Spring Harvest 2019

[Amber Gold]

Hi everyone, hope you enjoyed the off-season. As always, you have to wait till the last minute to get stuff ready for maple season even though you've been thinking about it since the end of last season.

• Added a 4th tank to the setup. This will be the permeate tank, and it’ll allow me to single pass sap to a concentrate tank during the day, and then single pass it again to the head tank. Still need to finish the RO piping to use the other tank.
• Doing long-needed maintenance work in the woods checking slope on near flat mainlines and swapping out PVC valves that’ve broken over the years (still a work in progress). Woods made out fairly well over the past year. Lost an end tree I need to fix though.
• Last weekend, I had to redo the PVC piping that fed the RO machine because it was all cracked…not sure what happened, so that was an unplanned repair and took up most of a day and half.
• Tanks are all cleaned and sugarhouse is ready to make syrup. Still needs a final cleaning, but at least I can make syrup.
• Still need to finish wiring the new water jacketed canner I had Bill Mason make. Been sitting half done for weeks…
• SHMF to remain about 900 taps. Everything in reach has been getting drilled for a few years now, so I’m as big as I’m gonna get.
• Greg and Sean (guys I buy sap off of) are both adding taps. Tap total coming to the SH this year UNK, but pretty sure I’ll need my swimmies at times. Plan this year is to get the RO going mid-day most every day to get a big charge of concentrate before I even get home.

Last weekend, I was hoping to get the RO going to make sure there are no issues, but that didn’t happen. Ran out of time with the plumbing work I hadn't planned on. Crossing fingers because I’ll be getting it going while I’m tapping. XX

Tapping the end of this week/weekend. Unfortunately, I’m going to miss the upcoming warm-up. My goal is to get enough trees tapped that I can start collecting sap on Saturday and make sure the woods/pump/releaser are all working fine. Even though next week looks cold, I’m sure it’ll change. Besides, it’ll give me time to make any needed repairs.

Good luck everyone and here’s to a good season!

[Russell Lampron]

Hey Josh, You're going to like coming home and having the first pass already done. I start my first pass in the morning before I go to work and Richard comes up at lunch time and runs the second and third passes. I come home to 14% that's ready to boil which makes for an early night.

Procrastination is the name of the game. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow. It sounds like you are almost ready which is a good thing.

Good luck and happy sugaring.

[Maplewalnut]

Good luck Josh...doesn't matter how ready you are, there will always be a leak here or there!! Its part of the fun

Mike

[Amber Gold]

Hey Mike and Russ. Good to hear from you.

Russ, how does the membrane not foul with concentrate sitting in it after it shuts off when it runs out of sap?

Leaks...not allowed! They either cause vacuum leaks or sap to run on the ground...either way, it's lost syrup!! :)

Mike, how on earth are you handling 2500 taps on a 600 RO and a 2x6?? At this point, I'm guesstimating I'll be over 2000 this season and trying to figure out how to manage it all.

[red maples]

Hey there he is... its always a rush to get things going.... last minute BS... I think about how to get my flat tubing be better ever year yet I wait until NOW to make the changes...

Good to hear from you. Good luck tapping its a mess out there now!!!

this weekend should be even swampier.

[Russell Lampron]

Russ, how does the membrane not foul with concentrate sitting in it after it shuts off when it runs out of sap?

I never thought about that. It never sits for more than a couple of hours and the flow rates always come back when I start concentrating again. If it's getting fouled it cleaning itself out.

[Maplewalnut]

Mike, how on earth are you handling 2500 taps on a 600 RO and a 2x6?? At this point, I'm guesstimating I'll be over 2000 this season and trying to figure out how to manage it all.

Josh- I am lucky my wife or son will start the RO before I get home from work. Most nights I have a couple hundred gallons of 12-15% to boil and Then it washes overnight

Mike

[Amber Gold]

200 gal of concentrate though is still say 5 hrs of boiling never mind prep/cleanup...and that's an average day.

