Spring Harvest 2015

[Amber Gold]

First post of the season. 95% sure we're tapping this weekend unless next week's forecast completely goes to crap. Hope to have the woods tapped in two days and have Monday for vac. leak check. Who knows what this season will bring...it's cold. Last year was cold too, but we at least made some syrup in February.

Woods. No big changes in the woods. Just some fine tuning. Put a groundwater well in for a vac. pump water source...12" dia. perf. pipe 3' deep in an 18" dia. hole filled with crushed stone. We'll see how well it works. I still have the brook that I pulled from last year if needed. Adding a few taps here and there. Extended a mainline 300' to grab a few more taps and to shorten some long lats. Adding on some trees that are coming of age. No real damage this year, which is nice. Did some thinning for future expansion...about 2 acres of almost all black birch. Will keep on working further back in the woods next year...think this next section will yield ~200 taps, but all flowing the wrong way from the mainline. I was really hoping to expand this year, but painted my house instead...got it all done :) Hopefully next year. It looks like we'll have at least as many taps coming to the sugarhouse as we did last year, which is good. I was hoping to put out a few hundred buckets, but can't find anyone to collect them...I want the sap, but I don't have the time to collect them

Sugarhouse. Really no changes there. Adding a low level alarm to the flue pan if I can get the parts together in time. Last year, there were too many near empties with my sap float f'ing up. Hard plumbing an air line to operate the diaphragm pump. Adding some level floats to upper level tanks. Probably more stuff as I start making syrup again and wish I'd made some more improvements.

Best of luck to everyone and may the sap run sweet and hard!

[tuckermtn]

good luck on the season Josh. pretty slow going here. think we might get back at it this weekend as it looks like it might warm up a bit.

-Eric

[red maples]

Good to see you FINALLY started your thread!!! just kidding!!! seems late though since its been so dam cold!!!

[Russell Lampron]

Hey Josh,

I'm planning to tap this weekend too. It's going to be tough with all of the snow in the woods but we'll get it done. Good luck with the new season.

[Mark-NH]

Josh,

Why did you add the well if you run an RO? I was thinking an RO would provide enough "waste" water. I just added an RO for this season. What am I missing?

[Russell Lampron]

The well is at his orchard to cool his liquid ring vacuum pump Mark. The permeate from the RO is used to clean the RO after you use it. You pump all of it back through to rinse the membrane(s) after you do a wash and to do rinses while you are concentrating.

[Amber Gold]

Hey Mark, Russ has it right. I'm hoping this GW well can supply enough cold water for the pump. I don't need much cold water, and I'm not sure how much the vac. pump is going to warm the water and the ground around it. We'll see. You're going to love boiling concentrate. Way better than the raw stuff.

Russ/Brad, I've been reading your threads biding my time starting mine. I am getting bored though waiting for the season to start. I went out last weekend in my snowshoes and broke some trails. Even with all the snow we've gotten, I think the snowpack's only 2.5-3' deep. There are tree wells forming in the woods trees, so that's' a good sign. I thought we would be making syrup next week, but it's not looking so good anymore.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm getting bored waiting for the season to start too Josh. I've been doing as much as I can while I wait but I'm getting sick of plowing snow and watching my wood pile go down. I want to be boiling sap and drinking boiling sodas.

[red maples]

I just looked at the extended forecast again on accuweather and it looks like next week is a little cooler than they said it was gonna be. Only 2 day in the upper 30's and it will be cloudy so no substantial thawing of trees that they need. I guess I will use those days to check leaks in the woods and get the RO flushed and ready to go.

Man this is a late start I hope it lasts into April for a week or 2. I am fine with a shorter season as long I am boiling everyday of that shorter season!!!

I have 250 taps in just taking my time. a hr here and an hr there. plenty of time to get the buckets and gravity tubing ready too. LOTS of squirrel damage too. WOW!!!

[Dill]

The clouds vs sun is what's going to make all the difference. I was hoping for an early season. I've got hayfields to stump and plant next spring before I start haying the rest of the fields. That means april is going to be one crazy month. I have to hire a payloader to bust the plow drift into the sugarbush, so maybe saturday I can actually get in there.

[sjdoyon]

http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/15747119-95/maple-syrup-harvests-slow-in-nh-as-weather-stays-too-cold

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Doyon. Good article to get people thinking about maple season. Just hope things warm up so we can make some syrup before maple weekend.

I'm glad weekend I got my RO machine ready to go and membrane flushed in preparation for the sap run this weekend...

[red maples]

Ha... sap run this weekend thats a good one. Sun is getting warmer but I was out tapping yesterday still not a drop. and still cold. looks like a good thaw starting around the 9th or 10th. Getting the RO ready on monday. And yes we better have some syrup for maple weekend I would hate to have to buy syrup for the weekend good for larry bad for me.

[Dill]

Josh couldn't resist the siren song of a charged battery. He's out slogging through the snow. He claims that there is something dripping besides sweat. I guess the sun is doing its job today.

[AndrewsofBow]

Seems if ice isn't dripping from roof than sap may not drip from tree.

[Amber Gold]

Long weekend tapping. Snows deep, but like Russ said it's easy to get around because you don't sink much with snowshoes on. The problem is because the snow's deep a lot of mainline and tubing are under snow. What's usually a simple process of pulling a stick off a lateral, now means digging three feet of snow to get to the stick. I can usually get tapped in in two days. I got about 450 of my 900'ish done, but I also usually do a better job with pre-season prep making repairs, so that's not helping things either. I am finding more taps to add, which is nice...maybe add 10-20 more this season.

