Eastern Ontario 2022

[Big_Eddy]

Looking outside at a wall of blowing snow whipped up by 50kmh winds, I’m not sure when our season will start this year, but I am starting to get the itch. Here’s hoping all you other eastern Ontario sugar makers are doing well and looking forward to another great season
Big Eddy

[Bushfrosh]

Thanks for starting this year's thread Big Eddy! I definitely have the itch!!! I've been working tonight on last year's stats in order to decide which trees to tap this upcoming season. Alas, this season's start still seems far away. After tapping in February 5 of the past 6 seasons, I think this will be a March tapping for me. I don't think the brief warmth the next 3 days is enough to get me to drill any holes. Regardless, here's hoping we all have a good and enjoyable upcoming season!

[limestone]

Itchy here too. We were able to get some line repairs and spile change out work done last week when the snow hardened up after the thaw. Looks like “rinse and repeat” weather for this week so hope to get more done later in the week.
Local forecast shows no tapping window until at least first of March

[paulslund]

Well.. I'm ashamed to say I don't have the itch at all to get going.. This on again off again snowmobiling weather has me wanting another month before tapping.. to the point where I counted how much I have leftover from last spring and debated whether I tap at all.. I'm sure it will pass.. I may need some therapy or something..:lol: Last year I tapped on March 16th.. I'll know how I feel about it when I get all the lines and supplies out next weekend.. I suspect the tapping season will be upon us in a flash..

[Sinoed09]

I’m in Georgian Bluffs just north of Owen Sound and this will be my first year tapping. I have 9 taps on a gravity line running straight to the back of my house and we’ve had a couple warm days but no sap yet. I set this one up as my “warning” line to get my taps in. Lol. I have 32 drops ready for the main run from a larger sugar bush between a couple fields but I’ll tackle that next weekend. The wind gusts of 70km/hr would make it really cold on the ridge right now. I think I’ll still have plenty of time - looks like it’s supposed to stay cold for a couple weeks.

[TurkeyJohn]

Well, I may regret it, but had the itch and needed something to do on Family Day....So the boy and I tapped our trees, only 17 pails so easy going....We set up the burn barrel, dropping the pan lower into it to try to get a better boil coming up soon....Was watching the forecast and while only a couple of days, hoping enough for a mini boil....And then the waiting for things to warm up....
Hey BushFrosh....see you're from Stirling, my hometown, we lived on Front St W, then Victoria St and I worked as a meat cutter in the old Birds IGA....

TurkeyJohn

[ennismaple]

We got our roads plowed and drilled 1350 of our taps this past weekend. Some taps were dripping a bit as we tapped and the going wasn't too bad in snowshoes. We are planning to get the balance done this coming weekend so we're ready when the weather turns. Once we're past the Family Day long weekend it's go-time for us no matter what the forecast says because we need about 5 days to get everything ready.

[Bushfrosh]

[QUOTE=
Hey BushFrosh....see you're from Stirling, my hometown, we lived on Front St W, then Victoria St and I worked as a meat cutter in the old Birds IGA....

TurkeyJohn[/QUOTE]

TurkeyJohn: Very nice! I went to school here when there was a primary, junior, and senior school. Before the single large school that they have now.

[Fort Wisers]

Hello everyone!

It's -11C here (Oxford Mills) this morning and the snow is coming down sideways lol, no tapping for us quite yet.
Hope everyone has been keeping well, thanks for starting this year's thread Big Eddy.

[ennismaple]

We finished tapping on Saturday and Sunday and got all our mainlines across the roads and trails. There's still a couple days of work required to get a bunch of odds and ends cleaned up and ready, releasers put onto tanks and remote sensors into the woods. The weather forecast looks like we'll have time to get this done before it warms up.

[Big_Eddy]

I chose not to open up my trails a couple of weeks back, when we had the warm spell. In hindsight, it might have been an error in judgement. We now have hard crunchy snow too soft to drive the tractor and sap trailer over, but too deep / hard to drive through or blow away. I haven't tried the Gator yet, but I expect it will be similar. Eventually it will soften and I'll get it out of there, but there could be a lot more "carrying" involved during tapping and collecting until I do. We are thinking we will tap this weekend, as long as the forecast holds.

[Big_Eddy]

Clearing the trails was not much trouble.

Put our first 100+ taps in today. Nice and easy working in the woods. Hard pack with about 2” soft snow on top. No snowshoes, no waist deep snow, no wet everything.
Fresh holes were wet enough for the tap installer to find the newly drilled hole by looking for the damp bark, but not really dripping once the taps were in.
We’ll put the rest in tomorrow

[ir3333]

You thinkin' you'll be boiling this week Eddy?
I'm in Stirling and was looking 17th or later but the weather does show temps. above 0 daily starting Sunday

[Big_Eddy]

All next week looks good. I expect we should have enough sap to start boiling early in the week, and good runs each day at least until Friday. Given what I saw today, the deep freeze is already out of the trees.
Forecast cools off again a week out, but I don’t put much faith in the temperature forecasts beyond about 5 days.
We will be putting the rest of our taps in tomorrow and then get the tanks and evaporator ready.

[Big_Eddy]

Forecast cools off again a week out, but I don’t put much faith in the temperature forecasts beyond about 5 days. .

The forecast was updated overnight. I now see good sap temperatures for 12 of the next 14 days. Let it begin!

[ir3333]

Wow..talk about changing the forecast! Looks like i may be tapping this week!

[MikeC82]

70 pails up near Johnstown. 50 more today. That will probably be it this year. Lots of snow in the bush. Could be difficult with the ATV/Trailer if this coming rain doesnt knock it down too much.

