Very Small Sugaring Equipment & Techniques

[OrangeAgain]

I am thinking of starting sugaring in the 2015 season by collecting sap from mature sugar maples along the road edge of our property in Albany, VT. I currently do not have any equipment for tapping, collecting sap or boiling.

I would love to hear how others started on a small scale about the process, equipment, lessons learned...

[COMSTOCK MAPLES]

We started with a woodstove and a buffet pan and ten taps to collect from. Buckets are a good way to start and really see sap flow and track what trees are better than others. Good luck on your adventure !!!!!

[Ohissa ridge maple]

My past season I did 25 taps and got two gallons of syrup, it was a bad sap year. I got a 2x2 flat pan from United meatal co. in Hawley Pennsylvania. It worked great and is ideal for 1-35 taps, but it also depends how much your going to boil. How many taps are you going to to??? Good luck!

[OrangeAgain]

...It worked great and is ideal for 1-35 taps, but it also depends how much your going to boil. How many taps are you going to to???

Although there is potential for significantly more, I expect the number of taps to be 35 or less. I'll check out the 2x2 flat pan from United Metal Co.

[psparr]

Check craigslist for flat pans. Your in the right area to find one.

My first year I had a few taps with milk jugs and red solo cups!

[optionguru]

Start saving milk jugs and any other 1 gallon size containers. Buy a bag of plastic 5/16 taps. If you cut the right size hole in the handle of the milk jug you can hang it right on the tap. Then go to your local grocery store if it has a bakery. Many times they will give you or sell very cheap their cake icing buckets, they are 2 to 5 gallons and food safe. Cheap way to get collection buckets. As far as boiling I started with a turkey fryer, did not work well. Lost most of the heat in the wind. Quickly started upgrading and haven't stopped yet. Good luck and have fun, it's a great experience and great excuse to spend time with family and friends.

[jrgagne99]

As far as boiling I started with a turkey fryer, did not work well. Lost most of the heat in the wind.

I started on 20 taps with a buffet pan on my propane grill. I took the grates off and used some stand-offs so the pan sat down just 1/2" above the flames. I think that actually works better than a turkey fryer because it offers good protection from the wind and has a big wide flame area on the bottom of the pan. Boils about 2 gallons of sap per hour. I still use the grill to finish the remaining sweet from my 20"x40" hybrid pan at the end of each season. That yeilds an extra 2-3 gallons of syrup that would have otherwise just been dumped out...

[OrangeAgain]

I am thinking of starting sugaring in the 2015 season by collecting sap from mature sugar maples along the road edge of our property in Albany, VT. I currently do not have any equipment for tapping, collecting sap or boiling.

I also don't have a supply of dry firewood. I know dry firewood is important when burning it in a fireplace or wood furnace. How important is dry firewood if burning outside to heat a pan of sap?

[Ohissa ridge maple]

You don't need to burn dry fire wood, but if you can do it that is great it raises the sap evaporation rate. I have a propane evaporator and a 2x2 pan from United meatal co. and it boils 4 gallons of sap per hour.

[newmod]

I picked up 2 gallon food grade buckets from our local grocery/bakery. They get icing and frosting in them. I am up to about 60 taps using them with food grade plastic tubing. works great. buckets are kind of see thru, so you don't have to check EVERY bucket. My arch was a block arch with steam table pans. Only problem with that was sap burnt on the sides of the pans. If you keep the fire UNDER the pans you will not have any problem. I upgraded to a double 2x2 pans on a oil tank arch with minimal $$$$$. Good luck
Newmod

[dblact38]

I use wooden pallets, work great, there free, fast burning, cut them up with circular saw. Good enough for small sugaring. Great book to read and get good hints from is Backyard Sugarin by Rink Mann good luck its so addicting

[Ausable]

Wow! I started about 20 years ago. Had my first taste of Maple Syrup when I was 45 and loved it. (Hey! I was raised in an area where Sugar Beets and Corn Ruled) We moved to Northern Lower Michigan and a few years later - My Wife and I were invited to a Pancake and Sausage Breakfast at some Friends Sugar Shack and I bombarded our Hosts with questions and they gave us a ton of information and a 30" x 30" flat pan to get started on. Heck - I was overwhelmed and had to start smaller than this and did. Acquired some 7/16" Grimm Spiles and an old brace with a 7/16 bit. Ok - what to collect sap in - tried about everything that was free and cheap - ended up using coffee cans with a hole punched near the rim to hang from the spile hook - split the plastic lid in two places so it would fit over the spile and keep junk out of my coffee can buckets - They worked and I used them for many years - but - too small and not very practical. Lost way too much sap. When I bought by first 18V batter drill the brace and bit thing was history. When the Mrs. had enough and chased me from her kitchen with a warning - "Mike - We will can the maple syrup in the kitchen - but - we will NO LONGER make it here." I figured an alternate and better plan was needed - So -- As many do - I built a block arch and started batch boiling in the 30"x30" flat pan and it worked and I could make more syrup. ----- except ----- Most of the time - it snowed, rained, was windy etc and I knew a sugar shack had to be in my future ------- The story goes on and on -- but - I will stop here - You get the idea - It is and adventure - I am now 74 and still look forward to making Maple - It is part of my being - Good Luck and Have Fun ----Mike----


I am thinking of starting sugaring in the 2015 season by collecting sap from mature sugar maples along the road edge of our property in Albany, VT. I currently do not have any equipment for tapping, collecting sap or boiling.

I would love to hear how others started on a small scale about the process, equipment, lessons learned...