Dill is correct, and it wasn't just sweat that was wet on Saturday. Tap holes in the sun were dripping even with how cold it was that morning...-10F. Saturday felt a lot warmer than it was, and Sunday didn't feel warm at all.

Took my two sap pumps out of storage. The expensive honda pump wouldn't start, but it'll run for a second on ether. Does that mean bad gas and need to take the carb apart to clean it, or just drain the gas and try again? Been a while since I've had to deal with this issue. My knockoff two stroke pump, that all I've done is put gas in it, fired right up.

I may take a day off this week to get more tapping done. Next week's still looking like good sapping weather.

[Amber Gold]

Going to finish getting tapped in this weekend. Will turn the vac. on this weekend, maybe Sat. Maybe Sun. instead if I want to focus on getting trees tapped. After being -5F this morning and single digits tonight, I kinda doubt it's going to run tomorrow.

Next week's looking real good...maybe the season will open with a bang!

[Russell Lampron]

I think once it starts it's going to run non stop until the season ends. We're going to get our reward for having to deal with the cold and snow.

[red maples]

They changed the forecast just a bit in our favor. I typed it then deleted it.... All I will say is Fingers are crossed. I have 5 cords of wood, Will I need more!!! Might have to cut down the reserved standing dead that I left up for emergencies.

[Dill]

First 75 of the Spring Harvest Mercenary taps are in. I"m burning through inline connectors but its way easier than digging out downed lines.

[Amber Gold]

I took all day Sat. and Sun. to get the last 400 taps in. Got 'er done though.

Yesterday morning got the vac. going and the new groundwater well seems to be working pretty good. Having issues with the LR pump cavitating. It'll cavitate for a few seconds, run fine for a sec., and then cavitate again. It'll do this 4-5 times and then run fine for a while, and then go through the cycles again. Not sure what's going on.

Spent yesterday afternoon checking for vac. leaks. Found unless the mainline was dug out of the snow, it was froze, so now all the mainlines dug out of the snow...what fun. I was able to make a first pass through the entire woods fixing taps I missed and squirrel chews. Got the woods up to 23" by the end of the day. Not bad and good enough for now. A late start by the time everything was online so no big sap runs. Today things will be plugged in all day, so hopefully we get a decent run.

Miss three days on trader and there's 9 pages of threads to go through.

[red maples]

hey just a quick note I am 5 for 5 on live strong hives!!! checked them all and started feeding yesterday. very excited its the first time all my hives wintered over!!!

[Russell Lampron]

Josh is there an air leak on the water intake side of your LR pump? That could cause the cavitating. Good to hear that you've got all of your taps in.

[Amber Gold]

Brad, I no longer like you...JK. Good for you on the hives.

Russ, just talked to Tuthill (owners of Atlantic Fluidics). They said to try to get the water colder because they think the water's boiling in the pump head. I checked the GW well this morning and it's at 70F...too warm. Time to plumb that line back in from the stream. It'll take some work because I need to build a short dam to get a little bit of a reservoir. They said a couple days of it cavitating won't hurt the pump.

Sap ran all day yesterday and most of last night. Brought home 500 gal this morning to make room in the tank. First boil tonight. Hope everything goes smooth.

[Dill]

Mercenary taps are coming along. I finished tapping yesterday, but it looks like Old Man Frost Heave claimed another releaser rod. Guess I'll have to start hauling the releaser back and forth in the VW.
The other Dills are tapping as well. My father said the sap was shooting out of his roadside monsters yesterday and my brother is floundering in road side ditches this morning.

[red maples]

Well I guess youre luck is in sap and my luck in the hives... ( well this year anyway)

[Amber Gold]

Yesterday's total was 1010 gallons. Left about 100 gal in the tank. Think sugar's around 2.1%. Hauled it home, took it to 15% and boiled away. Second time on the first boil of the season where I mistake which red line to read...syrup a little heavy last night... Made 5'ish gallons last night. Everything pretty much ran smooth, but like every first boil it's a cluster f getting things from what I thought was near ready to boil, to actually being ready...two different things. Kinda neat when you can go from a dead stop to making syrup in about an hour.

Don't think we'll get much sap today, nothing tomorrow, but maybe something on Sat. w/ the snow?? That's fine. Gives me some time to get a few more projects done.

Aside from the past and future repair bills, the new sap hauler's working out great. Flatbed dump's sure are nice. So much more room than a pickup bed, and you can dump it to get the tank dry. After I got done plowing, the last time, I found a crack in the frame about 18" back from the front bumper. Hoping it lasts until the end of maple season. Only good repair option is to cut the front section of frame out and weld in a new one from another truck. Don't have time for that now. Got sap to haul!

[red maples]

depending on how the crack goes and the extent of it. actually what you can do is grind the crack and dig it out just a bit then fill it in and grind it flat. then take a piece of steel plate and weld it over the crack on both sides of the frame. this will reinforce the whole area. because if thats a week park of the frame (which sounds like it is) chances are you are going to have a hard time finding a frame that isn't cracked. unless it was picked up and they fixed it in a later model and the frame is the same.