[Amber Gold]

Crazy busy few days. Goal was to get enough taps online for Saturday’s warmup/run to get the vac going…mission success!
• Thursday. Got about 350 taps in. Got the back mainline done and half of my sugar line before it got too dark out. Made minor repairs along the way. All tap holes were dry.
• Friday. Got almost another 350 taps in. Got the backyard line tapped and almost completed the sugar line before it got too dark out. Tap holes didn’t start getting wet until late afternoon. Fortunately, it didn’t rain much, so it wasn’t too bad.
• Saturday. Got the field line tapped and finished the sugar line by noon. Got the vac pump and releaser going after lunch. Started walking woods by 3. Not much sap to collect, but woods are up to 25”. After dinner, I got the RO going. No issues there. I took my old membrane to generate about 250 gal of permeate, put my new membrane in, and rinsed it with permeate water. What I don’t understand is if my old membrane was tested at 64% of its rated flow rate, why was I getting 2 conc./9.5 perm at 300 psi when I was creating permeate?? Isn’t that 11.5gpm total (or 690 gph)??
• Sunday. Tapped the swamp line, made more minor repairs, and turned the vac. on. Trees/lines in the sun were running a bit. Found a problem with the releaser. The pump was short cycling and not pumping down all the way. After much observation (I’m a slow thinker), Jim and determined there was too much tension on the spring on the switch. Took some tension off the spring (adjustment screw), and back to working fine. I will say, the float setup on these releasers really stinks. Every year, there’s always something with it. I’ve replaced the float string a number of times because they break. The weights and float switch have been replaced once each. Someday, I’ll follow through getting an alternative to the float setup. Jim knows someone, who may know something…

Even though the weather seemed favorable over the weekend, the sap really didn’t run well. With the little bit of sap I got, it flushed the lines out, so when it does start running, I can start collecting. Things are in good shape for the sap when it decides to run. Now, I just need to get the sugarhouse picked up. I could make syrup, but it’s a mess…really just cluttered.

As of Sunday morning, I’m all tapped in which should be ~900 taps. Problem is I still have 15-20 taps in my last bag. Somewhere in the woods, there are trees hiding from me…they must be found!

Over the years, I’ve found that it takes 4 days total to get everything tapped (provided there isn’t deep snow), vac running, woods tight, and dealing with any early season hiccups that always occur. 350 taps per day seems to be about the max I can get in. Good info for planning purposes. I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes I’ll go back and read through my season threads to see what happened.

[Shaun]

I used this last year and so far this year. The string float would freeze at the hole in the releaser top and not allow it to move. This happened when sap was running in marginal temps. The releaser is in a heated room and still had all sorts of problems, My moisture trap, which I did not think would get used is 4 feet above the releaser and when it let's go sap goes everywhere...

It may be worth looking at for a solution. I cannot speak to longevity, so far so good. I had to do something at the time. It is easier to clean without the settling tube and floats too.

https://www.amazon.com/HC6000-Hi-Lo-Controller-Float-Switch/dp/B006AU4L4U

[Amber Gold]

Hey Shaun, Thanks for sending the link. Someone else recommended the same switch, and it's exactly what I'm looking for, but the problem is the switch is for 120V and my pump is 220V. I haven't been able to find one of these for 220V.

Surprisingly (and knock on wood), I haven't had problems with the float string hanging up due to icing like I've heard from others. Lapierre said they'd modify the releaser top for me, but I'd just as soon spend the money on a hi/low sensor switch than on an updated float switch.

[Shaun]

If you have more trouble with the string you can use the HC6000 Hi Lo to operate the 120V coil of a double pole contactor. I used the one in the link for a Vacuum pump starter, for a little more $ you might be able to get a name brand like Siemens. It is simple to build in a little project box and keep it clean looking. Add a 120V plug to small gauge wire, plug into HC6000, terminate wires on the coil of the contactor. Then you can cut or add a break in your 220V pump wires and hook each side of your pump to the terminals on the contactor. Unlike if the string breaks, if this fails the pump is not going to run "usually" which may save your pump from burning up. Not sure if what I typed makes sense? With the aggravation of the string unit I had last year I figured I'd mention an option for 220V. This method is used often in industry when small control relays control large motor/loads.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KGSJ74/ref=twister_B07C1X6SHD?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Shaun. I copied your post to the link below. It's a thread I started last year on this topic. I thought it'd be good to keep the information together.

Lapierre Electric Releaser Float String (http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?31970-Lapierre-Vertical-Electric-Releaser-Float-String/page2&highlight=electric+releaser+float)

[Amber Gold]

Quick update.

Left work early yesterday and turned the pumps on by 4. Walked 4 mainlines and fixed a few leaks. Lines were thawed out, but sap wasn’t really running, which makes it hard to find leaks. I could tell some lines have leaks, but couldn’t pinpoint them. I did get the vac from 22” to 25.5”, but not sure how much of it was from fixing vac leaks or trees freezing up. Sap flow slowed right down by 6.