[Big_Eddy]

All in. 150 or so

[Galena]

Well.. I'm ashamed to say I don't have the itch at all to get going.. This on again off again snowmobiling weather has me wanting another month before tapping....

Yah you sledheads are a nutty bunch, would rather be rippin around on sleds instead of tappin trees, lol ;-)

Just saw the forecast for the coming week, looks awesome for my area. However though it will surely be a better season than last year, I am taking my biggest tree off the line for this season. #2 had surgery in early January, a few limbs had to come down. I feel it would be too stressful to tap it. However I think I am going to put my biggest bush maple on 2 spiles, so Surprise can pick up some slack.

[limestone]

We finished taping here today as well. Looks like it’s “game on” after tomorrow. Our rule of thumb here in South Frontenac is the season usually start one week either side on March 1st. So this year should prove that right.
I’ve had maple fever for a month now so bring it on

Sugaring since 1981
215 taps on gravity 5/16 and 3/16 tubing
2x6 Henway wood fired arch
Phaneuf /Evaporateurs PJ raised flue pans
Battersea Ontario

[Galena]

Same here, the first week of March seems to be the best date for me to begin. Speakin of which, time to go pull everything out of storage and get ready to tap!! Will suck having my best producer off the line, but hey, I'd rather #2 has a chance to heal properly.

[Bushfrosh]

I got my 50 taps in as of 09:52 this morning. Trees are dripping quite slowly but a couple are a little more drippy so there may be a small gather tonight. Nicest weather ever for a tapping day!!! Happy 2022 season everyone!

[Bushfrosh]

Modest start to the season tonight. First collection of the season was done around sunset and it netted 75L or 1.5L per tap.

[Galena]

Modest start to the season tonight. First collection of the season was done around sunset and it netted 75L or 1.5L per tap.

Definitely a good start to the season! I have 16 spiles on only 7 trees this year. Looked to be about a gallon or so out there between them, not enough to collect yet.

[Fort Wisers]

Well, I was going to hold off for one more week but now you all have me thinking otherwise!
Maybe we'll pull everything out of storage and start getting ready......good luck to everyone this season.

[paulslund]

Well I started off by putting my 5 buckets out, but was helping out someone in the morning that ended up taking all day. So at the moment, I have buckets out (meaning: buckets sitting at base of tree..no tap in yet LOL). I"ll be putting the taps in today and stringing my lines on my remaining 23-25 taps today.. need to head to CDL tomorrow am to get a few supplies so I can finish hooking everything up to the pump (making a few changes this year.. no huge expense this time though). Going to be a good few weeks if the forecast holds...

Sledding over now..local trails closed as of this morning. Had a good last run up to Carleton Place and back via Munster/Richmond Saturday morning.. was just a beautiful day. Time to get the sled trailer ready.. was hoping for local sledding with the kids during March break...but that's how it goes...

[Big_Eddy]

We collected 65 gallons or so last evening or about 2l a tree. Not enough to start boiling yet, but we are on the way.

[Galena]

@ Fort Wisers...so good to see you back here!
@ paulslund....hey if you're gonna hike on out to CDL can you do me a huge favour, see if they still carry metal spile hooks? Mine always seem to vanish. Just don't want to hike all the way out to Perth only to learn they don't have them.

Just nearuping down a little less than 8l sap, cold today so not enough to collect. So weird to walk past #2 and not see pails hanging off it. For the best though!

[MikeC82]

Pulled in 15.4 G - 58 L today near Johstown- all from yesterday (03.06). No freeze last night - nothing happening today. 90% came from 5 or 6 big old beasts down in the low swampy spots. Most still thawing out. Put in 13 more taps. 3 left for the little guy to put out on a nice day. 116 is enough. Not doing more than that this year. Got a new collection tank (55G) to replace the 30L one we have used since we started. Pulled OK through the slush behind the ATV. Warm/Wind/Rain yesterday knocked down the snow in the bush - but still hard slogging until the pathways get packed. Good luck to everyone.

[paulslund]

@ paulslund....hey if you're gonna hike on out to CDL can you do me a huge favour, see if they still carry metal spile hooks? Mine always seem to vanish. Just don't want to hike all the way out to Perth only to learn they don't have them.

Sure no prob! I don't see them listed on their website separately though, but I'll ask if I don't see them in the aisles..

[Galena]

Sure no prob! I don't see them listed on their website separately though, but I'll ask if I don't see them in the aisles..

Thanks very much! Hope you see this before you get there, saw your PM on the subject too. Thanks in advance :-)

ETA: unfortunately CDL doesn't sell metal spile hooks on their own....but Covell's in Rideau Ferry (just outside Smiths Falls) does! So now I have a dozen of em sitting there waiting for pickup :-)

[Fort Wisers]

Hey @Galena, thanks! Good to be back!

Got all our buckets and spiles out and cleaned off last night, might start drilling / hanging tonight or tomorrow.


@ Fort Wisers...so good to see you back here!

[Galena]

Hey @Galena, thanks! Good to be back!

Got all our buckets and spiles out and cleaned off last night, might start drilling / hanging tonight or tomorrow.

Hey neighbour, great to hear back from you :-) Should be perfect weather for it! And lol yeah hear you on the renos...always somethin!

[ennismaple]

We're completely tapped, vacuum pumps serviced and releasers in place in the woods. We spent half the day on Sunday checking lines - kinda hard to do when the vacuum is way down and there's 60km/hr winds! We did manage to get to 22" Hg in one woods and about 18" Hg in the other. Not ideal but a good start and enough that you can hear and see leaks easily- hopefully we can get up to 25" Hg soon.