Nice sugar content. Mine was lower only approx. 1.65 I can usually off set the lower vac sap with the buckets but 25 gallons of it and it was only 2.5 (usually closer to 3.5) ain't gonna do much to 400 gallons. buckets aren't running good here yet well either are my cold woods. still getting antsy about maple weekend though need some stuff to get started on maple confections!!!

[n8hutch]

If your Sap hauler is A ford superduty that crack is pretty typical, I have seen several of them crack about half way between the front axle & front bumper. I don't know if Ford ever fixed the problem or not, I check my 2010 f-350 every time I wash it to see if its cracked, doesn't seem to really effect the truck all that much but I imagine left alone long enough could create some problems.

[Russell Lampron]

It only took alittle over an hour for me to go from lighting the evaporator to first draw off too. Ten minutes later I was out of sap. I had 750 gallons to start with, sweetened to 14% and boiled for 1 hour and 45 minutes.

[psparr]

It only took alittle over an hour for me to go from lighting the evaporator to first draw off too. Ten minutes later I was out of sap. I had 750 gallons to start with, sweetened to 14% and boiled for 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Rub it in to us "flat panners" why don't ya.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Amber Gold]

n8tch. Well that's encouraging...and that's right where it is. The guy who will be doing the frame work is good at it. I was going to have him needle scale and POR15 the frame anyways, but now he can fix the frame for me. He'll go through the underbody and see if there's other issues too. It wouldn't be so bad if the truck had coil suspension, but it has leaf spring and the front spring mount is beyond the crack, so crossing my fingers it holds together. The crack's about 6" long and runs diagonal along the frame.
Brad, the rest of the frame rail forward is junk. Better to cut/replace.
Russ, I've found the downside with a 600 is the amount of rinse water that gets dumped into your feed tank. It takes a little bit to boil off all that extra water. On the other hand, it is nice bring 1000 gal of sap from 2% to 15% in a few hours.

[red maples]

on the frame... oh... yeah better to replace. on my 300 its nice it doesn;t take much to rinse the sugar out. I boiled for 45 mins. another 100 gallons or if my sugar was a 2.0 I might have had a draw off. smelled really good though.

[Dill]

I was surprised, I picked up another 50 or 60 gallons today. Usually don't leave the pump on but I guess its worth it. Might have hit 32 with a cold wind, but the sun helped.

[red maples]

actually got 38* here picked up 60-70 gallons on vac. I'll take every drop already down to 31*

[Russell Lampron]

My little 125 has to run for a long time to get the percentage into the teens. I am using an NF 270 membrane again and the fast flow rates help a lot. I'm going to check into the pricing on an 8" tower to turn mine into a 400. When I do a sugar flush I slow the concentrate flow down so that I don't pump too much water into the feed tank. The sugar gets pushed out pretty fast and most of the permeate goes back to the permeate tank.

[Dill]

Really glad I got a new case for the Iphone last night. Cause it took a swim in the woods tank. If you are on the phone, don't try to take the releaser apart at the same time.
Didn't get much of a run last night. My vac check valve froze shut at some point, took some time and creativity to fix with minimal tools.

[Amber Gold]

Sat. Collected 500 gallons from what'd run since Wednesday. Boiled Sat. night and made about 13 gallons combined with Wednesday's run. This syrup got set aside for candy/cream making. Almost had a couple near catastrophes in the syrup pan. For some reason the syrup pan float wasn't keeping up and had a syrup pan full of syrup to sugar. Happened again for the second draw and then went OK the rest of the night.

Sunday. Walked the woods and got it up to 25". Groundwater well out of service. Cooling line from stream across the field is back service. Only trees that are really running are the sugar maples on the hillside. Sap ran most of the overnight, and it got just above freezing on Sunday, so it ran OK. Enough to bring home another 1000 gall. Made about 20 gallons of syrup last night. No issues with the evap. Things ran pretty smooth. Really liking the intenso-fire style arch that I got last year. Burning all hardwood loads w/ 24" sticks and getting 17 min. load times.

As usual, the syrup tastes lighter than the grade's showing. Not sure why syrup's coming out so dark. Had the same issue last year. May need to put a bubblemaster 1.0 in for next season. I'd like the color to correlate with the flavor to some degree.

[red maples]

mine is dark with lighter flavor as well tastes more like a medium. I though it was Amber but it wasn't thick enough...

[Russell Lampron]

With the bubblemaster I am making syrup where the color is matching the flavor. The syrup that I made last Wednesday is still in the finisher and hasn't been filtered or graded yet but looks like it could be golden or amber. It tastes like it should be amber, it tastes to good to be golden. I will be boiling again tomorrow night and that syrup will be blended in with the syrup in the finisher.

[red maples]

I can get a good deal on copper from my brother. tubing is still alot but cheaper. he's a plumber. Russ what size tubing did you use? you have a drop flue?

[Russell Lampron]

Brad all of the details are here http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?20529-Bubblemaster-1.0!&highlight=bubblemaster+1.0

[Amber Gold]

Like from what I've read on other's threads, the sap didn't start running till early afternoon yesterday. This morning, only about 300 gal in the tank. Crappy out this morning and it's going to take a while for the lines to thaw out. May not start running again till almost noon time. Hopefully it runs hard this afternoon. After today, I don't see a real run until Sat.

