North East Ohio

[Bfouts]

Has anyone tapped yet up in Geauga County? I feel as if I should have had some trees tapped.


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[Sugarmaker]

I bet there are some folks tapped around there! We are about 60 miles further east and a little north. Several have tapped around here on reds. We have not tapped yet but its getting closer to time. Mid Feb looks pretty good for the weather. Should give me time to get all systems ready too.
Regards,
Chris

[mapleguy]

Some guys down around Windham have tapped along with one guy on Bundysburg and Old State Rd. ( he was boiling last night) Im waiting til Valentines weekend. gonna be pretty cold nxt. week

[christopherh]

Looks like a cold snap after Sunday, I'll be ready for the next warm up.

[heus]

I plan to tap this weekend to be ready for the next thaw, which doesn't look to be for a couple of weeks.

[WoodButcher]

all eyes are on Friday next week. nice warm up comin!

[heus]

We were been able to make close to 30 gallons of light syrup last weekend in Ashtabula County. Best tasting early season syrup I think Ive ever made. Good sugar content too (2%) which is extremely high for our woods. The reds never really got running that great I think thats why the sugar was high. Left the evaporator with lots more almost syrup with a small heater in the firebox. My original intention for tapping early was to simply get the lines flushed out and leaks repaired but ended up getting a nice run.

[woodburner]

Same here West of you, first runs so far are of great quality, very clear and creamy, the taste stays on the tongue. Waiting for a warm up here in the tundra. South wind today but staying cold. Hope I got all the kinks out of the system and now just waiting for the warm up.

W

[GeorgeQ]

Probably putting our first taps in tomorrow, work permitting. Looking forward to the season.

[johnallin]

Looks like Saturday for us...family and grandkids heading for the woods. If it hits the 40's this could be one of the warmest days we've ever tapped.

[christopherh]

Started tapping today, I'll be ready for the weekend!!

[mapleguy]

Tapped 200 monday have some repairs to make today from squirrel damage. repaired everything a month ago but they must be really hungry LOL. 300 more on tubing to go then hang 400 buckets and wait for it to warm up. Heard arctic cold is coming next week

[GeorgeQ]

Hung 100 buckets this afternoon. We hope to get the other 200 hung in the next two days. Looks like good weather Friday and Saturday, but I am wondering how the 15" of snow we have on the ground are going to affect things. It would be nice the fire up our new rig Sunday.

[heus]

Hung 100 buckets this afternoon. We hope to get the other 200 hung in the next two days. Looks like good weather Friday and Saturday, but I am wondering how the 15" of snow we have on the ground are going to affect things. It would be nice the fire up our new rig Sunday.
The ground is not frozen so the snow will not hinder sap flow at all.

[johnallin]

That is what they call a sugar snow...and it's a good thing. Trees should be all charged up.

I'm still holding off until the weekend. Shame because it looks good for Friday - with lows in the 20's the night before and sun and 40's during the day. But then it doesn't get cold enough again until Sunday night and stays cold for the rest of the week.

Good luck with hanging your pails and hope you're ready for the monster run on Friday.

[GeorgeQ]

Good deal. Thanks for the info guys. Should be a great weekend. Best of luck to all.

[Hunt4sap]

Hey all, my rooky year!
Tapped 18 trees for my first year a couple days ago.
Could i expect sap in my buckets this weekend?
I think i tapped too early?
Is there any harm in tapping maple trees a couple weeks too early?
Thanks for all your insite...

[woodburner]

Tapping early doesn't hurt anything it just shortens how long the tap hole stays open. I find it usually warms up before the tap holes stop flowing. I like to sugar in cold weather and start early so I can get the as much light syrup as possible. I have customers calling already for the light syrup. Having short runs early with a few freeze ups gives me time to make repairs if needed before a week of big runs. This week end looks busy. Good luck

[Hunt4sap]

Thanks, i plan on using ceramic blanket around entire barrel( except where pans are) and fire bricks in bottom.
My 6" stove pipe will end up being 12' long, thinkin of installing a damper in vertical chimney b/ c its so long, to be able to slow wood usage up.
Any ideas?

[woodburner]

I don't know how big your pans are but with a 6" stack you probably won't need a damper. You can adjust the boil and heat with the draft door.

[Hunt4sap]

I am still in the building process, but plan on having 2 pans that are ss and measure 12"x20"x6" deep.
I wasnt planning on having a draft door, but im not buying a stove door, just cutting a 12"x12" door out of the barrel end for this year.
To add a draft door where would be best place to cut one in?

[woodburner]

The best place is in front below the loading door. You wil have to regulate the draft by the door or with a draft opening that can be closed off some way.

[Hunt4sap]

Thanks for insite, i appreciate all info.

[Bryan Molnar]

All tapped here snow was tough looking forward to boiling Saturday

[clw]

All tapped in Vermilion.