Lots of misc troubleshooting to look after this year. Trees over mainlines, broken mainlines, deer damage, mainline pulled off the wire etc... Our Massey wouldn't start on Saturday but after some TLC we got the fuel lines bled and away she went. I'm developing a love/hate relationship with our new electric releaser - I love when it works properly and it is fairly simple yet there's always something that needs attention. Once it opened up on Sunday the screen on the submersible pump was getting plugged up with the snot coming out of the mainlines so the releaser filled up and sucked sap back into the moisture trap - turning the pump off. Hard to check lines with no vacuum... We got that resolved and then realized the pump worked fine on manual but wasn't turning on when the sap hit the upper probe. I called the CDL technician and after messing with the sensitivity and running a jumper between all 3 probes we determined the level control relay was bad. Luckily there was one in the store in Perth so $200 and 15 minutes later we were back up and running.

[Galena]

Made a minor change to my setup this year. As my best producer, #2, had limbing done this January, I chose to take if off the line to allow it every chance to heal. This left three spiles and buckets over. I put another bucket on Surprise, who has a massive bough that can easily handle one tap. I planned to tap only 7 trees. But earlier, as I was reading a thread on tapping reds, had a lightbulb moment.

Tree #7 is a red and I stopped tapping it a few years ago as I wanted to do all sugars. However, with my biggest sugar taking a staycation, I decided to go ahead and put #7 back on the line. So far it's done a pretty decent job, considering I only tapped it this afternoon :-)

[Someclown]

.
Tree #7 is a red and I stopped tapping it a few years ago as I wanted to do all sugars. However, with my biggest sugar taking a staycation, I decided to go ahead and put #7 back on the line. So far it's done a pretty decent job, considering I only tapped it this afternoon :-)

Have you ever tried boiling the sap from the reds and sugars separately to see what the difference in flavors are ?

[Galena]

@someclown...Nope. Only time I've ever boiled sap separately was when I had a small secondary bush going. I'm on 7 sugars and only 1 red, so it'll quite awhile before I get enough to make any syrup, and anyway my syrup changes flavour with the season.

[Fort Wisers]

We got everything up on trees today by 1:00pm, 21 buckets total this year.
Some trees flowing quite well, some barely dripping.
What a gorgeous day to be outside, 3-4 degC and sunny all day!

Collected 18 liters at 5:00pm, so not bad for a 4 hour timespan.
Oxford Mills area.......

[Galena]

[QUOTE=Collected 18 liters at 5:00pm, so not bad for a 4 hour timespan.
Oxford Mills area.......[/QUOTE]

Ditto, 18l but off of 18 spiles on 8 trees, stronger producers picking up the slack :-)

[limestone]

Small runs Sunday-Tuesday,nice runs yesterday and today. Fired up for first time today and made some light caramel hinted syrup.
Sugaring since 1981
230 taps on 3/16-5/16 gravity tubing
Henway wood fired arch
2x6 phaneuf/evaporateurs PJ pans
Battersea Ontario

[Big_Eddy]

Collected 180 gals (from 150 pails) over the last several day. First boil today. Sugar House doors are closed so it is filled with that awesome early season maple smell. (and thick with steam - good thing I can touch type)

[Fort Wisers]

Nice Eddy!
We collected another 25 liters today, I was surprised the trees were dripping as well as they were considering how gloomy it was all day and snow fall as I collected!

[Galena]

@ Eddy...yeek aren't you taking a chance having a digital device in a steamed-up sugar shack? But glad you got such a great haul, your bush is perfect for it.
@ Wisers...Yeah it was just warn enough today to get a good run going. Had to collect an hour earlier than anticipated because the run had stopped or slowed and sap was icing over. I got 22l today. Tomorrow and Sunday look pretty skunky for this area, though...

[Big_Eddy]

@ Eddy...yeek aren't you taking a chance having a digital device in a steamed-up sugar shack? But glad you got such a great haul, your bush is perfect for it....

My day job is sourcing electronic devices. I told R&D I was testing its operation in sub-zero temperatures with >100% humidity :)

[limestone]

Friday turned out to be a fine day. Lines were still frozen mid morning with a +2 high and overcast not much was expected. When I checked the tanks at 3 ,mom nature had other plans with mostly full tanks. It just goes to show that sometimes when the trees are ready to run they don’t wait for sunshine. 2022 is off to a good start with the yield so far.

[Galena]

My day job is sourcing electronic devices. I told R&D I was testing its operation in sub-zero temperatures with >100% humidity :)

*shaking head* ok just don't do what many a device toting sucrier has done, and lose it in a tank of sap or even worse boiling syrup....;-)

And wtf is with the 8 in of white stuff?? Good thing I didn't put the snowshoes away yet!!! Letting the woodstove slowly evap off some of the 22.5L I got yesterday....have fun everyone!

[Vandy]

Boiled last night and will be all day today :)

Collected approx 140Gal total Thursday and Friday. Tapped since Sun afternoon. just over 100 taps

[ir3333]

my kinda' season
collected sap Thurs. Boiled Friday and all shut down 'til Monday.
Weekend off!

[Bruce L]

Trees ran decent during the snowstorm,boiled about 600 gallons through Friday night,sap must have been pretty weak,just enough to sweeten the pans. Then too cold right away to run vacuum and check for leaks

[ir3333]

You must have quite a system Bruce, 600 gallons to sweeten your pans.
I collect 65 pails manually. Got 65 gallons of sap Thursday and boiled Friday, my sap was 2.4% sugar.
...made 1 1/2 galons of syrup with about 3 gallons of boiled sweet left in my pans.
Might be "off and on" like last year? Crazy weather, but makes for a relaxing season

[Galena]

You must have quite a system Bruce, 600 gallons to sweeten your pans...

