. it is interesting that I have no problem getting 100gal+ through the 7" filter press but the sugar sand likes to stay in my syrup pan. My theory is the intense heat of the super charged a.u.f. is to blame. 1,400 gallons ytd. Still in dark amber.

[Brian Ryther]

Sap came in strong today. 70 gallons of dark tonight. Below freezing now. Cleaned flue pan today. Took out 5 gallons of mud and grit out of the bottom. Super glad I did that today.

[sapman]

Had our last freeze last night, so they are saying. Sapflow continued to disappoint. Collected 1500+ today, hopefully again tomorrow. Was making light again Friday, probably medium tomorrow. Not tasting good anymore, though. Should have enough for over 700 now.

[treehugger]

Drowning in sap here in Oneonta over the last 2 days. I wish it would slow down. Might be time for a bigger evaporator.

[Brian Ryther]

Tree hugger, never wish it to slow down. Wish for bigger equipment to process the sap.
Another great day in the Butternut Valley. 80 gallons of dark. sap is running strong. sugar is dropping. energy levels are low. Time for a little sleep, late night collection.

[briansickler]

Hey Brian,

Thanks again for welding my pan. We ended up with 800 plus gallons of sap and drew off 18 gallons.....Still looks pretty light. I hope to make some medium or dark tomorrow. It looks like we should go over 200 gallons of syrup for the year by the end of tomorrow. We have processed 10,280 gallons of sap so far. It was great to see your operation. My daughter really enjoyed it too. She loves your awesome dog Awesome. Catch you later.

Brian

[Brian Ryther]

Brian, glad your repair worked. In the off season we should weld the other side just for good measure. 7724
Despite the peepers I was able to make another 75 gallons tonight. Still Dark Amber, great "robust" flavor. I need grade B and should be after it tomorrow. Only a lousy gallon of sap per tap today.

[briansickler]

Brian, glad your repair worked. In the off season we should weld the other side just for good measure.

Yes. I'm all for welding the other side. The side you did is really sturdy and doesn't even move when the auto draw off triggers. We boiled the last of our sap last night. Cloudy 1.5% sugar. Drew off another 7 gal. It might be dark enough for Med Amber. Little bit stronger maple flavor...really good stuff. Now just have to finish up what is left in the pans. I may sell another barrel of the light to Shaver Hill Farm. Catch you later.

Brian

[Brian Ryther]

I finally moved UP a grade to "B" tonight. I have been waiting all season for this. After I tasted my daily sample and expressed how well it tasted my dad and Allan not believing me, after seeing todays sap, tasted the "robust" syrup and agreed. They were surprised how good it tasted.

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

I finally moved UP a grade to "B" tonight. I have been waiting all season for this. After I tasted my daily sample and expressed how well it tasted my dad and Allan not believing me, after seeing todays sap, tasted the "robust" syrup and agreed. They were surprised how good it tasted. Brian, I hope you make a lot more. I may have to buy a few gallons off you. I can't seem to make anything but light this year. After today's sap, I thought I might drop a grade but still quite a bit lighter than fancy.

[sugarman3]

Thats good to hear brian,hope to make some b also,need 20 gallons or more for cotton candy sugar and some to sell,got bout 800 gallons sap,trying to get 1500 or so to run ro and then boil at least 1-2 hrs and make some
vern

[Brian Ryther]

Down to only one barrel tonight. Motor oil dark, but still tastes good. No buds have opened yet. CV1's have all but quit. CV2's 2/3 gallon of sap per tap today. Today marks month 4 of taps in trees.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Geez Brian, don't those trees down there ever stop? Our season has been fits and starts with no big runs. It is great compared to last year but by no means above average. I do have my fingers crossed for what might happen in the next 4 or 5 days. Weather looks cold and snotty. Just what the old folks would be looking for to close out the season.

