carter
02-22-2018, 12:22 PM
So the year prior I tapped a few trees and bumbled my way around into making something I called syrup. I used a burner and lobster pot and did the best with what I had.
So this year I decided to go slightly larger scale but not to the point where I won't know what to do with the syrup. You could say I purposefully limited by production. I would have no idea what to do if I made 50 gallons of syrup...
So I bought a pan that could go on a simple two burner propane stove. Picked up a finisher/bottler and that goes on my single propane outdoor burner.
http://carterbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/img_2902-1024x768.jpg
The only thing truly saving me is my home built RO machine. It's slow, processes about 5 gallons per hour when cold, but allows me to go from 1.5% - 2.5% sugar to 6% concentrate. That's been the huge time savior.
http://carterbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/img_2898.jpg
Excuse the mess... Reorganization and winter storage of deck items. :(
Tapped 35 trees. All hanging buckets.
The first year I made roughly 1 gallon of finished product. So far this year, I'm a little over 2 gallons.
Photo from last nights run:
http://carterbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/img_2977.jpg
I guess my goal is to keep learning, and trying to make as much syrup as I can using the limitations I have - but improving on them. I forsee the biggest improvement I can make is changing my heat source and/or doing inside a closed structure. The heat loss is huge and the amount of propane I'm using it pretty pathetic compared to my end production.
Lastly can't say I like the new grading system. I bet that's beating a dead horse around here, but I said it and got that off my chest.
So this year I decided to go slightly larger scale but not to the point where I won't know what to do with the syrup. You could say I purposefully limited by production. I would have no idea what to do if I made 50 gallons of syrup...
So I bought a pan that could go on a simple two burner propane stove. Picked up a finisher/bottler and that goes on my single propane outdoor burner.
http://carterbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/img_2902-1024x768.jpg
The only thing truly saving me is my home built RO machine. It's slow, processes about 5 gallons per hour when cold, but allows me to go from 1.5% - 2.5% sugar to 6% concentrate. That's been the huge time savior.
http://carterbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/img_2898.jpg
Excuse the mess... Reorganization and winter storage of deck items. :(
Tapped 35 trees. All hanging buckets.
The first year I made roughly 1 gallon of finished product. So far this year, I'm a little over 2 gallons.
Photo from last nights run:
http://carterbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/img_2977.jpg
I guess my goal is to keep learning, and trying to make as much syrup as I can using the limitations I have - but improving on them. I forsee the biggest improvement I can make is changing my heat source and/or doing inside a closed structure. The heat loss is huge and the amount of propane I'm using it pretty pathetic compared to my end production.
Lastly can't say I like the new grading system. I bet that's beating a dead horse around here, but I said it and got that off my chest.