2018 Season

[Gary R]

Everyone must have hung it up? I boiled 30 gallons last night. Sap came from the past two days. Lots of bugs. I'm going to stay at it till next weekend. Good weather ahead.

[Sugarmaker]

Hang on Chris, good weather is coming!

Check out this syrup. Almost Cranesville Ultralight:cool: Rocks definitely wouldn't have helped. I have not made any Golden syrup for 10 years. Back then I had buckets and a flat pan. I attribute this to a few things. Mostly, because of vacuum I'm usually boiling just over 1% sap. This sap was about 2%. Also, in the tubing the sap sits there for some time before it comes in. I'm sure the bacteria level is up even though my sap is usually clear. 18379

Gary,
Awesome looking syrup!
I attribute it to your fresh hard maple taps and mother nature too.
Nice job hanging in there and stretching your season.
Start looking for rocks for next year!:)

I haven't given up yet. we had a good frost the last two nights! I plan to gather whats out there Monday afternoon and boil at least one more time. Sap volume has greatly diminished to the point its not hardly worth the fuel to go get the sap. I have several gallons of concentrated sap in the evaporator that will either be pushed with water or sap. The goal is to have boiled in January, February, March, and April on the same taps!!! Will be somewhere near 110 gallons of syrup for the season. A little below average but we will take it.

Regards,
Chris

[Gary R]

I boiled 20 gallons of 1.6% last night. I just collected 13 gallons of 1.5% and boiling. I put the buckets on the ground tonight. Supposed to be in the 60's tomorrow and no freezes for two days. I plan on hanging the buckets back up Thursday morning for the next run. Not a lot coming in off of 20 buckets, but I only have a few days to go.

[Sugarmaker]

We finished the 2018 season last night. Gathered 200 gallons of 2% sap and started boiling around 6:00. Made 12.5 gallons of Dark Robust using water to push the last syrup through the rig. Ended with 113.5 gallons of good syrup for the season. Short of a normal season but should be able to supply our customers this year. Sap was cloudy but the syrup tasted very good and I was glad we came back from Very dark. Will start the clean up process today.
Hope everyone has a good spring and summer.
Regards,
Chris

[DASH]

We finished our season yesterday, 50 gallons of the lightest syrup we’ve ever made. It has been a good year for us, now it’s time to clean everything up and begin planning for next year. Hope you all have a great summer!

[Father & Son]

Hang in there Gary. I’m rinsing all my tanks and looking at an other good 6 or 7 days of season!

[Sugarmaker]

Jim,
I think there is a good chance that you may get the additional week of syrup making. Weather looks pretty favorable!

I did get the stats put together for 2018:
Tapped Jan 25th and 26th 2018
Gathered first time 1-27-18
First boiled 1-27-18
Gathered 5138 gallons of sap
Largest amount gathered Feb 20, 758 gallons
Most syrup made in one day, 19 gal Feb 20.
Started making Amber rich, then Dark Robust, Very dark and back to Dark Robust to finish
Boiled 15 times
Last boil was 4-2-18 (also got and new great grandson that day too!)
113.5 gallons of syrup made. About 2/3 rds of normal crop.
We were froze up for at least 4 weeks of the season.
Could be the first time we boiled in four months of maple season.
Got to visit a lot of friends sugar house's and had a lot of friends visit our place.:)

Regards,
Chris

[Gary R]

Jim, it's good to hear from you! Wasn't sure you were boiling this year. I am still at it but I don't know why:lol: I put my buckets back up Wednesday evening in a blizzard. The last two days have been decent weather. Today I woke up to 18 degrees and 4" of snow. Just checked the buckets and of course they are almost frozen solid. It only feels like about one days worth of sap in them. It may be froze up for two more days, on April 7th? I may just pull it all and finish what I have. I need to move on. I'm smoking jerky right now and need to start turkey scouting.

[Father & Son]

Gary,
Feels good to be back at it. First I’ve boiled since 2014. Retired 2016, the hospital offered a buy out to about 100 employees and the offer was good. A new hip last August and woods work is possible again.

Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Folks ,,
In clean up mode: Have the evaporator filled with water and 10 gallons of vinegar. small fires and light brushing has most of the scale loosened up. Cleaned steam-away yesterday. Need to drain rinse and pull it off to brush the flue pan. Weather is cold 26 degrees and snowing! Next week will be warm enough to get out and start sanitizing and rinsing the 30+ tubing systems.
Regards,
Chris

[Gary R]

I am bowing out! I wanted to quit today anyway. I boiled the sap and sweet I had, finished and canned. Ended up with one gallon and three quarts. It is only a tad darker than the stuff I posted two weeks ago. Only problem is it is metabolized. Didn't notice it when we were finishing. Once canned we noticed the flavor was off. Has a tinny taste and now the kitchen smells like popcorn. Too bad I didn't taste before we canned. This would have been the ideal batch to run up to 240 and water back down to syrup. Supposedly this will "burn" off the off flavors and make your syrup good. I would have liked to try it. Wouldn't give it away but it will do fine in our coffee. Even had time to acid wash the pan and wife washed buckets!

Jim, I might stop in some late afternoon. It would be great to catch up on things. Good luck!

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
I was afraid of off flavors as late as it is!
Regards,
Chris

[Father & Son]

Gary,
That would be great. I’ll PM you my cell. Call first to make sure I’m here.

[Sugarmaker]

Had a good visit with 3% solution (Dave) This morning we solved all the maple concerns between NH and PA!
He has had a record year for production in NH!
Thanks Dave for the help building the Steamaway years ago!
Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Soaking the pans with water and vinegar solution. Steamaway moved off to the side. And a little fire. May go rinse some tubing today.

https://i.imgur.com/C0cyGPg.jpg

Regards,
Chris

[Gary R]

I just couldn't stand it and had to try it! The off flavor syrup I made I had to try correcting. I opened all the mason jars and boiled the 1.75 gallons to 242 degrees. I then took it off the heat and added boiling water to it. It took about 1/2 gallon to get me back to syrup. Lots of sugar sand! I filtered and canned again. It definitely made for darker syrup. I'm sure it still makes amber. There might still be a hint of off flavor but it has a great maple flavor. My wife is happy I took the time to try this. Thanks to UV Proctor Maple Research for this!

[Sugarmaker]

I just couldn't stand it and had to try it! The off flavor syrup I made I had to try correcting. I opened all the mason jars and boiled the 1.75 gallons to 242 degrees. I then took it off the heat and added boiling water to it. It took about 1/2 gallon to get me back to syrup. Lots of sugar sand! I filtered and canned again. It definitely made for darker syrup. I'm sure it still makes amber. There might still be a hint of off flavor but it has a great maple flavor. My wife is happy I took the time to try this. Thanks to UV Proctor Maple Research for this!

Gary nice work saving that hard earned syrup!
I rinsed tubing systems the last two days.
Also leveled the evaporator as the right side was about 3/8 inch high.
Regards,
Chris