[Russell Lampron]

It did run hard once it started yesterday. At one point it was coming in at 50 gallons an hour which we haven't seen in awhile and the best we've seen this season.

[Amber Gold]

Sap didn't run too bad yesterday. Brought home 850 gal which is almost 1gpt in 24 hrs. SSC is at 2.4% which means the bulk of the sap is coming from the sugars. Once the reds come online we'll be down around 1.8% pretty quick...just need to get there. The merc. taps brought in another 420 gal so it was a busy night. Made somewhere between 30-35 gal. I really could've done without the wind though...pretty crazy.

Evap's running good. Getting some of the kinks worked out. Set the RO to 1.6gpm (96gph), and it kept pace with the evap., so now I've got a pretty good idea what I'm getting out of it. Pretty sure last year I was in the 60-70gph range. The downside is if I start the evap. before I get the sugar real high, it's hard to get to the mid-upper teens while I'm boiling. Once the sugar's up in the teens, the RO's only putting out about 100gph of concentrate.

[Dill]

Still can't believe Mark's sap was 2.8% there is something to be said for big roadside maples early in the season.

[Amber Gold]

I think that's where he usually sits. with those nice maples. Sure makes a truckload worth hauling when the ratio's 32:1. He's talking about tapping those trees on Birch Hill Road again.

[red maples]

its nice to be able to make that much syrup out of that much sap when the sugar is high!!!

[Risingsweetnesssugarshack]

Hey Josh,
Just wanted to say thank you for the tour of the sugar house today and for answering all my questions even though you were a busy man today. Good luck and I'll be in touch during the off season.
Sean

[Dill]

Another open maple weekend down at Spring Harvest. I actually can still talk. Surprisingly enough. Sold all the syrup, selection was a bit sparse by this afternoon. But I have to say sunday traffic was way up with the weather as nice as it was. I sent a bunch of folks up to loudon so hopefully they made it.

[Amber Gold]

Busy weekend this year. Surprisingly good turnout yesterday considering the weather. Excellent turnout today for a Sunday...a steady flow all day. Wish we had more syrup. FD Pancake breakfast broke the record books. They had a great turnout both days. Only had minor issues this weekend. Everything ran pretty smoothly.
Got enough sap Friday to run the RO and boil all day Sat., but after three days without a freeze, the trees slowed way down on Sat. and could only run the evap on Sunday. We have about 800 gal of sap sitting at the house ready to go for tomorrow night's boil.
Thanks to Alden for his help this weekend. He was great showing people outside how the sap is collected and initially processed using the RO machine.
Hope everyone else had a good weekend.

[Dill]

So I'm just going to pollute Josh's thread this year. I've been having issues with my releaser this year, that I think I finally fixed. At first it was a bent rod. So I swapped them out with a spare Josh had along with the old style float. It hung up last week on me and then worked for a short run. Sunday I couldn't get it to dump. Spent an hour leveling it to no avail. It would starting filling, move the op rod about a 1/3 of the way up. And then the float would be under sap it wouldn't dump. Maple weekend wiped me out and after an hour I gave up. Figured the ice must have bent the rod. So I go back tonight to pull the rod and try to straighten it out. The float seemed heavy when I uscrewed the rod from the lid. Turns out it was full of ice and sap. Put the new style float on and it started dumping no problem. Wish I had thought of that before.

[Amber Gold]

Alden, I swear, I didn't set you up with a leaking float ;) But seriously, when I picked the float up, I couldn't believe how heavy it was, and it didn't go in that heavy, so the float picked up sap since you installed it, but for the life of me, I can't find it leaking back out anywhere. You'd think if the sap found a way to get it that it would find a way back out. I think I'll drill a little pin hole in it to drain the sap, and then seal it back over.

Collected another 500 gallons yesterday. SSC is holding steady at 2%. Boiled off 1300 gal total yesterday. After boiling raw sap all day Sunday, forgot how boring it was while waiting for the rig to sweeten back up. The concentrate level mysteriously got up to 19% yesterday. I played with the valves so concentrate level matched the evap. and all of a sudden I went form 11% to 19%...nice! Since Sunday was spent puttering along, I was making really dark syrup. Took about 7 gal of syrup to get lighter stuff in and back up to a Dark Robust.

Took the time last night to drain the flue pan and dumped a bunch of permeate in. A lot of niter in the flue pan, more like a sludge layer on the pan vs. baked on like it does in the syrup pan. Sap in the flue pan has color, so the sugars are caramelizing in the flue pan. Hopefully now the flue pan will be clean and that the grade will keep coming up. Before maple weekend, I was just over the line from a Amber Rich. Trying hard to use the new grades, but I have to think about which one to use.

[Russell Lampron]

I have to think about it too but if you leave off the flavor descriptor it's easier to remember. I explained it to a lot of people over the weekend so that helped too. I like the hand outs and poster from the NHMPA better than the ones from the state. The one from the state with the brown background and arrows everywhere is kind of confusing.

[red maples]

Agreed. teaching about it helped me too. Some people still don;t get it. I had a woman email me and she is a regular wanted to know if I had quarts of Dark or grade B, I explained the new grades but at the time she called I just had very dark bottles and didn't have the dark done yet. I told her they were in they were in the stand. she said great. She stopped by the stand and she read the flyer that I posted and saw the flavor descriptor of strong taste and got scared. She email me and said she thought it was gonna taste bad so she went to the farm store and bought a qt of Grade A medium. this woman buys Grade b from me all the time. she loves the flavor I told her its the same thing. I explained the whole thing to her again and she finally got it. So there still is alot of confusion out there.

