How many is too many?

[relseek]

Hi guys, last year was my first year boiling and got hooked. We upgraded this year to a homemade 2x5 insulated and bricked arch with a dayton blower and just received our new 2x5 flat bottom divided pan from Smokey Lake. I have a 30 gal head tank that feeds a circulating pump that pushes sap through a cooper coil around stack and back into head tank before it feeds the evaporator as a preheater. We are also trying tubing this year as we expand. I have two runs of 3/4" mainline, one approx 240 feet the other approx 160 feet with 5/16 laterals running into it all on gravity. My plan has about 80-90 taps on tubing and about 20 -30 on buckets. My question is how many taps are too many for this size pan? Is there such a thing as too much sap? I will be able to boil nights and weekends and want to make sure I have enough sap to run the pan but also dont want to be swimming in it. My initial thought was to collect as much as I can and if I have too much see if any of the bigger producers around me would want the extra just not sure how feesible that is. Any input would be appreciated 8036

[maple flats]

Pre-heating is a good thing, but not the whole 30 gal head tank. You degrade sap quickly as you raise the temperature. Thry to just heat a few minutes ahead of the pan. A 2x5 will likely boil about 10 gph. If you heat 30 gal, before that 30 is boiled off you likely dropped a grade in the syrup. If you keep adding to the 30 as it feeds the pan, you may lose even more in grade. The sap should be kept cold (33-37 is best) until you pre heat it just ahead of the pan.

[relseek]

You make a good point, I never considered that. Back to the drawing board on that idea I guess

[Scribner's Mountain Maple]

Plan on 1 gallon of sap per tap per run on a good day. Now you mentioned around 100 taps, how many more do you have from last year? or is around 100 going to be your total. If so, at boiling 10 GPH you may be looking at 10 hour boils some days. Which means you are making some syrup, but will eat up a lot of time. I would try what you have planned and see if you can handle the boiling. IF you do have extra sap and do have a local procedure, check in with them ahead of time. From experience with having more sap than my arch could handle, I have tried to give sap away during the season. What I learned is most producers are so busy they will not come and get it. So plan to have a way to transport it if you can. Of course if you deliver sap to another producer, that is worth some money. Good luck. What will happen is you will tap more trees, have more sap than you can handle and want a bigger arch. this is how the addiction grows. Give sap away once, and you'll be buying a bigger arch.

[relseek]

Thank you for the reply. Yes around 100 taps total is what I'm thinking. I have a feeling that I will end up having more than I can handle but being new to this I feel the need to see how much I can handle. This may be stupid I know but hopefully as you suggested I can set something up ahead of time with a local producer. I keep thinking that I would rather have too much than not enough...

[Scribner's Mountain Maple]

Definitely not stupid, you are on your way to becoming a full fledged sugarmaker. A true sugarmaker always take on more than they can handle.

[delivron]

According to the North American Maple Syrup Producers' Manual the average boil rate is about 20 GPH and will range based upon quality of wood as well as the design of your pans. Pre Heaters and other devices can enhance production by 75%. RO's can reduce the number of gallons to boil by 75%. Small is not wrong the challenge is bringing financial resources and proper solutions together to fit in a producers time and financial constraint.

[madmapler]

I boiled with about 30"x52" of surface area last year. I got between 16 and 18 gph. I preheated by wrapping some copper around my stack(about 8' long). This was'nt enough so I ran from that into a 2' length of 3/4" copper that I ran straight into my plenum/stack.This made the sap plenty hot but you cant walk away from it until the fire is almost completely out because you'll melt the solder once you drain the pipe. You could also let it trickle and shut it off later. Just make sure you dont leave sap in the coil. I had 100 taps on vacuum and I spent a lot of time in the sugar shack, sometimes up to 10 hrs. but I did'nt mind much at all. I have a friend who played around with a home type ro last year (40 taps or so) with a measure of success.

[Paddymountain]

A good rule of thumb is to have twice as many taps as you think you'll need! Anyway, I'm thinking that's how I got hooked.

[relseek]

I like your thinking " go with twice what you think you need" that way if I end up with way too much sap I can always tell my wife that I'm just doing what is expected.

[spud]

Hi guys, last year was my first year boiling and got hooked. We upgraded this year to a homemade 2x5 insulated and bricked arch with a dayton blower and just received our new 2x5 flat bottom divided pan from Smokey Lake. I have a 30 gal head tank that feeds a circulating pump that pushes sap through a cooper coil around stack and back into head tank before it feeds the evaporator as a preheater. We are also trying tubing this year as we expand. I have two runs of 3/4" mainline, one approx 240 feet the other approx 160 feet with 5/16 laterals running into it all on gravity. My plan has about 80-90 taps on tubing and about 20 -30 on buckets. My question is how many taps are too many for this size pan? Is there such a thing as too much sap? I will be able to boil nights and weekends and want to make sure I have enough sap to run the pan but also dont want to be swimming in it. My initial thought was to collect as much as I can and if I have too much see if any of the bigger producers around me would want the extra just not sure how feesible that is. Any input would be appreciated 8036

I would tap all your trees and then deal with the overflow. It sounds like you're doing all this just for the enjoyment. Even if you had to dump some sap at the end of the day it would be better then not having enough. What I would do is buy a big used sap tank with a lot of flat bottom surface area. I would gather my sap today and let it sit overnight in the tank so a bunch of it freezes. The next morning I would remove all the ice and have sap testing higher in sugar and far less sap to boil. This early to mid season trick could save you a few hours of boiling everyday. If you could get two or three sap tanks and split the sap up between them in the evening then even more ice would be extracted in the morning. If you play your cards right you might be drawing off 2 gallons per hour. Good luck to you.

Spud

[relseek]

Thanks Spud, Mother Nature's R.O. you guys are always thinking... This is what I love about this site, everyone so willing to share their knowledge and tricks to getting the most out of a little. I gotta say I got started boiling because of this site. Last November I was laid up for several weeks after having the top of a tree I was cutting come down and hit me, breaking my C2 vertebrae, causing a bleed on the brain, dislocated my jaw and left shoulder,broke some ribs and a couple of teeth. I kinda stumbled on this site when sitting there with nothing to do and after reading thread after thread I thought Hell I can do this!!! We did and now love it even though its alot of work at times.

[kiteflyingeek]

RESleck,

Wow!! Maybe I don't want to help my bro-in-law with his tree work! Glad to hear you came out ok -- at least ok enough to boil maple ;-)

--andrew

[relseek]

Thanks yep back to 100%. Just one of those freak accidents I guess. I've cut a lot of firewood since then,my wife just shakes her head.

[spud]

I have always been told that the safest place to hit me was my head.:lol:

Spud