Tapping the 2014 season

[Sugarmaker]

Theron,
Sounds to me like you're the big professional operation!:) Wow that impressive numbers.
Folks,
Hope everyone that is still boiling is doing well as the season winds down in this neck of the woods.
We threw in the towel this morning at 1:00 am. I am lounging in the easy chair this morning!
Here are the stats for 2014:
We tapped Feb 20th Finished boiling April 10th.
We had 5 suppliers of sap to the sugarhouse this year which is new to us.
We boiled 17 times.
Total tap count from all suppliers = 1100 ish (590, 250, 250, 25, 4) (5/16 gravity tubing and 30 buckets)
Total sap gathered = 12241 gallons
Sap sweetness averaged about 2.8% for the year never dropped below 2.5%
Total syrup made 260 gallons.
Grade: mostly Medium and Dark (or the new Amber Rich) Several gallons of the grade B (new grade Dark Robust).
We did not make any commercial grade syrup.
No major break downs, all systems worked as expected.
A few days we felt a RO would have been real handy:) New filter press is nice!
Biggest run one day 1431 gallons of sap.
Smallest run 192 gallons of sap
Gallons of sap per tap ranged from 13 gallons per tap down to 7.5 gallons for the season totals for various sap suppliers.
For just our trees we made 162.3 gallons of syrup on the 590 taps with 7,645 gallons of sap collected.
Wood consumed = about 9 cord of slabs.
Number of miles driven to gather sap = LOTS:)
Number of friends and family visiting and helping = LOTS:)
Amount of enjoyment making syrup this season = Tons!
Enjoyed reading all the posts from PA producers!
Time to start clean up.
Regards,
Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Chris,

I believe you retired just in time.

[Springfield Acer]

I have been busy cleaning and planning a few minor repairs.
What looked like a bad year turned out to be a good year.
I had added sap from a friend who had +/- 80 taps on small buckets that often overflowed.
Together, we boiled 3800 gallons of sap and made 83 gallons of almost all medium and dark grade.
We tapped on Feb 15 and quit boiling on April 2nd.
Our lightest was the first boil and the last boil but still just a light grade of medium.
We actually collected a bit more than the 3800 but we threw out about 225 gallons due to lack of storage space or sap getting too old at the end.
I still have a Welch vac pump sitting in pieces waiting for me to install a rebuild kit so I can go on vac next season if I decide to. I have already built a mechanical releaser copied from another here on the Trader. It works very well when the vac pump is working.
Ten more months!

[Sugarmaker]

Brandon,
Yes as I have heard others say. Don't know how I had time to work:)
Springfield Acer,
You had a great season. You know that vacuum means more sap!
Our tubing is all rinsed. Sap containers picked up and cleaned. (I cringed as I dumped 300 gallons of sap yesterday during the clean up event, Yes it was a little cloudy, but I should have waited another day.
Evaporator is in Vinegar /water cleaning cycle. Steam away is full and have bubbler on agitating the cleaning solution.
Heading to Keith's (neighbor that we boiled sap for this year) to meet Bob (another neighbor budding sugarmaker) and to pull taps and rinse Keith's lines this evening.
Regards,
Chris

[NE PA Maple]

Gary R,

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this and answer your question. It looks like we did 22 gal / tap on our 3/16, but, we were a little lax on our record keeping this year. It ran really strong when it ran. One line only had 6 taps on it and ran through some pine woods. This line seemed to always take longer to thaw and flow than our other line that ran only through the Maple woods and had 14 taps on it.

We are actually just going to pull the tubbing taps today. We went buddy last evening on the tubing lines. At least I am assuming we went buddy, really strong smell to the sap. Our sugar content is also down to 1%. We're going to pull taps, clean lines, and most importantly finish boiling our remaining sap today. Pulled the buckets last night.

Thanks again for the info on the 3/16 and the cleaning advice.

[PATheron]

Still goin. Sugar still one or little over everywhere. North bushes running pretty good. Chewing through the sap at 900 gph to 13 or 14 Percent. Still wanting it. Taps four months old. Theron

[unc23win]

Theron where are you located? I am in tioga county I got a fair run today tested 1.5 to 1.7. Not sure what is going to happen tuesday it is suppose to be cold again.

[PATheron]

Jared- Im between Mansfield and Troy. I think were about done here. Still getting sap but real nasty. Theron

[unc23win]

Oh Ic I dint think you were that close I am in middlebury near Asaph maple I think you know Doug. I am getting some sap today not much hope to run it through later for a quick boil. It's the first real cloudy sap I have had test 1.7 this morning. If we dint get these couple of warm days we would go another week easy I think.

[NE PA Maple]

Theron,

Are you on Rte. 6 just over the hill from the electric co-op? I had seen some lines run there when I was in Mansfield with my daughter at the University.

[PATheron]

Char- Im just over the hill north of there. That is my neighbors lines. Out of vacation and back to work today. Sap too rancid to process. Going to clean everything up and see if I can make a little more after tomarrow nights freeze. All my north bushes are still running good. Yesterday it was 80 degrees and they were running pretty hard. Hard to believe. Very little sugar. About all over here. Theron

[unc23win]

Theron Rancid is right. I decided to clean things up. Very crazy season weather wise.