Still more maintenance work to do in the woods, so that’ll be tomorrow morning. I was hoping to boil tomorrow night, but I don’t think we’ll get enough sap by then to fire things up. It’s not supposed to get above freezing until noon, so not much time to run. Sunday may be the night.

Next week = cold.

[Russell Lampron]

Same here Josh, The sap's running just enough to find the big leaks but it's going to have to run better to find the small ones. I started saving sap today and got about 75 gallons. The forecast doesn't look good right now but maybe the rain on Sunday will get things flowing.

[Amber Gold]

Late yesterday afternoon, I went to get a load of sap, so I could boil Sunday night, and turns out the sap was running pretty good. I brought home a 642 gal truckload and left 2-300 in the woods tank. The hourly said it should stay above freezing almost all night, so I made the game time decision to keep the rest in the tank, collect again in the morning, and boil Monday night instead. This morning, I got another 650+ gallon truckload (~400 gal more in the overnight).

Woods sitting at 25.5". I know there's some smaller leaks on one of the backyard line, but no time yesterday to find them.

Downside to boiling tonight is it’s going to be cold and super windy, and the cold the kids have been passing around finally caught up to me…not so good.

Me being careless yesterday, I broke the register from my sap off-loading water meter. Super glued it back on, and still works…sweet!

Here’s to a good 2019 inaugural boil tonight.

[red maples]

man what is up with your trees. amazing... can't believe you go that much sap. good for you.

[Russell Lampron]

Wow it must be nice to have a warm woods. It's been too cold here for the sap to run. Good luck with your pan sweetening!

[Amber Gold]

Thanks, and I'm not complaining. The sap tested at 2.1%, so I don't think there were many reds. I have sections of my woods that get a fair amount of sun, so on those marginal days, they'll still run even when the rest of the woods is frozen.

Took the sap up to 14%, sweetened the pans, and made 12+ gallons of syrup. This was probably the best first boil I've had. Everything went off without a hitch. The only issue was I put the diaphragm pump back together backwards, but it only takes 5 min to break it down.

Overall, things are good. Just need Mother Nature to cooperate!

[Russell Lampron]

I'm glad that you had a good first boil. I had my best one last year when we made 7 gallons but almost scorched the front pan in the process. It was our first boil with my new WF Mason arch and we didn't know that it would make so much syrup so quickly. The first draw off came out a little heavy. We run the front pan a little deeper now so that there's something to push the syrup out when it's ready.

[BAP]

Sounds like you are off to a good start. What grade was the syrup?

[Amber Gold]

The first night, I usually feel like I'm running around with my head cut off trying to get last minute stuff squared away. Usually something's sticking, I forgot to do something (like add defoamer), etc.

Not sure. I just put it in the canner. I got hit with a cold/fever that morning and just wanted to get it done and leave. I'm guessing dark, but it could've been amber. The sap had been collecting since Thursday.

So, I stopped in the woods this morning to check on the pump shed. Found vac. still running and like 100 gal in the tank since Monday morning's pickup...cool. Downside is high winds blew the pump shed door open, and the releaser is filled with frozen sap. Not sure if it's frozen solid (it sure looks like it), but I closed the door and turned the heater on high. Hoping it's thawed out by tonight, so I can test the releaser and make sure the pump/floats still work fine.

[Russell Lampron]

I hope that nothing got damaged in the freeze up. That wind was bad yesterday.

[Amber Gold]

Like everyone else, not much to report.

Saturday. Replumbed the discharge piping from my RO because of my new tank. I can now send concentrate to 3 different tanks and permeate to two different tanks. Just need sap to test the new system out…

Sunday. Got the vac pump going and walked the woods. Overall, things are in good shape from the cold snap and wind storm. Only a few blown down branches and only found one fittings pulled apart from the cold. Minimal sap flow, so vac leaks hard to find, but ended the day at 26.5”.

~400 gal in my woods tank, half of which is a block of ice. Only going to get worse today with whatever we get for sap. Ice block will grow with this week’s cold. Not cool.

I have a Sta-Rite pump inside of my releaser. Bombproof. After sitting in my frozen releaser, it still works fine. I think the same thing happened a couple years ago too. Pump's been run dry for up to 2 weeks when my float string broke. This pump owes me nothing, and it still works great.

[Russell Lampron]

Josh you're going to like having a dedicated sweet tank. Do you do your passes at 50% concentrate and 50% permeate and keep going until you reach the percentage that you want or do you have a specific number for concentrate flow?