[Russell Lampron]

Some people think that they changed the grades just to confuse people. I told them that it was to get all of the maple producing world on the same grading system. I pointed out that Quebec, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York all had their own different systems. They understood better after that.

[Dill]

I think its going to take producers as long to get used to it as consumers. We had to explain the old grades all the time too. This is why I just stand outside and explain why we need maple trees in order to make maple syrup.

[GeneralStark]

Some people think that they changed the grades just to confuse people. I told them that it was to get all of the maple producing world on the same grading system. I pointed out that Quebec, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York all had their own different systems. They understood better after that.

This is my second year using the grading system and this explanation seems to be the easiest way to describe the reason for the change. All the other factors, flavor descriptors, etc...people don't really get. Dark syrup lovers, at least here in VT, also like the fact that there will be Very Dark syrup available for retail.

[Amber Gold]

Sap ran haaard yesterday. Collected 400 gal first thing in the am to empty the tank. Collected another 945 gal in the afternoon...that's more than 1gpt in about 8hrs. It's also about 1.5gpt in 24 hrs. About time. Today's shaping up to be another good one. So with our 1345 gal, Alden's 300 gal, and Mark's 350 gal, we had a busy night. Made somewhere around 45-50 gallons of syrup in 5 hrs from startup to shutdown. It may be a record for us. We've processed this much sap before, but I don't think with the SSC all being over 2%. Finally able to start putting syrup into storage. Vac's up to 24.5-25" gained 1/2" since Monday. Didn't do anything in the woods, but still need to walk another mainline to check for leaks.

So Monday night I had the bright idea of draining my flue pan and filling with permeate. It turned that night into a late night. Well, I picked a bad day to do it because we didn't get things put back together and fired up until 9pm. My intent is to do things like this during the weekend, but I didn't want to wait for another XXX gal of syrup going through it without a cleaning.

New grades. When I was explaining it to people, I told them we need to tell you how it's going to taste, and we go by color. Personally, I think using a light, medium, dark, and very dark standard is fine. Using Golden, Amber, Dark, and Very Dark is more confusing. They just need to know which is the lightest and which is the darkest. I think NY and ME had it right all along.

[Russell Lampron]

We had it right in NH. We could sell anything darker than dark amber as grade B as long as it tasted good. In VT and other places if it was darker than the B sample in the test kit it was commercial even if it was the best tasting syrup you had ever made. Everybody has that now with the new grading system.

[red maples]

I agree Russ. some of that super dark syrup is the best tasting stuff I have ever made... by the old standards if your in VT you can't sell it. I could never figure out why???

[GeneralStark]

I agree Russ. some of that super dark syrup is the best tasting stuff I have ever made... by the old standards if your in VT you can't sell it. I could never figure out why???

There are quite a few old school sugarmakers in VT that think that anything darker than medium is "off flavor". Some still end their season when it goes to b. This is one reason why many were opposed to the new grading system as "very dark strong" is inherently off flavored due to the extreme "burnt sugar" flavor.

The VT ag. Dept. was also concerned about off flavor syrup being retailed and often that syrup is made late season when it becomes dark. Hence the cut off with b. Other states have had a lower standard I guess.:)

[Russell Lampron]

There are quite a few old school sugarmakers in VT that think that anything darker than medium is "off flavor". Some still end their season when it goes to b. This is one reason why many were opposed to the new grading system as "very dark strong" is inherently off flavored due to the extreme "burnt sugar" flavor.

The VT ag. Dept. was also concerned about off flavor syrup being retailed and often that syrup is made late season when it becomes dark. Hence the cut off with b. Other states have had a lower standard I guess.:)

B was the most requested grade here because people in NH know what has the most maple flavor. If it has an off flavor it is commercial regardless of the color. You guys in VT need to take advantage of the new system and educate your customers that the stronger maple flavor is a good thing. I sold all of the B that I had left from last year this past weekend when it was Maple Weekend here. The customers knew that it was last years syrup too!

[red maples]

same here I was able to offer different grades for tasting this year, and I had very little "very dark" and it was the first to go. I used to be a chef and you have to remember when you're making things for people you need to keep high standards but you also have to make what people like.

"Burnt sugar" no burnt sugar here Man!!! now thats an off flavor. my grade B / Very dark has a buttery flavor!!! SOOO good!!!

[Amber Gold]

I think there's a difference between strong flavored Grade B (or Very Dark) syrup and off-flavored syrup. The Grade B still tastes good and doesn't an odd flavor or aftertaste. I agree with Brad. Have higher standards than your customers...customers only know what tastes good/bad, but not what goes into it.

Collected another 1000 gallons yesterday with 435 gallons delivered. SSC still hanging out around 2%. Filled another keg and filled some jugs. Late night getting that stuff done while the syrup was still hot. Grade is still hanging out just under an Amber Rich. I lost track of how much syrup we've made, but pretty sure we're over 200 gallons. Only 300 gallons more to go.

Forecast. Why can we only get a week of optimum temp's of 20/40's. This week has been perfect and the sap sure is coming. Not sure yet what to make of next week's forecast and if we'll get beyond it.