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

Down to only one barrel tonight. Motor oil dark, but still tastes good. No buds have opened yet. CV1's have all but quit. CV2's 2/3 gallon of sap per tap today. Today marks month 4 of taps in trees.Brian, which ones did you put new drops on this year-CV2's or old style cv's? Both style cv's are still performing equally as well for me. Still getting more than a gallon per tap per day on my woods. New tubing still makes a big difference, even when using cv's. Neil

[Randy Brutkoski]

I tried 500 cv,2s in a part of my woods and they are done at the same time as my .12 cent cst,s. Waste of $ if you asked me. .40 cents or .12 cents.

[Brian Ryther]

Neil,
Good point. There are more factors other than the CV1's, This is my test tank. This is where I have the wet/dry 5/16 to the tap hole. The wet lines are 6 years old. the dry are 2 years old. The bush faces east. Despite my lack of success with the wet / dry tap hole I did see twice this season when the wet 5/16 lines had ice in them and the dry 5/16 were able to run the sap.
Sap ran just fine today. I decided to wait until tomorrow to process the sap. It is 34* so figure that the sap can't get any worse than it already is. My only concern is having the evaporator turning ropey. That would be a waste. Chance I am willing to take to enjoy a night at home.

[briansickler]

Hey Brian,

I finished up what we had left in the pans....I finally made some Dark Amber, 6 gallons. It has a great flavor and looks awesome in the glass "gold deer" 250 ml bottles. Are you into C grade yet? I'm planning to go to Shaver Hill Farm on the 20th to see that Vortex arch with the max flue pan in action and pick up some 5/16 tubing on sale $46/roll. Hope to get the tap count up to at least 1,000 for 2014.

Brian

[Brian Ryther]

I will go to Shaver Hill on the 20th. I am going for the free hot dogs. I will also pick up a few cases of jugs at pre season pricing. I made 55 gallons of used motor oil in color and brown sugar and molasses in smell a little bitter in flavor. 1730 for the season. 3 nights of freeze in the forecast. 2k? maybe?

[Yeserday]

What are the details on Shaver Hill on the 20th? Is it an open house/sale of some sort?

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

I will go to Shaver Hill on the 20th. I am going for the free hot dogs. I will also pick up a few cases of jugs at pre season pricing. I made 55 gallons of used motor oil in color and brown sugar and molasses in smell a little bitter in flavor. 1730 for the season. 3 nights of freeze in the forecast. 2k? maybe?You won't be going to shaver hill on the 20. You won't have time. You will still be making syrup. Neil

[briansickler]

What are the details on Shaver Hill on the 20th? Is it an open house/sale of some sort?

Yes.....It's an open house/10% percent off everything sale too....Complimentary lunch. Leader reps will be there. Vortex/Revolution/Max Flue evap. in action.

Brian

[Brian Ryther]

Still at it. 45 gallons tonight. Smell is not too bad. Flavor is very bitter.

[Brian Ryther]

Called it quits last night. Sap was running strong when I pulled the plug. I think the trees ran out of sugar. less than 1%. The sap became too nasty for me to want to handle. The days are just too warm to keep sap in good condition. If it was all about making sap then I could see going another week. I am very happy with the season. I made 1,825 gallons. just shy of 1/2 gallon per tap on my trees. The rest was purchased sap. I will be January tapping from now on.

[SWEETER CREATIONS]

Congratulations Brian very good numbers and a long season . Mike

[Brian Ryther]

Some Photos of the operation
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsmu.gs%2FZLNGzx&h=0AQGG_3UW

[briansickler]

God job Brian. Thanks for sharing the pics. We ended up with 203 gallons of syrup with around 500 taps. 180 of those taps were not our own.... they were on buckets. Ours on vac averaged .45 gallons syrup/tap. Not too bad for a little 2 x 6 operation. The RO helped out just a little. 163 gallons light, 35 medium and 5 dark. Now back to the old grind stone.....literally...Ha!

Brian Sickler

[danno]

Great pics, Brian!!! Thanks for sharing.