I don't know if I can do it but I want to try to go to 14% or higher in 2 passes now that I've got the second tower on my RO. I'll send the first pass to my sweet tank and then send the second pass to the head tank. I'm thinking of trying 1 gpm on the concentrate side and whatever I get for permeate at 300 psi. My goal is to get to 10% on the first pass.

[Amber Gold]

Saturday. Spent it in the woods checking for vac leaks the best I could (sap not really running) and gained another 5 taps with new trees. Ended the day with 26.5”. Hauled out 500+ gal of sap late in the day and brought it back to the sugarhouse for processing Sunday night. Left about 200 gal of ice in the tank. I didn’t check the SSC, but I’m guessing it was pretty sweet with all the ice I left behind. Inside the releaser, I noticed there was a lot of bubbling from air coming in…figure I have a threaded fitting on my sump pump that’s leaking air into the system, so needs to be tightened up. Since it’s inside the releaser, there’s no way to know it’s there…wonder how long??

Sunday. Spent the day at my daughter’s gymnastics meet. She did well, and it was fun to watch. Nic made a new friend, but sharing is still a work in progress. Fortunately, nothing happening yesterday in maple world, so that was good. Started the RO machine when I got back and started getting the evap unfrozen enough, so I could boil. Just after getting the evaporator up to a boil, Zuri decides to find a skunk…awesome. Fortunately, she didn’t get sprayed too bad. Shut things down and dealt with her. Started back up and finished the night with ~30 gal of syrup in the canner which includes my first boil too. First time I’ve been 2 weeks between boils.

I’m liking the new membrane. I’ve been getting it to 10% on the first pass with 32-34F sap. Flows are something like 2/5.5 conc/perm pressure @ 350-400 psi. Plan moving forward is to wash after every concentrate cycle and to benchmark after every use. Hoping to maintain better flow rates longer and keep the membrane longer.

4th tank is now setup, so hoping to utilize it the next time I boil and go to a 2 pass system.

Russ, I used to do the 50/50 method, but found it took a while, so mid-season last year, I just set my conc. to 2gpm and recirc’d until the SSC was where I wanted it...generally 14%+. I found the sap went through the RO less often and my grade lightened up quite a bit right off the bat. Using the same approach so far, but haven’t checked my grade yet. Reason for using 2gpm is it matches my evap. Once I send sap to the head tank, I light the evap. By the time the evap gets boiling, I’ve got say 10 gal in the head tank, and once the evap gets really cooking, 2gpm is slightly faster than it. The RO will generally finish early enough that I can due a sugar rinse, rinse to drain, and wash before I’m done for the night, so I can put the RO on its final rinse when I go home for the night.

[Russell Lampron]

I was finally able to collect some sap tonight. The sap is still barely trickling in here but I've got enough to sweeten the pans tomorrow night. I did the 50/50 thing when I had my single tower to keep the flow rate as high as possible for as long as possible. It worked pretty good because I was able to get some good numbers that I could get back to when it was time to start with raw sap again. I only had to acid wash my membrane once mid season last year and then again at the end.

When you're doing the 2 gpm thing what are you getting for SSC on your first pass? As I had posted above I'm hoping to get to 10% on the first pass. When I first got my RO I ran it at .75 gpm with the pressure just under 500 psi and was getting 8% out of it. That was before I learned about recirculating and keeping the pressure down some to save the membrane. I'm planning to push it a little harder and go to maybe 400 psi.

What are you using for a membrane now? I just bought some MES, MS-2 membranes for mine.

[Amber Gold]

So far, running it at 2 conc and starting it at 5.5 perm at about 350-400psi. I've been recircing to get the conc. level up because the bulk tank hasn't been set up. The recircing for a bit the other night, I was at 15% and getting 2/2.75 conc/perm flow rates.

I got the CDL membrane because of the price. They gave me a good deal on it and said it was the same/comparable as MES. So far, I'm happy with it.

Lapierre's benchmark test made the most sense to me...set the conc. at 3gpm and the pressure at 225 psi and take a perm reading. Temp corrected perm. flow readings have been 12.25gpm. I think my old membrane when I finished the season was around 6gpm, so huuuugge difference.

I saw on your thread that you got some sap. Glad to hear it, and it's about time with this weather we've had. Trees are sloooowly waking up.