[Sweet Shady Lane]

Started with a old turkey roasting pan, old outdoor wood grill, milk jugs and ten 7/16 taps, nine years later, 80 taps, sap bags, halfpint evaporator and not enough trees, if your like the rest of us you can't get enough of it, good luck and most of all have fun

[maple flats]

We made syrup a few years while the kids were growing up, back in the 70's-80's by tapping 1 large sugar maple and 3 big box alders. I think the most taps we ever had was 9. We processed it (hardly ever boiled) in pots on a wood stove. As it became more concentrated, we moved it to the kitchen stove and boiled it the rest of the way. We filtered it using cheese cloth, and coffee filters.
Then for about 15-18 yrs. we were not making syrup as my business got far too busy. Then after selling my business in '99 and starting to drive school bus, I found myself with lots of free time. Then in 2003 I got the bug. I bought a used 2x3 Half Pint that Jan. and by late feb. I started tapping. I had the evap. set up under a tarp canopy on the patio. I started with 29 taps. As I found that I could keep up easily, I kept adding more taps (I was now tapping all sugar maples in my woods, 3 miles away.) I used 5 gal cooking oil jugs I got free from a Chinese Restaurant, I melted a hole in the cap, and ran tubing from 1 or 2 trees into it. Then I collected and hauled it home to boil. Before the first real hard run happened, I had gotten to 70 taps and with a good run I almost drowned in sap. I boiled up until Midnight, then added several gal. of sap, filled the firebox, put a homemade vented hood on and went to bed. When I got up at about 5:00 am, I went back out, stirred the coals, added more wood, and got ready to drive bus. My wife boiled while I was at work. I was addicted for sure and knew I needed a sugarhouse and a bigger evaporator. That year we made 10.5 gal.
That summer I designed a sugarhouse (which is still the same, as pictured in my Avitar). I made a lumber list, and went into the woods to cut some hemlocks. As I got my 7000# GVW trailer loaded I hauled the logs to a sawyer just down the road. I had a Bravada at the time, and I'm glad no cops saw me because I was slightly (actually big time) overloaded. He cut my lumber and put it back on my trailer. The first load (of 6) was cut in a week. By the time I got to my last load it was up to about 10 weeks and several phone calls to get my lumber back. That was when I ordered a sawmill of my own, to finish the sugarhouse. We finally were ready to put up my homemade trusses at a big work party on New Year's eve day, 2003.
I then got enough done to "use" the sugarhouse in 2004, but it was hardly done. I boiled on a new to me 2x6 drop flue lead free soldered Leader evaporator.
The first year in my 16 x 24 sugarhouse I had a 12 x 16 wooden platform centered in the sugarhouse, with pallets lining the open spaces for holding firewood, my canner (a 16" x 24" pan on an old kitchen gas stove, propane) and going in the door I had a wooden ramp up to the platform. We added enough taps that we grew to 125. In the next 2 years we grew to 325 taps. The next summer I found a lightly used 3x8 grimm raised flue and sold the 2x6. By now I was still on the wooden platform, but the sides were all filled in solid. In the following summer (2007), I raised the evaporator, hoisting it from the trusses, removed the platform and put in my concrete floor. I kept adding more taps and got to about 800, then I decided I wanted to buy new pans, same side draw. I ordered my current pans from Thor in Quebec after getting good advice from Thad Blaisdell. I had my raised flue pan made with 10" tall flues, and I love it. Then in late summer 2011 I ordered my 250 Ray Gingerich RO. Wow, what a difference that made, way less wood used and less boil time. The last year before to RO I had 1 weekend, when we boiled 21 hrs straight, went home to bed, got up 4 hrs later and boiled another 16 hrs. At the same time while my wife was boiling, I had to haul my new sap (1150 gal) to sell to another producer.
Now, in the second season with the RO, rather that sell sap (even with 250 more taps) I actually bought sap. from 4 different producers, a total of over 2500 gal more sap.
Now I really need a bigger sugarhouse, been planning for 3 years but life keeps getting in the way. Maybe this summer, maybe next?

[Big_Eddy]

I am thinking of starting sugaring in the 2015 season by collecting sap from mature sugar maples along the road edge of our property in Albany, VT. I currently do not have any equipment for tapping, collecting sap or boiling.

I would love to hear how others started on a small scale about the process, equipment, lessons learned...

What's your definition of small? 5 trees, 25 trees, 50 trees? I'm going to assume about 10 trees for this year, which should produce about 2 gals of syrup for you own enjoyment.

Tapping
Buy spiles. They are cheap and work. Do some reading on here as to technique etc. You can use bucket spiles or tubing spiles with a short drop line to a pail on the ground. Depends on your pails / jugs.
For jugs / pails / buckets your first year, use anything foodsafe that is clean and hasn't held odorous products( no pickles!!) Gallon juice jugs, icing pails etc. all work.
Tap when you see the first steam from the big guys in your area. (or when the forecast for the next 2 weeks has at least 4 days above freezing each week )
Collecting and Storing
You need storage (cold and shaded) for about 5 gals sap per tree tapped. Clean and Food Safe. Cage tanks, Camping water jugs, water tanks.
You need a way to gather the sap from each tree and get it to your storage location. Lots of solutions on the board.
Boiling
This is where the number of trees makes a big difference. <5 trees - on the stove, 5-10 trees - barbecue grill and a turkey pan. >10 and <50, block arch and a flat pan or cafeteria trays. >50 and you're past small scale.
See the block arch thread in my signature for a how-to.
Finishing and Filtering
You need to be able to determine when you are at syrup. For your own use, an accurate thermometer will do. Remember to check what todays boiling point is before checking the boiling temperature of your syrup.
To filter, cheese cloth and your oldest white t-shirt will get you started. Mason jars to store

Starting small is easy......