Having seen Bruce's setup, I can vouch that they're some big pans! They all but fill that sugar shack!

[Lanark]

I tapped 2 trees yesterday beside the sugar shack and they're still frozen, hopefully I'll have better luck tomorrow.

[Galena]

Lanark, best to wait for the temps to be in the plus end before tapping. Tap when it's more than -5 out and you risk hurting the tree. It's been far too cold this weekend for any sap to flow. How big are your trees? If they're not too big they should start to run soon, this week is shaping up to be perfect for tapping. Really big trees tale longer to thaw.

[Lanark]

I think my drill was the problem yesterday, I took out the last of my water to the shack and tapped the rest of my trees. Some were on the verge of dripping, all 80 are now up and I wait. I downloaded the saptapapps that was posted on another link and it's pretty cool.

[Galena]

I think my drill was the problem yesterday, I took out the last of my water to the shack and tapped the rest of my trees. Some were on the verge of dripping, all 80 are now up and I wait. I downloaded the saptapapps that was posted on another link and it's pretty cool.

Yeah I've used saptapapps in the past and it doesn't long for a drill battery to wear out esp if you're doing 80 spiles...you could be swimming soon! So how many trees do you have? Reds, sugars, silvers, Freeman?

[MikeC82]

The saptapapp thing is pretty cool. I have used it for a few years. I like the records and the flowcaster thing - which usually provides a decent look at how it's going to flow - not always - but usually.

[MikeC82]

Boiled last night and will be all day today :)

Collected approx 140Gal total Thursday and Friday. Tapped since Sun afternoon. just over 100 taps

We were about the same in Johnstown. Boiled 115 gallons into the pan Saturday off about 110 taps. Still waiting for it to sweeten. Takes a lot it seems.

[Lanark]

We have 31 acres mostly maples, not sure what kind they are to be honest. My husband just checked my buckets before I arrived home from work and he said there's nothing in the buckets yet. I'll take the dogs for a walk and have a closer look.

[Lanark]

My husband was correct. Some trees look like they just started dripping maybe in the last hour and some haven't started yet. Hopefully because the snow is still so deep it'll be a slower start for me this year, and my holidays don't start until next week so not such a bad thing.

[Galena]

What kind of land are the trees growing on? Swamp, in some woods, on a slope, all of the above? There are ways to identify the trees by bark colour and pattern but it can get confusing! If any of your trees are smaller yard maples, and grow with all the branches kinda upswept, like a poplar, they might be Freemans - siilver/red cross. They produce lovely leaves and are hardy so they're popular for use in yards. Reds seem to be multi-trunkers who like to grow in swampier areas. They'll be the ones to bud out first with pretty red fluffies :-)

[limestone]

Bottled 9 litres of syrup off of today’s run. A good result for not the most ideal weather. Should be a good week ahead even if it doesn’t freeze overnight Wednesday-Friday because we still have lots of snow in the bush.

[Lanark]

It's mostly maple bush, a few wet areas but mostly rocky. The shack is at the base of one hill. The only silver we have is in the front yard. The darker bark maples have the higher sugar %, some have 2 trunks but the majority are just really tall maples. I did go out after dinner and the sap is definitely dripping now, my husband will have to empty my buckets in the morning so that I can empty them again after work.

[Galena]

Sounds like you have a bush similar to Big_Eddy's, with the slope and shack near the base of a hill. Also sounds like you have mostly sugar maples, reds' bark is more greyish. I collected today at 6pm, healthy dripping from my tiny 8-tree bush. Some seasons I've collected as late as midnight and just had a staggering amount of sap to deal with, all on my own! And all that tromping through rotting snow makes for an excellent lower body workout :-)

[paulslund]

Trees ran very well yesterday. I couldn't figure out why I had 2 lines that were full of sap but not moving.. I checked the taps (found one hissing so gently pushed further in with my hand and stopped..hoping I didn't do more damage).. look for squirrel chews.. nothing. Then my mother suggested a blockage or frozen lines (this was around 3 in the afternoon) and I thought "no way".. but then later on I was out back and realized that these two new lines cut across my yard and lay accross my back deck... that section of line froze solid over the weekend and were insulated by about 5+inches of snow! So who would have thought I'd have frozen lines on a warm day like yesterday! LOL.. Now I get to tell my mother she was right... seems like a dangerous precedent to set..

Should be another good day today I think (lines didn't even freeze overnight though even though was -4 this morning). Barrel is past the 2/3 mark, most of which was yesterday..

Decided to boil on Thursday instead of waiting until the weekend... high of +14 is rather upsetting.. not likely to get that much more until temps drop, although mother nature surprises sometimes..

[Galena]

My trees ran ok yesterday but then ran overnight...gaahhhhhh...halfway through collecting now and will collect again about 6. May have to get Shack Wacky fired up tonight.
@Paulslund....glad your mom was able to help you figure out your lines...all that stuff you mention is why I stick with buckets :D

[paulslund]

My trees ran ok yesterday but then ran overnight...gaahhhhhh...halfway through collecting now and will collect again about 6. May have to get Shack Wacky fired up tonight.
@Paulslund....glad your mom was able to help you figure out your lines...all that stuff you mention is why I stick with buckets :D

LOL.. there's always a learning curve. However having a vacuum system you'd be "WOW!.the lines ran all night long" instead "gaahhhhhh.. the darn buckets filled overnight"..