[Russell Lampron]

I collected another 175 last evening so was able to start with 440 gallons for my first boil. We were playing with the concentrate flow and pressure settings and found that we can get 12% on a single pass at .5 gpm concentrate flow and 300 psi. We were getting about 2.25 gpm permeate flow at those settings. I tried the same thing at 400 psi and got 13% out of it. I'm going to go back to recirculating and see if I can get closer to 20%. It's nice to know that I can get sweet enough in a single pass to boil.

I got the MES membranes for $215 each. That's about $100 less than I was paying for a Dow membrane at Atlantic RO and $250 less than Lapierre wanted for a Dow membrane. I like the performance of the MES membranes so far.

[Amber Gold]

Interesting the 100psi boost only got you another 1% increase in conc. I wonder if it's any harder on your membrane going from 300 to 400. As a rule, and there's no basis for this, I keep normal operating pressures less than 400, but I have boosted it to 425 (I don't think 450) when I wanted a bit more out of it.

Boiled Tuesday. I brought in almost 400 gal of my own (over 2 days) and GZ dropped off another 330 gal. Finally, finally, got the 4th tank into service, and overall, it was a great success. The tank outlet is lower than the piping, but the water level in the tank is much higher, but still had issues getting air out of the lien to keep the RO running. It took a few tries, but got it. Using the 2 pass system, the first pass took it to 7.5% at a 2/5-5.5 split (I think I was at 350 psi) and the second pass took it to 18% at a 2/2 split. Pressure was 350-400. Initial impression of the setup is very happy. I did a rinse, wash, rinse, and then benchmark. First two benchmarks were at 12.3 gpm, but this one was at 11.9gpm…membrane at 95%. Not sure if it’s due to rounding errors in the benchmark table, membrane plugging up (this is the highest concentrate I’ve run), or something else. I’ll keep benchmarking.

Made about 15 gal of syrup. The first two batches, combined, graded out to an amber rich. Very good flavor.

SSC so far has been 2.1%.

[Russell Lampron]

When I boosted the pressure I didn't change the concentrate flow and it went up some with the increased pressure. If I had adjusted it back down to .5 gpm I might have gotten 14% out of it. I was busy doing other stuff so I turned it back down to 300 psi and let it do it's thing. I normally like to run it at 250 psi and will do so when I go back to recirculating again. It gives me plenty of margin if I need to speed things up.

I'm glad that you made some nice syrup. Most of mine is either Golden or Amber with excellent flavor. People will buy the Amber but not the Golden. It's a shame because my Golden tastes just as good as my Amber just not quite as intense.

[Amber Gold]

I brought home ~270 gal on Wed and another 380 gal Thursday, and with GZ’s 300 gal load, had about 950 gal to process. Single passed it to 7.5% from 4-6pm, and the second pass took it to 15-18%. Started at 8 and finished at 10. Made almost 20 gal of syrup. Tuesday night was over 15 gal. Bottling both tonight, so grade TBD. SSC is 2.1%. Trees must still be thawing out because the flow is getting better, but still not great.

Downside to these short boils is by the time the grade starts to lighten up, I’m getting ready to shut down. Only boiling for 2 hrs including startup and shutdown.

Really liking the 2-pass system better than recirc’ing. It’s getting through the sap quicker and allowing me to start earlier with high conc levels. It also gives me more flexibility. Now I just have a sap dump tank. I can process as much of it as I want and save some for the next day if I want. It also allows me to accept evening deliveries without messing up my conc. levels. Wish I had done this sooner.

[Russell Lampron]

I like having a dedicated sweet tank too. It frees up the bulk tank for the same reasons that you've found. I haven't used it yet this season but I will.

[red maples]

sounds like the sweet tank it is working out good. since you are really only running it through twice then it must keep the concentrate much cooler keeping your grade a little lighter. recirc heats it up alot especially on warmer days. maybe something for me in the future. I need to fix my releaser issue first moving the releaser closer to the sugarhouse and investing in an electric releaser will be the next improvement I think. looking at the CDL horizontal electric releasers are looking pretty sexy. need to get a quote see how much $$$ I need to set aside.

[Russell Lampron]

sounds like the sweet tank it is working out good. since you are really only running it through twice then it must keep the concentrate much cooler keeping your grade a little lighter. recirc heats it up alot especially on warmer days. maybe something for me in the future. I need to fix my releaser issue first moving the releaser closer to the sugarhouse and investing in an electric releaser will be the next improvement I think. looking at the CDL horizontal electric releasers are looking pretty sexy. need to get a quote see how much $$$ I need to set aside.