[red maples]

a few more words then I am done with the Grading/ flavor topic.
Here is my opinion on flavors:

Light or now golden/ delicate: really doesn't have much flavor at all, the vanilla flavors you can get from it play through and its sweet. Great for confections because the flavor develops when its cooked through.

Amber/rich: I think this has the true basic maple flavor. Its strong enough that it really stands out. Really the best tasting syrup by itself to get that true maple flavor.

dark/ and very dark: these are the best table syrups and I will tell you why, and this is my selling point on the darker grades. Lets face it most people are using maple syrup for breakfast, what do you have for breakfast? Coffee, tea, pancakes, bacon, sausage, waffles with fruit, whipped cream, or even straight on oatmeal. Your Pallet is so clogged with all those different flavors you will never taste golden or amber syrup when your eating it. I think I have a pretty educated pallet and can taste food and add what it needs or figure out from the flavors of a dish of what it has in it. Now when your eating dark and very dark syrup those stronger maple flavors carry through even when your eating all those different foods.

There should be no off flavors in Very dark no matter how dark it is. It should still be clean with no bad after taste period.

I don't like when any state puts Very dark as "only good for cooking" Thats such a bad thing to put on any grade of syrup. So I have to re-educate people to understand that it does make a good table syrup as well.

Anyway thats just my opinion. Sorry your thread got jacked a little for this topic but it is a good debate.

[Amber Gold]

Big day yesterday. Collected 1500 gallons of sap in 24 hrs...about 1.75gpt...nice! Another 800 gallons was delivered from the Dills, so 2300 gallons total. Sap still hanging in at 2% or better. Made almost over 45 gallons last night. Everything's working well...knock on wood. Finally able to walk the entire woods...first time in a while. Vac. at almost 25". Considering we haven't had a freeze in two nights, the sap ran surprisingly well. Collected about 975 gal, so almost 1gpt. We're getting a freeze tonight, so the sap should run great tonight. Big night tomorrow with today's and tomorrow's runs.

This week looking promising. I hope the forecast holds.

[Amber Gold]

Collected another 880 gal today and Alden delivered another 250 gal. So that with yesterday's run give us 2110 gal of sap to process. Sugar's holding steady at 2% or better.

Left to get the last load of sap tonight after the RO had been running for a while. The permeate tank is above the concentrate tank and it overflowed for a while back into the concentrate tank, so as Alden puts it, the RO was un-RO'ing for a while. Going to be a late night now...bummer.

[Russell Lampron]

At least you didn't pump the concentrate from 600 gallons of sap down the drain today like I did.

[red maples]

Oh man... that crap happens now and again.

[Amber Gold]

Oh...that sucks. Although someone on the ridge can beat that by a longshot. I didn't hear it first hand, but something to the effect of 400 gallons of concentrate went down the drain. My hiccup just meant that I started boiling later than I wanted to, it didn't cost me anything. Last night was a long night. I'm finding that if I want to get into the upper teens with the concentrate, I need to get at least into the lower teens first before I start the evap. Otherwise by the time I get there, I'm almost shutting down.

[n8hutch]

At least you didn't pump the concentrate from 600 gallons of sap down the drain today like I did. That sucks, I dump a gallon of finished syrup on the floor the other day. Needless to say the language around the sap house was not suitable for Women & Children for a few minutes.

[Amber Gold]

Aside from today, still getting good flows...generally around 1gpt/day. Sugar was holding steady at 2%, but dropped to about 1.6% yesterday. Color darkened quick. Went from making almost an Amber Friday night, to barely making a dark Sunday night, to well into a B Monday night, but back to a Dark Tuesday night, and Very Dark last night. Evap's running good, but getting back mixing even though I'm trying to modulate the dampers when I first throw wood in to keep the fire more consistent. Something to think about.

This weekend's cooling down a bit. I'm figuring we'll go well into next week before the trees bud out. Still have 6-12" of snow on the ground in most spots in the woods, so find it hard to believe the trees will turn that quick just because of a little warm weather.

My good idea for the year. I've heard of people using permeate water to clean pans, but I never had good luck with it. This year, I set the pan on the ground downstream of my RO discharge, and added a length of pipe so the RO would dump into the pan. Once my perm. tank overflows, I set the RO to drain and it flows through the pan before discharging on the ground. After one night of this setup, the pan was clean with a quick scrub from a tank brush. It doesn't get much easier than that.

[red maples]

yes very true. The permeate doesn't do much when its just sitting there. it needs to be moving in order to remove the minerals. Since the water is mineral free it is basically starving for minerals and even though its water its quite abrasive. Pretty interesting on a scientific/microbiological level. (or what ever you wanna call it)

This weekend is cooling down a bit? do you mean in temps or in sap flows? cause its gonna be 67 on Sunday and 70 on monday. Then 60's for the whole week. I don't know its gonna be pretty close to buds but the end of the week I am thinkin' unless there is that much ice in ground still to trick the trees into thinking that they shouldn;t bud yet. the following week night temps look much cooler. but thats too far away!!! I am not so optimistic I guess.

[Dill]

According to NOAA, low of 34 saturday and 35 sunday. Thats a lot colder than previous forecasts.

[Russell Lampron]

According to NOAA, low of 34 saturday and 35 sunday. Thats a lot colder than previous forecasts.