Just sayin'... :lol:

[Galena]

LOL.. there's always a learning curve. However having a vacuum system you'd be "WOW!.the lines ran all night long" instead "gaahhhhhh.. the darn buckets filled overnight".. Just sayin'... :lol:

Laugh while you can....I'm only at 67l sap and it's already about 2.5l syrup filtering through right now... I sooo wasn't expecting it, was just trying to nearup down to a couple litre. That means my sugar content is ridiculous this year. So been swearing and running around getting my Murphy cup and other stuff out. Dang it!

[ennismaple]

We're mostly ready to boil - we just need more sap! By the end of the day yesterday we had close to 3000 gallons of sap in the woods and hopefully all the gremlins out of the works!?! Between electric & mechanical releaser problems, tractor problems, frozen vacuum lines, sap transfer pump issues etc... it's been 4 days of trouble shooting once we got tapped. The RO is assembled, the Beast is back together and the tanks in the camp are ready for sap, concentrate and permeate. The next week should be good!

[PaulRenaud]

Slow start here in Darling Township in North Lanark. Been tapped since March 7 (first year with majority of taps on gravity lines) but so far collecting more ice than sap. Suspect we are seeing low Brix, hence the ice. Approx 100 L of sap from 121 taps collected on Friday.

Most lines have sap in them but are not yet flowing. Only 1 x 3/16 line is consistently flowing, about 3 of the 5/16 lines too. Checked and didn't see any leaks or blockages. The remainder appears to be vacuum locked waiting for more pressure from the trees. Additional snowfall every 2 or 3 days isn't helping.

Grumble.

[limestone]

Bottled 17 litres off an excellent overnight run with an ok run today. It was +1 overnight. Tonight is forecast to freeze here so expect tomorrow to be good as well. Hint of caramel is gone from the syrup after the first runs. I think we’re approaching the heart of the season here in South Frontenac.

[PaulRenaud]

Today yielded 155 L of sap. There is a bit of a lag in my numbers as I only record what arrives at the main holding tank. I have approx 400 L intermediate storage in the sugarbush. Total for the week since I tapped is 328 L from 121 taps.

Waiting to collect more sap before I measure the Brix.

[MikeC82]

Took in 82G off 120 taps yesterday. (55 through 03.14 - noon yesterday, and then 27 more through dusk). Pretty decent. Should go again good today. Went to -1.9C last night for a couple hours now above 0 again and starting to drip. That looks like the last freeze down by the St. Lawrence for a while though...

[paulslund]

Took in 82G off 120 taps yesterday. (55 through 03.14 - noon yesterday, and then 27 more through dusk). Pretty decent. Should go again good today. Went to -1.9C last night for a couple hours now above 0 again and starting to drip. That looks like the last freeze down by the St. Lawrence for a while though...

Same here..no more freeze until Sunday night I think.. and even then it's not a hard freeze... then warm again.. at least the season is off to a good start before this pause..

[paulslund]

We're mostly ready to boil - we just need more sap! By the end of the day yesterday we had close to 3000 gallons of sap in the woods and hopefully all the gremlins out of the works!?! Between electric & mechanical releaser problems, tractor problems, frozen vacuum lines, sap transfer pump issues etc... it's been 4 days of trouble shooting once we got tapped. The RO is assembled, the Beast is back together and the tanks in the camp are ready for sap, concentrate and permeate. The next week should be good!

Hey Martin... how much sap do you need to accumulate before it makes firing up worthwhile?

[Big_Eddy]

We have collected (and boiled) 300 gallons from ~150 trees so far. So far this season, we have been keeping up with the sap supply. No idea what today will bring, but the weekend is looking like there should be time to replenish the "inside" supply of rocket fuel - aka evaporator wood plus finishing and bottling.

[Galena]

Collected 40l yesterday and did most of the boiling in the evap, have a new deep pan that holds 20l+. Today made a few changes to the setup, collected 22l so far, expecting to get that much again tonight at 6pm. Also got the chainsaw out and bucked up deadfall, organized my wood and kindling, getting all set for the crazy temps tomorrow. Will be spending most of the day in the shack!

So far have slightly over 2l of light Amber, from 67.4l sap. Normally I go to 100l or so before finishing the first batch, but that batch couldn't wait!

[PaulRenaud]

Finally, we are hitting our normal 2 L per tap daily sap harvesting rate. 242 L collected from 121 taps today.

Will check Brix tomorrow on 570 L of sap collected to-date.

[MikeC82]

Same here..no more freeze until Sunday night I think.. and even then it's not a hard freeze... then warm again.. at least the season is off to a good start before this pause..

Got 32 G more today - I don't think the ones on the ridges took the freeze last night - nothing out of them - only the low swampers. Got 227G/860L sap so far. We put about 110G through the pan on the weekend - hopefully this batch here sweetens it. It always seems to take forever - but depending on how much goes in before it sweetens, we usually have a rough idea of sugar content. My little guy says the sap tastes sweet - if that means anything :)

[Galena]

Almost through the 45ls I got yesterday and today, and another 18l collected just now atop that....glad I went with my instincts and modified the evap setup, and did all that prep work yesterday. More to come I'm afraid...I know my numbers are puny to most of you, but for a 1-person shop, it's a helluva lot of work.

[Fort Wisers]

As of yesterday evening we have almost 200 liters sitting in the gravity tank, we will start our boil to work towards sweetening the pan today (Friday).

[ir3333]

What is sweetening the pans?
I have a home made 20" x 60" and the first day of the season i boil take syrup after 3 or 4 hours?
...are you guys boiling in flat pans with no divisions?