Lapierre makes the best releasers but I hear good things about the MES releasers too. The price on the MES membranes blows the competition away so I'm sure that the releasers are reasonable too. I've heard more negative information on CDL releasers than I have heard good.

[red maples]

ah that sucks. I am just shopping now anyway. those are expensive releasers just for starters. because of the way they are set up. depending on how they are set up they can be as low as 24" and in my so been running the placement and positioning in my head. I can get stuff from lapierre from just about anyone, direct, bascom's, maple guys. so we'll see how it goes get quotes from all of them see who has the best price.

[red maples]

oh yeah talking about short boiling and grade going up right at the end of the boil.

So went to one of the classes at the international meeting it was Dr. Perkins from UVM he was discussing a bunch of things with climate change and maximizing sap production, what they are doing is not boiling every day but concentrating everyday and then storing it in a refrigerated tank set at I think they said 30* or 32* don't remember exactly but slightly below freezing then boiling it all at once. there is very little bacteria growth and since they aren't doing a bunch of small batch boils then the grade comes way up and there is a longer boil and its alot more efficient beacuse there aren;t the warm up and cool down periods associated with short boils. just thought that was interesting. it has saved them on fuel (don't know wood or oil ) and instead of late nights every night he has been able to cut his payroll during maple season and no overtime because they pretty much are only working 8hrs a day. Something to think about. maybe put in a walk in freezer!!! they are only about $15 grand for an 8 x 10 space then you can use it store your syrup :) (in a perfect world right? )

[Amber Gold]

With the 2 pass system, sap temps are staying cooler and syrup has been easier to boil…guessing because less bacteria growth. For next season, I'd recommend adding one if you can.

Saturday night’s boil was about 1350 gal. Boiled for a few hours. I took the first 4 gal and put it in one canner, and everything else went into the electric canner. Had about 22 gal in that canner by night’s end and bottled it Sunday. Graded out at 55% LT, so this method worked. Moving forward, I’ll stockpile the first draw syrup and bottle it at once as dark syrup for this coming weekend. Saturday was the annual tank levelling ceremony with Jim. Problem with putting a tank in a wet area is it sinks. The tank is just off the ground, so not much room to build a platform underneath it. May need to think of a better solution.

Sunday. In the morning, I went to the woods while it was still cold out, I wanted to drill/glue the new water sensors and get the system tested, but found the sap was hammering. It was cold with a cold wind and probably the best flow I’d seen this season. I don’t get it. Unfortunately, the new system is on hold until the weekend of the 30th because of maple weekend. The ex. float system is working for now. I mounted some cabinets that have been kicking around for a couple years and that cleaned up my bench. Sure I’ll find more to put in them. Brought home almost 500 gal, which is less than I thought considering the flow I was seeing, but guessing only half the woods was running. Vac is holding steady at 26.5”.

Brad, the new tank is a bulk tank that was working when taken out of service. I wonder what it’d take to get the chiller working again. I could store 650 gal of 8% conc in there…second pass it back to the head tank…hmmm. That’s 2500 gal of raw sap.

[Amber Gold]

Processed 1150 gal of sap last night from 2 days of collection, of which GZ was ~300 gal of it. SSC holding steady at 2%...really the only saving grace of this cold weather. Did the initial draw into one canner and the balance in the other. Pretty sure still grading out at an AR.

Had two hiccups last night. Dog got sprayed by a skunk again…second time in a week. She’s now relegated to the house while I’m boiling at night. Second is wiring on the evap. blower. It vibrates a lot because of the blower and a wire connection came apart and shorted out. Quick wire repair and then back in business, but I think I need to wire in an electrical box with plug and connect it with an extension cord. One more thing to add to the project list.

[Amber Gold]

It’s been a while since I posted, so a quick catchup.

Last week, I boiled Wednesday and Thursday’s sap Thursday night. Sap came from me, GZ and RS. Good night overall and made some syrup. Grade is bouncing on either side of the AR/DR line. SSC is holding at 2.5%. I boiled all the sap I had to make room for big sap runs Friday and over the weekend…

So, Friday ended up being cold and miserable…sap didn’t run so well… Stayed up until 1:30 am getting everything ready for maple weekend…long day. Ended up having to work half the day, so it set me back a bit. Bottled up a bunch of syrup and cleaned the sugarhouse.