That's what the Weather Channel and Weather Underground say too. In my woods that could mean a frost and we shall see.

[red maples]

true it really only has to get close for it to freeze here too. but with day temps that warm again not too optimistic. but we'll leave the vac on and see what we get.

[Amber Gold]

Red, I meant the forecast was cooling down than what they were predicting earlier this week.

After barely being above freezing all day yesterday, it turned into a gusher about 6pm. Tank almost full this morning, so had to make an emergency return trip to the house to grab a load before work. Should be a big night. Hopefully we gain a little sugar with the cold weather.

Next week's forecast is warm, but generally overcast. I'm thinking we'll go well into next week even without a freeze. There's still snow on the ground and the cloud's will keep the trees from overheating. Nighttime temps nowhere near freezing generally, but that's expected this time of year.

[red maples]

I think the temps just got pushed back a day. it was originally supposed to be upper 60's to 70 on sunday and now thats monday. but its supposed to really sunny through tuesday then some rain but quite warm I predict close to budding for reds by next weekend. sugars always seem to go a little later. but they are all still tight now.

[MapleLady]

Collected 18 gal on 41 taps yesterday and hoping to do one more boil on Sunday. It is looking like our season might be ending this week.

[Amber Gold]

Really warm the past couple days, but still getting freezing nights. Still getting about 1gpt/day, so we'll keep boiling it. Syrup's still grading out right at the dark/very dark line. Daytime temps are going to cool down for the rest of the week, and maybe a slight freeze Wednesday night, so we'll see how much longer we can go.

[Amber Gold]

Considering yesterday was in the mid-70's, still got about 3/4 gpt (675 gal) and 125 gal from the Dill's. Sap quality is suspect but still making a good, strong flavored syrup. Sap flow down to a trickle this morning, but hope to get enough to boil again tonight. Wednesday night, low of 26. Pumps are staying on. Trees haven't budded yet, so there's still hope.

[tuckermtn]

Go josh go! we are done here in Andover...

[red maples]

He has the trees with the golden sap... and they just keep on Running!!! We are done here too.

[gearpump]

WooHoo! I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one that was hoping for another run on Thursday. Marty had a heck of a time keeping the sap in the pan Monday night (it was ridiculously foamy and made amber colored syrup that tasted like very dark) but he promises to boil it if I bring it in. I walked half a mile with two five gallon jugs of permeate to wash out the tank at our largest vacuum area today so it would be ready. -Anne (Marty's wife)

[red maples]

oh sap was crazy foamy the last 2 boils. on sunday I think I used more defoamer in one boil than I have used all season.

[Russell Lampron]

It was the same here with the foamy sap. I boiled for awhile without the bubblemaster on Sunday night and couldn't keep the foam down. The bubblemaster helps more than I thought at keeping the foam under control but last night was still tough.

[Dill]

The pumps are on, on the trees
Inside your head, on every beat
And the beat's so loud, deep inside
The pressure's low, just to stay flowin
'Cause the heat is on

Oh-wo-ho, oh-wo-ho


Nevermind the pumps are off. Gray trees, red buds and blue sky.

[Amber Gold]

32F this morning at the house and a frost. No frost at the woods. Checked the tank and about 400 gal of even milkier sap in the tank. Odor stronger. Wife's dumping the tank on the ground when she goes out at noon. Told her to shut the pump off if the sap's not running. May turn it back on tomorrow if we get a good freeze. NOAA's still showing a low of 27 tonight.

Good syrup in the evap, so unless I think we can make good syrup (not likely) and/or get enough volume to make it worth it, likely not going to contaminate the evap. to make mersh. We'll boil off the evap tomorrow night. Season summary to follow shortly after.

Sap was foamy the other night, but I've had worse. The slight off flavor that we had when it was fresh off the evap went away when it cooled down. Now it's just a strong flavored B. Went into jugs last night.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Josh,

I had some a few years ago at end of season in April when it got really warm. Syrup tasted pretty good when canned it but longer it sat in jugs, the stronger it got and within 6 to 8 months, it was terrible. Never had syrup to do that, but was way up in 70's when I boiled that day, so likely the culprit.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap that I boiled last night was pretty milky looking when it went into the evaporator and even the condensate that came out of the hood was kind of grey and slimy feeling. That's the first time that I had that happen and the foam never got high enough to get into the drain gutter in the hood.

[BlueberryHill]

My last few days of sap were foamy too. Sap was a little milky and did not taste great but it was not bad. Syrup came out good. It's dark and tastes great at first. But the after taste is not the greatest. It has maybe a hint of niter, or maybe tastes burnt a bit. Well, burnt is a strong word. I can't put my finger on it. I have been doing this for 5 years and I don't think I have ever made "Grade B" before. I guess I neglected my pan a bit on the last week and it got a pretty good brown film of niter crusted onto it. Maybe that is the culprit? Gotta figure out what to do with this last batch now.

[Amber Gold]

Officially done here. Boiled down the pans last night and started the cleanup process. What surprises me is even with all the defoamer built up on the sidewalls of the flue pan, that it still foams as much as it does. Considering how much syrup we made this year (TBD), the flue pan is in good shape. Niter buildup not bad, but lots of niter in the flue pan sap. Haven't tasted this syrup yet, but it had a sour smell in the foam...not sure if it'll be good syrup or not.