[paulslund]

First boil is done yesterday and is one for my record books. Lit the fire around 8:15 am and pulled everything off around 3:30 am.. only a few slow downs but no shut downs during the day. I estimate I went through around 470L of sap, most of which was collected from Monday on (I think maybe had around 40ish may have been collected pre-freeze last weekend).

I severely underestimated how much wood I need and burned through all of it in that one boil.. I'm glad we have a break for a bit!

[Galena]

What is sweetening the pans?
I have a home made 20" x 60" and the first day of the season i boil take syrup after 3 or 4 hours?
...are you guys boiling in flat pans with no divisions?

@ ir3333... the tern 'sweetening the pans'..essentially it's letting some sap level remain in the pan. This issue is of more concern to those with multiple channels in their setups. Anyone else can explain it better than I can, cause I'm also a flat-pan boiler with no dividers, doing it in the most basic way possible.

As for when to boil...it depends on your setup. How much sap do you get in 3-4 hrs? Generally you do want to boil sap ASAP (lol) but if that's not doable, store it in a snow bunker or somewhere else where it will stay cool in storage til you can get to it.

FWIW I usually boil when I get around 60l sap, any less and it's too much work to fire up the evaporator and keep it going. Yesterday I boiled 60l down to about 8l nearup, which I left in the shed to cool before collecting it this morning. It is now boiling down to around 2l nearup. Then I'll add that to another 2l nearup from an indoor boil (fans going, windows open etc) and take it down to syrup. Hope this helps!

[Big_Eddy]

What is sweetening the pans?
I have a home made 20" x 60" and the first day of the season i boil take syrup after 3 or 4 hours?
...are you guys boiling in flat pans with no divisions?
Sweetened = boiled until there is Sap at one end, Syrup at the other. At the end of the day you leave what’s left in, and start again tomorrow.

Once sweetened, Evaporator remains that way through the season (or until drained for a warm period.)

[PaulRenaud]

I severely underestimated how much wood I need and burned through all of it in that one boil.. I'm glad we have a break for a bit!

If you check out the Net Zero page on my website, there is a document that can help you improve the wood burning efficiency of your evaporator.

Cheers, paul

[Galena]

If you check out the Net Zero page on my website, there is a document that can help you improve the wood burning efficiency of your evaporator.

Took a peek but it's way too involved for my poor lil brain to comprehend! All I know is that when I'm using the evap, it's so well insulated inside that there is very little ambient heat washing off of it. When it's burning well, there is only heat haze around my chimney stack. Ditto for my indoor woodstove though I do have a catalytic combustor in it.

[jungmaria]

Hi all,
Took the rainy weekend to catch up on finishing and drain & clean the pans.
I’ve been reading about reversing flow/switching draw off sides to reduce nitre. I don’t really understand how that works and if it’s something should be doing. I have a draw off port on each side of my syrup pan but only have a valve on the one side, I’ve never actually drawn off from the other side. I have 2x6.5 oil tank evaporator with a 2x3.5 flat sap pan and a 2x3 syrup pan that are connected on one side. I gravity feed my pre-warmed sap in the back corner of the sap pan and draw off in the opposite side of the syrup pan. Should I pick up another draw off valve and be switching sides?

[MikeC82]

Hi all,
Took the rainy weekend to catch up on finishing and drain & clean the pans.
I’ve been reading about reversing flow/switching draw off sides to reduce nitre. I don’t really understand how that works and if it’s something should be doing. I have a draw off port on each side of my syrup pan but only have a valve on the one side, I’ve never actually drawn off from the other side. I have 2x6.5 oil tank evaporator with a 2x3.5 flat sap pan and a 2x3 syrup pan that are connected on one side. I gravity feed my pre-warmed sap in the back corner of the sap pan and draw off in the opposite side of the syrup pan. Should I pick up another draw off valve and be switching sides?

Hi. We have the same kinda pan - but the temperature probe hole is only on the one side - so we can't reverse it. However, compared to when we used to use a flat pan and then finish on propane - we've noticed much less nitre. Only been using it for three years - so could just be the sap itself. But before we had all kinds, and now we usually don't get any.

[MikeC82]

Sweetened = boiled until there is Sap at one end, Syrup at the other. At the end of the day you leave what’s left in, and start again tomorrow.

Once sweetened, Evaporator remains that way through the season (or until drained for a warm period.)

We poured off 5 gallons on Saturday after it finally sweetened. Took 180 Gallons this year to sweeten the pan. We have too much space in the pan, I think. It holds over 15 gallons. Takes forever to sweeten and then we are left with all that 15 gallons of half finished at the end of the year. Has anyone ever tried the deal where they add straight water at the end to force out the rest? Does that work?

[Big_Eddy]

We poured off 5 gallons on Saturday after it finally sweetened. Took 180 Gallons this year to sweeten the pan. We have too much space in the pan, I think. It holds over 15 gallons. Takes forever to sweeten and then we are left with all that 15 gallons of half finished at the end of the year. Has anyone ever tried the deal where they add straight water at the end to force out the rest? Does that work?

Mike - Depends on the year. If I have had a great year, I don't worry about what is in the evaporator and call the season done after the last boil.
On a mediocre year when I'm not swamped with syrup, at the end of the season when I'm out of sap I let the last fire go out, then drain my syrup pan into a stainless pot and finish what was in the syrup pan over propane. I abandon what is left in the flue pan - it is only slightly concentrated anyway.
Last year was a poor year - so I drained the flue pan too and boiled it over propane -but it took forever and wasn't worth the extra 2 litres or so of syrup.

One year I filled my head tank with water and fed water to the flue pan while I finished off the syrup pan over the fire with the valve closed between. I know others do the same.