Maple weekend went well. Good turnout, and crew did a great job with visitors. We had enough sap to last through the day and then some. I need to do a better job gauging when I need to start squeezing down the last of the sap, so I can shut the evap down at closing time and not an hour later to get the last of the sap through. During maple weekend, I recirc, so I don’t like keeping it around since it’s been through the RO so many times.

Sunday, another good turnout and things went well. Almost deep sixed the flue pan though when it almost ran out. For some reason, the sap float wasn’t letting sap in and I forgot to plug in my alarm. I good push on the float and it got sap moving…close one!

Again, sap flow is still blah Getting 0.5-0.6gpt per day. I read on trader of these guys getting big sap runs, and I’m stuck in my sugarhouse twiddling my thumbs wishing there was sap. Walking the woods, it looks like there’s big sections of my woods that aren’t even running. I think there’s still a lot of frost in the ground. I logger stopped by the other day and said he hasn’t seen this much frost in the woods before.

My guess, since my sugar content has been so high all season, almost all my sap is coming from sugars. Getting frustrating because if the trees don’t get moving soon, the season will be over.

Oh, and last night, my bulk tank ended up on the ground…not cool. Note to self, don’t build a tank stand just before maple season when there’s frost in the ground. I’m thinking the 4-tank system is on hold until next season. It was good while it lasted.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap isn't running very good here either. Most of my woods will be running good while I get just a trickle from my coldest section. I had 775 gallons to boil last night which was the most so far this season. There are times in a normal season when I'll have 1,000 to 1,200 gallons to boil consistently.

I recirculated with my RO last night and got 22% out of it in two passes. My flow rates dropped as expected on the second pass but came right back when I went back to raw sap. I'm liking having the second tower and the MES membranes.

[Amber Gold]

I bet you are. The second tower really sped things up for you.

Yesterday, processed 1776 gal of sap between mine, GZ, and RS from 2 days of collection. My sap runs are still 500-600 gpd. Grade dropped over maple weekend as usual (slow boiling), but I haven't been able to get it back since...frustrating. Solidly into a DR and sticking there. Made 30+ gal of syrup from 15% concentrate.

[red maples]

yes crappy runs. I am haveing the same issues with slow sap runs. take a couple of days to get enough sap to process. closer to the house most of the snow is gone. back in the woods is different story. still lots of ice around. the good thing is hopefully it will stall the trees a bit from popping the buds.

[Amber Gold]

Need to catch up. The end of the week was quite busy. Made about 100 gal of syrup over three nights and didn’t get much sleep in the process. Held Saturday’s run till Sunday, so I could get some sleep. Sunday had almost 2100 gal of sap to process. SSC dropped below 2%. Only made about 40 gal though. I was expecting to make around 45 gal…numbers never seem to work out. Sap was warm and had a yeasty smell I the steam. Foam control becoming a higher priority.

Sunday morning, Jim and I reset the bulk tank, and I replumbed it, so it’s back in service. Glad to be back with the fourth tank. Tank is set on a better platform, so should no longer be an issue. Downside, is it’s about 12” lower than it was before, so more air to purge out of the piping to get the RO started when drafting from the tank.

Held yesterday’s run over for processing today. Have about 600 gal waiting at the sugarhouse.

Membrane is slowing down…not sure why. I’ve been benchmarking after all but two RO cycles, and I started the season at a perm. flow of 12.3, it settled in around 11.4-11.7, and now it’s down to 10.3. Washing after every use. Frustrated. Not sure what's going on, but need to figure it out.

[Tmeeeh]

Try a citric acid soak then soap wash. That can help sometimes.

[Russell Lampron]

Looks like it's time for an acid wash Josh. I'm glad that you've got your tank back in service. It makes life easier when you have all of the pieces working as they should.

[Amber Gold]

Thanks for the tip. Are there any directions for an acid wash? I know it's real bad if you do it wrong because it can take a membrane from being too tight to too lose. How much permeate do I need on hand to the normal wash and then the acid wash? I normally only store 650 gal of permeate, but can put permeate in the concentrate tank if needed.

Current thought is I might have sugar in the permeate. Tested it with the refractometer and getting varying results. Last night, I ran the RO at 300psi and boiled down a 1/2 gallon of permeate to a cup. Tested 0%. Ran the RO at 350 psi and took another 1/2 gallon sample and reduced it. It's ready for me to test when I get to the sugarhouse. I'll test that and get another sampled at 400 psi. I normally run it between 350-400.