Helping the local school's sugarhouse with their pancake breakfast tomorrow, and then spend the rest of the weekend pulling taps. Hoping to get it all done in 1.5 days, but doubt it.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm going to start pulling taps this weekend too and like you I probably won't get it all done. Richard pulled the buckets yesterday. There were only 17 of them this year, down from 100 last year.

[red maples]

I won't even get to pulling taps until monday. buckets are already down, about 70 of those sap sacks so I just need to clean the taps and bag holders. Too much crap going on this weekend Baseball/softball clean up this morning opening baseball game in a little while then its supposed to start raining.... Tomorrow checking some bees in the AM then I have go to a BBQ in the afternoon. Don't really wanna go too much stuff to do.

[Russell Lampron]

I won't even get to pulling taps until Monday. buckets are already down, about 70 of those sap sacks so I just need to clean the taps and bag holders. Too much crap going on this weekend Baseball/softball clean up this morning opening baseball game in a little while then its supposed to start raining.... Tomorrow checking some bees in the AM then I have go to a BBQ in the afternoon. Don't really wanna go too much stuff to do.

We got all of the gravity tubing taken down, washed and put away. The buckets were pulled Thursday and we got about 500 of the vacuum taps pulled today. We will finish pulling the rest of the vacuum taps tomorrow morning. The tap pulling went faster than I thought it would and it will be nice to have it all done tomorrow morning. We are having a going away party tomorrow afternoon for my daughter who is moving to Colorado. I should be able to relax for a couple of hours and drink a few boiling sodas.

[Amber Gold]

Spent Sat. morning helping Moharimet Elementary with their sugarhouse's open house pancake breakfast. A really great program that's all volunteer run, and the sugaring program is integrated into each grade level's curriculum to some degree. Spent the rest of the day pulling taps and got it finished Sunday afternoon. Spent the following couple hours cleaning the woods tank, releaser, and misc. items so that's all put away now till next year. I have vinegar water sitting the flue pan waiting for it to take the niter off the pans and well on our way to having the sugarhouse cleaned up. Should be all done by the end of the week.

Keep forgetting to put together final season numbers...everyone's asking too. Need to get this done.

Russ, how was the party? I agree, tap pulling and woods cleanup went quick this year. All done with that end of it in 1.5 days of work.

[Russell Lampron]

The party went well Josh. One of the guys that came over wanted to see my doodlebug tractor and a crowd gathered around it. After that they wanted to see the sugar house and that really impressed them too. I like it when people say that the sugar house is neat and clean. I'm glad that I haven't had the time to put the vinegar in the evaporator pans yet to make it stink down there.

[Amber Gold]

I can't say my sugarhouse is clean. We're in full cleanup mode so everything's torn apart and everywhere.

[red maples]

mine is getting there but it smells like salad dressing. still need to get the floor cleaned up!!! its a little sticky!!!

[Amber Gold]

I think final numbers are in. Season was better than I thought it was, and we did better this year than last. We lost a sap seller, but made almost as much syrup. We hauled in 19,220 gallons of sap (21.8 gpt) and bought in another 5,335 gal from the Dills. Based on the SSC, we should've made 537.7 gal of syrup, but we only made 467.4 gal...difference of 87%...not sure where the 13% of syrup went, but some of it is due to not having an accurate water meter and going off the markings on the tank...will need to do something about this for next season. Gal syrup per tap was 0.4gpt and I shoot for 0.4-0.5gpt, so right in the ballpark. If March was just a touch warmer (really quite a bit warmer), we could've had a very good year. Syrup flavor was very good this year, IMO better than years past. Made very little Amber, a lot of Dark, and little Very Dark.

Already thinking about what we're doing for next year. Got some leads I'll be tracking down for possible expansion. We'll see over the next month or two what pans out.

[GeneralStark]

Great work Josh! Similar results here. 310 Gal. from 745 taps so a bit over .4gpt. I too thought I should have made more based on SSC but I'm really questioning the accuracy of my refractometer. I calibrated it daily, but it consistently read .2-.3 higher than my sap hydrometer. I also realized that a new to me SS tank was only 300 gal. (as I was using it due to overflow fitting) instead of 400 so that threw me off for the first part of the season. Really good flavor here too. About 60% GD, 20% AR, 15% DR and 5% VDS. I finally made some Very Dark Strong!!:)

[Russell Lampron]

I finally made some Very Dark Strong!!:)

I remember you asking how to make Pennsylvania Fancy. Of course around here it's known as NH Fancy. How do you like the taste?

[Amber Gold]

Off by a keg. Actual season total is 452 gal...I liked the other number better.
GS Glad you had a good season. Not sure what the grade distribution was, but I'd guess 10% Amber, 80% Dark, 10% Very Dark.
We're using a Hannah digital refractomer. I never did think that maybe the refractometer was off.

[GeneralStark]

I remember you asking how to make Pennsylvania Fancy. Of course around here it's known as NH Fancy. How do you like the taste?

I like it. I made two batches and the first is quite good with heavy flavor. The second is from my last boil when I also ran water into the flue pan to push as much syrup through as possible. This second batch has a slight bud flavor, so not retail syrup necessarily but I do have customers that will like it for cooking. It all filtered and was not ropey at all which I was concerned about due to the warm temps. and the sap definitely had a funky smell.