[Galena]

Hotpacked my second batch this morning...3.5l of gorgeous Golden, 77 on the Hannah thingy, marshmallow galore! :-) batch #1 is 2l of light Amber. Didn't bother checking it, the flavour is so meh that it'll never see competition. At end of season might just sugar it.

[Big_Eddy]

Hi all,
Took the rainy weekend to catch up on finishing and drain & clean the pans.
I’ve been reading about reversing flow/switching draw off sides to reduce nitre. I don’t really understand how that works and if it’s something should be doing. I have a draw off port on each side of my syrup pan but only have a valve on the one side, I’ve never actually drawn off from the other side. I have 2x6.5 oil tank evaporator with a 2x3.5 flat sap pan and a 2x3 syrup pan that are connected on one side. I gravity feed my pre-warmed sap in the back corner of the sap pan and draw off in the opposite side of the syrup pan. Should I pick up another draw off valve and be switching sides?

With divided pans and a continuous flow, most nitre deposits form in the last section of the pans where the syrup concentration is highest. Nitre will actually dissolve where the concentration is low.
By switching direction of flow through the syrup pans, you then flow less concentrated syrup over the nitre deposits from yesterday, dissolving them and prolonging the need to clean the pans manually.

You can also achieve a similar result by flooding your syrup pan with sap at the end of the day and letting it sit overnight, then stirring in the morning before boiling.

In my evaporator below, the only section that ever forms nitre is the last one. If I remove the syrup pan and rotate it 180 degrees, the sap now feeding from the flue pan will "wash away" yesterdays nitre.
I never bother though. At the end of every day, I close the valve to the flue pan and add a gallon or so to the syrup pan. Next day, a quick brush removes most of the nitre and I am back boiling. It takes an extra hour or so to reestablish the gradient, but a lot less effort than draining and cleaning pans.

If your pans do not have dividers, there is no benefit to switching sides.

[limestone]

We’re along the same lines as Big Eddy with our 2x6 at the end of season. We drain the flue pan into pails then refill it with water,start up again and concentrate in the syrup pan buy dumping the buckets in as we go. Obviously we need to keep adding water to the flue pan. After everything is in the syrup pan we take it to 4-5 degrees above boiling then shutdown. After that it not to much work to finish the batch on the turkey fryer.

[jungmaria]

Thanks Big Eddy,
That tip about adding sap to lift the nitre is really helpful. Will try it tomorrow.

[MikeC82]

Mike - Depends on the year. If I have had a great year, I don't worry about what is in the evaporator and call the season done after the last boil.
On a mediocre year when I'm not swamped with syrup, at the end of the season when I'm out of sap I let the last fire go out, then drain my syrup pan into a stainless pot and finish what was in the syrup pan over propane. I abandon what is left in the flue pan - it is only slightly concentrated anyway.
Last year was a poor year - so I drained the flue pan too and boiled it over propane -but it took forever and wasn't worth the extra 2 litres or so of syrup.

One year I filled my head tank with water and fed water to the flue pan while I finished off the syrup pan over the fire with the valve closed between. I know others do the same.

Thanks Big Eddy. Our problem (I think) is that our evaporator holds too much volume for the amount of sap we generally collect. We usually have about 120 taps (most not sugar maples) and I collect it all by hand with a 55 gallon tank towed behind my ATV. That's all I can really manage in a day by myself and still work. Then, we use my inverter and a little pump to drive it up from the collection tank into our elevated 250 gallon tote holding tank. From there (when we do a boil) it gravity flows right into the pan via the float that controls the pan level. The pan itself holds about 15 gallons at float level. It has five chambers and there is no flue/warmer or anything. Everything just goes in and flows through until it is concentrated in the last chamber and gets poured off. So, at the end of the season we get our 'last pour' - but we still have at least 15 Gallons of partially finished syrup in the evaporator, and some of it is pretty close to being done - but we have no more sap to drive the process along anymore. For the past 2 years we have just poured it into buckets and finished the whole 15 G on propane (but - as you said - takes forever). So, we are wondering if feeding pure water into the holding tank and letting it run through could save us the propane finish - get rid of most of the syrup - and then just discard whatever is left in there when it no longer gets up to temperature in the final chamber.

[Big_Eddy]

I’d recommend what Limestone said, which I have also done in the past. Close the valve from flue to syrup pan, drain the flue pan into pails, then fill with water. Add the pails slowly to the syrup pan, while adding water to the flue pan. You could even dump a couple of jugs of vinegar into the flue pan to clean it while you finish.

You lose no syrup and boil on wood.

[Galena]

Taking a break from boiling down 45l and wondering wtf I decided to use my smallest pan...ah well at least I can get more fire going underneath it than with the deeper pan. Back at it. Have a good night all!

[limestone]

Excellent day here today but we’re “marching “ :lol: down the calendar pretty quickly for us to be at our expected 2022 syrup goal . We’re at 39% as of tonight. Hopefully there’s another 2 weeks left here in South Frontenac.

[Fort Wisers]

Did a couple of boil down nights, we've collected ~340 liters of sap to date and have boiled it all, getting close to bottling time for us.
I'll try to post up some pics later this week.
Thanks Big Eddy for chiming in on the sweetening explanation.
For other's interested in that topic, check out Big Eddy's "Sweetening the Pans" link in his signature, lots of really good information in his posts.

[Galena]

Glad your season's going so well, Wisers :-) I'm about to put on the floaties and get back out there, this time with the deep pan in the evap!!!

[JeffB]

Hey hey all..