[Russell Lampron]

I don't have the container in front of me but an acid wash goes something like this.
1. Do a normal soap wash and then rinse.
2. Mix acid solution in wash tank to a ph of 2 then circulate it into the membrane.
3. Let it sit for 24 hours then drain and rinse.
4. Do another soap wash and rinse.
After that your membrane will be clean and flow rates should be back. I think you'll need to fill your sweet tank with permeate too. It takes a lot to do all of the rinses. On the rinses you only need to rinse enough to get the ph to the ph of the permeate which is usually around 6.5.

What are you running for a membrane now?

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Russ. That's helpful. The guy at Webb says there's a run on citric acid, and he's out. Coming in from Rutland.

I have a new CDL membrane this season. I don't know why it's plugging up already. I think I'm doing everything I should be. Wash cycle after every use, using 680 gal of perm. during every use between all the rinses. Final rinse usually gets 400 gal of it.

I thought it might be plugging because the permeate was passing sugar. I ran the RO at both 300 and 350 psi, took 1/2 gallon permeate samples, boiled them both down to about a 8 oz. Tested for sugar, and came up 0%. Going to try at 400 psi tonight.

I'll need to figure out the best way to get perm. into both tanks. It's going to involve recirc'ing to fill the top tank with perm since I can't put concentrate there.

This is what I found on CDL's website. Not much help, but it at least tells me liquid volumes needed for various things. Says 1200 gal needed if doing an acid wash.
https://www.cdlusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/osmosis-wash-soap-acid-oxisan-january-1-may-2018-english.pdf

[Amber Gold]

More sap coming to the sugarhouse than I know what to do with. Took last night off to spend time with the kids, and backed up today. Worth it though. I'll have to hold some of it over for tomorrow and try to get the RO started sooner.

[Dill]

Huh, I'd say sap is walking here not running. Picked up 2/3 of the woods tank in 24 hours. 2/3 of gal per tap.

[BAP]

Running but not too much here today too. Wind is making up for it though, really blowing.

[Russell Lampron]

I bought my acid at Bascom's and I think it's from Leader. I have two 275 gallon totes for permeate tanks and I have them plumbed together at the valves so that they both fill at the same time. I can shut one off if I need to save some permeate for weak runs. I'm always overflowing them so I'm planning to replace them with 330's next year. That'll give me another 110 gallons before they're full.

The sap's been running pretty good here but not great. I'm getting .69 gpt per day according to my saptapapp. That's about normal for my trees on an average run. The swamp maples don't give much sap but they make good syrup and it's what I have.

[red maples]

right there with ya on the swamp maples!!!

that's a heck of a problem to have too much sap hmmm...... I wouldn't mind that problem. yes I would be tired but oh well thats the life of sugarmaker!!!

[Amber Gold]

My sap is walking too, but when you take a day off, and then others did too, it turns into too much sap at once. Being at work, I can't get the RO machine going early enough to put a big enough of a dent in it. Ended up holding sap over till yesterday, so I at least got some sleep.

So that almost failed. Had electrical problems all day in the house, which since the house feeds the sugarhouse, meant big problems for me. Thankfully RS's uncle was able to come over after work, found out what the issue was (loose connection in the main disconnect that burnt out the breaker), swapped out the disconnect with a new one, and back in business at 6pm. Since I was already backed up with sap, I'm still not caught up because of the late start, but at least I'm still operating. Yesterday's stress level was pretty high!

Going to get caught up tonight, but it'll be a later night than usual to get there. I have 1100 gal sitting at the sugarhouse, 600 gal or more coming from RS, and I'll have another 500+ (I hope) from my woods. Getting things primed for an acid wash starting tomorrow morning. Hoping this brings the membrane back.

SSC is still doing OK, but it is coming down.

I think the niter is the worst I've seen it.

So Brad, 2018 is going to be the best yet...

[Russell Lampron]

I ran 650 through the RO tonight and am going to run what comes in overnight through tomorrow morning. I'm planning to boil tomorrow afternoon.

The nitre is the worst that I've seen here this year too. On a normal season I can get 20 gallons through the press with no problem. This season I can't get 10 gallons through without changing the papers. It's never been that bad here.

[Amber Gold]

2612 gal into the sugarhouse today. Most sap ever processed. If I'm lucky, and the numbers will work, I'll break the 50 gal barrior.

RO didn't get going until after 4pm, and it's a bad for it to be slowing down. That extra 2gpm of permeate sure would be nice about now.

[red maples]

wow 2600 gallons thats crazy....

yeah I never updated the 2018 signature...