[mapleguy]

Tapped 500 on tubing yesterday will be hanging 500 buckets today. Yea the snow was a pain but compared to last year this was nothing

[woodburner]

No run here today, guess the trees are really frozen. 34 at 10:30 , put on the vacuum and it didn't release until 2:00, at 47deg. Starting to pic up now but not much to show for today. We were over 10deg colder than Cleveland all day, temps on the way down now. Still have a good snow pack.

[Hunt4sap]

Well, my rooky tap is producing some already out of 18 taps.
Havin hard time keeping tbe buckets under the taps with this wind, guess thats one advantage to a hose...
Left them go thus afternoon, plan on checking in am by daylight...

[Craig M]

Tapped around 250 today in Parkman. I'll probably wait until the new evaporator comes in then do another 150 or so. Some were running fast and some weren't doing much at all. First fire of the season tomorrow!!!

[Hunt4sap]

Got 12 gallons of sap this am !
18 buckets
One was totally full
Some barely had the bottom of bucket covered
But im pumped !
Now to figure out the boil...

[WoodButcher]

All tapped here as well. Every hole i drilled was dripping consistently.

According to the extended forecast, we should have a nice March... fingers crossed!

13192

[Ekrueger]

Tapped on Thursday and had a great run today. 465 gallons from 235 taps. I made a hood and preheater from all of the great information on the forum. Sap was at 200-180 degrees and it was nice to have hot water to clean with.

[johnallin]

Tapped about 1/2 today, most were running like crazy then tapered off. Figure there's lots of pressure after the cold snap and nice warm temps today.
Then son and I stretched and hung 130ft of 1" feed line from new 3/16" setup collection tank, to the sugar house. Ended up hooking it to the winch on the Gator to get it tight. Boy did that work nice - but I had to tell my son to keep and eye on the sugar house in case we started to pull it over...;0 130 feet strung from a post on the sugar house, up through a tree limb and on down to the creek. Lots of slope for self draining and nary a belly in it - sure hope it stays that way.
Finished up by boiling out the new preheater and front pan with water to get er' all ready for this week. Very happy with the preheater. Inlet was stone cold, but the hot sap feed into the regulator box was too hot to touch. I think it's going to be a big improvement in our GPH.

[christopherh]

Finished putting In 550 yesterday. 400 on tubing and 150 with buckets. Between yesterday and today collected 900 gallons. The 400 on tubing are mostly reds and they ran like crazy last night. Had a great run today with the buckets. Things slowing down now. I'm finding low sugar content. The 400 on tubing was at 1.5 to 1.2 and the 150 on buckets are all sugar maples were at 2.1. All boiled down tonight.

[CrossBroMaple]

Boiled 1000 gallons in yesterday from Friday and Saturday's run. Seeing the same thing very low sugar content, 1.4%.

[WoodButcher]

just finished boiling 360 gallons from the last 18 hours. boy is this some tasty light amber... tastes kinda like cream soda!
great run....


13219

[RC Maple]

Glad to see others report on sugar content. I was tapped before the last freeze and the first runs of the year were the usual ~2%. Since then it seems to be closer to 1.5 or so. What I gathered Saturday seemed less than that. Hard to read the hydrometer exactly though with the bubbles around the stem and maybe the sap was warmer than usual with 60+ degrees Friday and Saturday? Hoping for higher numbers to come.

[woodburner]

Small run yesterday NE wind all day and that keeps this bush very cold. Slow start even today. Still recording low sugar 1.9 , very poor for all hard maple and this bush, we usually end the season at 2. Quality good on what we are making, up to 50gal. With all this high pressure sure glad for the vacuum, those with buckets should get a good run tomorrow.

[johnallin]

Collected 155 gal yesterday and boiled it off in four hours last night. The new preheater is the bees knees, I had 2-3 gallons of hot water an hour coming off and hit 45 gallons per hour evap rate in the second and third hour of the boil. I think the preheater is at the top of my list for improvements made over the past nine years.

[Hunt4sap]

So with my hydrometer, how do i check sugar level?
Cold ?warm?
It has both readings on it...

[johnallin]

Use the hot test line for syrup off the evaporator, it assumes your syrup is 211-212°. Temp is pretty critical here...test as quickly as you can. Although you're looking for 219° +/- for syrup, by the time you get it into the cup for testing it will be close to the 212°.
The cold test line (lower line) is for room temp syrup.

[Pete Cerup]

I have a nice weekend and yielded 2.5g. Little darker that's normal. Today I am boiling and sap is 2.1.. Slow drip in my gathering tank still.

[asknupp]

Hey John,
What are you doing for a preheated? Did you make one or purchase from dealer?

[christopherh]

Nice run on buckets yesterday. Sugars are were at 1.9 and my reds on vac were 1.2. Nice morning to gather sap : (

[johnallin]

Hey John,
What are you doing for a preheated? Did you make one or purchase from dealer?

Purchased a Leader SS preheater. I'm liking it a lot, we hit 45 gph Monday and have hot water to spare..