[mapleack]

Finally weighed the last barrel. Season total of 271 gal of syrup. 19,050 gal of sap. 787 taps, so 0.34 gal syrup per tap. Right about average for me. Lots of dark syrup.

[PATheron]

Still going at Pierce and Sons. When I went to bed last night I was out of the maple business, when I woke back up at 0330 back in the maple business. January 5 taps slowed down but still running. Weve hit upper 70s to 80 here a couple times and really hasn't even slowed down the cold bushes. Back to work so cant really keep up just go pick up sap when I get home and let run over. Kind of like an open faucet. Sap quality-none. Ro'ing ok. Boiling awesome, cant understand it. Going to clean all the tanks tonight and clean ro machines. Big freeze tonight, going to keep on keeping on. Getting sick of it. Done this weekend no matter what. Going to sleep 8 hours all night and hang with the kids and do whatever they think is the right thing to do. Got new fishing pole for my birthday, going to go try that out. Upgrades next year-none. Going to buy 10,000 checkvalves and a bunch of filter aid and papers. Theron

[Gary R]

Who else is still at it in PA? Dave Y?

I'm totally cleaned up. Need to gear up for next year upgrades.

[Sugarmaker]

Theron,
Get some rest, and go fishing with he kids!
Have not heard from Dave Y. He may be on syrup overload?
Gary, I can see a RO in your future!
We are building and shipping maple products around the country and around the world!
Regards,
Chris

[Gary R]

I was less than 10 miles from Dave's today. Unfortunately I did not have time to stop. I did see actual leaves on some red's in Ridgeway. If there's syrup to be made it must be nasty.

Sugarmaker, I have been scouring the site for RO info. Would you like me to be the guinea pig for this project?

[waysidemaple]

Still going here. Sap looks more like milk at this point going to try to make it to next Friday but we will see. Cleaned tanks this morning and sap is running but it's only 34 here so it's slow. Went on leak patrol this morning as well and vac is back up to 25 everywhere so hopefully something will fill up my tanks. Gotta want it like pa Theron always says! Over all I'm pretty pleased with this season all this considered.

Scott

[Springfield Acer]

I was less than 10 miles from Dave's today. Unfortunately I did not have time to stop. I did see actual leaves on some red's in Ridgeway. If there's syrup to be made it must be nasty.

Sugarmaker, I have been scouring the site for RO info. Would you like me to be the guinea pig for this project?

You go piggy!!!!

[Gary R]

Scott, good to hear from you! You must be piling up the syrup. Did you get moved into a new sugar house like you talked about?

Springfield Acer, I know what your looking for:cool:

[Sugarmaker]

Scott,
Wow! still going? I went to get the paper this morning and there was ice in the puddles. Looks like warming temps today. You may get a run.

Gary,
Well you wont be the first, and or last, to build his own RO. Several have had good success. Sounds like a good project, and you have the skills. What size are you building? You need 50-80 gph of concentrate coming out at 6-8% to match your evaporator right?
Regards,
Chris

[Springfield Acer]

Scott, good to hear from you! You must be piling up the syrup. Did you get moved into a new sugar house like you talked about?

Springfield Acer, I know what your looking for:cool:

That obvious, huh?:o

[Gary R]

Yeah, I'm going to be tapping into some of the knowledge of those that have built one already. Try figure out what has worked and hasn't. Still not sure on the type of pump, but I'm thinking 1.5HP. This should achieve 100-150 GPH on one membrane. I would probably only be at 6% because of my low sap sugar. Just the right size for many of us. A lot of bells and whistles to find. I want to walk away for an hour and check lines.

[waysidemaple]

All moved in and operational to the best I could do for this year. Minor things to finish in the sugarhouse to have it the way I want it. Expansion planned for this year as well if time permits with tubing instals. At this point I'm 60 gallons shy of 2k syrup with whats in the evap ill hit 2k. 4k sap today and testing 1.7 so thats good! Hoping to go for another week if I can. Calling for a freeze tonight and sat night so it should be doable. Going to wait till tomorrow to process the sap ive got right now and do one big batch tomorrow and sunday and then maybe one more and boil out the evap. First tubing install is scheduled to start May 15th so i guess i have to be done then lol. Id like to make it to CDL PA for there open house but it doesn't look to good. Gotta Wan IT!!

Scott

[PATheron]

Boiled out the evap tonight. Made another 100 gallons. Was going to hang it up and drove over to my last two woods that I still have running and the tanks were full of 1%. So back at it I guess. Getting tired but still wannnn it. Gotta get up early and go take 1500 gallons out so theres room in the tanks, go to work, and then maybe haul some syrup tomarrow night and get some jingle jangle. Drilled the first hole Jan 5 and still in the game. Theron

[Gary R]

Wow Theron, you must want it. I'm getting ready to mow lawn! The wood sheds almost full again.

Scott, keep it up and you'll be passing Theron and headed to Patterson territory:lol:

[Maplewalnut]

I cant believe you guys are still at it. Great job