Have a question is anyone else sugar % low this yr ?
In 10 yrs I never had sap sugar % below 2%.
This yr so far I collected 300 gallons from 2 good runs and % had been 1% and .75%.
I'm returned that sap back to mother earth.
I just collected about 120gallons tonight and sugar content is low at 1% AGAIN.!
I'm gonna go buy a sap hydrometer tomorrow in Hope's it out of calibration but was wondering if anyone else is having low sugar content this season .

[ir3333]

my sugar content has been as high as 3.0 % consistently this year. My neighbour was told by the
owner of Foster Farms in the county their sap has been averaging 2.9 %...I think they have 7000 taps!
i don't use the sap from the small trees after 5 or 6 runs because it's usually 1% or less and the lengthy
boils make very dark syrup.
I'm betting it's your Hydrometer, early sap is usually higher.

[MikeC82]

We poured off out of our 15 gallon evap for the first time at 184 gallons - that seems about normal for us in terms of sugar content. Not sure what it equates to in terms of sugar percentage but we typically run 150-200 gallons into the thing before it sweetens. However, the last boil we did seemed to take a tonne in before much came out. We have collected 442 gallons so far out of 120 taps which puts us about average in terms of run as well (provided we get a couple more good days). Dripped all night overnight down here by the St. Lawrence from the good trees - imagine it will be stopping up this AM and won't get anymore till another freeze-thaw - which isnt looking to happen until mid next week. Still a fair amount of snow in my bush - but getting very swampy down in in the holes.

[Galena]

Hey all, I know there is an RO discussion section elsewhere in the forums. Just want to hear from those here who use RO....I think someone has an RO bucket? I need to streamline things a bit so I'm not driving myself crazy at this time of year.

[JeffB]

Everything you need to know and theres alot of info and vids on the RO Bucket is at

Therobucket.com

They start at 325 usd plus shipping

[Maplelane1]

Hey all. Had surgery on the 15th so we had to downsize this year but did manage to tap 50 trees on March 8. Since then we collected ~230 gallons and boiled for 6 hours total over Tuesday and Wednesday. Pans are sweetened but need more sap. Looks like we may get a run tomorrow and hopefully on the weekend.

[Bruce L]

Sap must have gotten sweeter yesterday,syrup was coming off every ten minutes,too fast as I had to keep an eye on the syrup pan recovering and filter was barely keeping up. Still almost a golden grade, just over 50% of a crop so far,612 litres

[ennismaple]

I've been at 2.6 Brix sap this week which is about 0.5 Brix higher than our long term average. Many areas in eastern Ontario have been hit for 5 straight years by tent and gypsy moth caterpillars so low sugar could be attributed to that.

Good to hear you're at 50% already Bruce. We are about the same and were making beautiful AR that was almost Golden yesterday. Filtering has been a bear - using LOTS of filter aide to get maybe 25 gallons through the Sirofilter.

Looking forward to a freeze-up for a few days so me and the trees can re-charge!

[ir3333]

i was wondering about the worms.I checked very carefully regularly and only one maple got
chewed up.I did tap it against my better judgement so i'll check the sugar content in its sap the next run.
if it is low i'll know it was the worms because my sap sugar has been high.I check my reservoir each run
and also the smaller trees occasionally.The sugar in the small trees drops quite quickly.

[Galena]

Worms? Yeeeck...maybe they will add that lil bit extra flavour though lol..

Just installed SapTapApps, will be curious to see if my near up does indeed go to syrup at the temp given. Off to walk the trees though not expecting anything. Later all...

ETA: some of my trees didn't get the memo, quietly drippin away....meanwhile I still have nearup to boil down to the magick saptapapp temp, should make 5l+ of batch #3 today.

[ir3333]

worms..i meant gypsy moths, but i don't think we're suppose to call them that anymore.
And the tree they got is normally a good producer but has given almost no sap this
year and it's sugar content is 1.9%. Mid season for me now and my trees are all around
2.5%, even the large ones! Might be a dribble today if it hits 6 or 7 degrees, then
another deep freeze!

[Lanark]

The saptapapp said 218 for me today and it was right. My plan now is to leave the 5 gallons in the food grade buckets and slowly siphon off the clear in a couple days then run the remainder through the vacuum press. There's really nothing to collect in my 80 buckets today, couple cm's maybe in a few buckets.

[paulslund]

Did a nice boil this afternoon and showed the kids the ropes.. they pretty much ran the show this time.. made me proud as they focused really well and kept at it.. had a very constant boil all afternoon. So far, last Thursday I boiled 470L, most of which was from Monday to Thursday. This past Thursday I boiled another 250L which was from Monday (or Tuesday? can't remember), but still had the collection barrel with about 150L which I boiled today along with another 40 litres that the pump pulled off the trees during the day (buckets barely have anything to speak of so will let them freeze).

To date I've boiled 910L from about 2.3weeks worth and I'm already at about 73% of last year's total haul. I think the syrup is higher though..will know when I finish bottling, but I think I've got a good 10L of syrup from the 250 I boiled on Thursday.... and these last two batches are lighter than my first boil..

[jungmaria]

How are you all measuring the brix of your sap? Can I use the same hydrometer that I use for my syrup?

Interesting about the small trees, nearly all my tress are smaller and I’m starting see my ratio creep up. Started the season close to 41:1, but now at about 44:1.


my sugar content has been as high as 3.0 % consistently this year. My neighbour was told by the
owner of Foster Farms in the county their sap has been averaging 2.9 %...I think they have 7000 taps!
i don't use the sap from the small trees after 5 or 6 runs because it's usually 1% or less and the lengthy
boils make very dark syrup.
I'm betting it's your Hydrometer, early sap is usually higher.

[Galena]

@jungmaria, I don't measure the content of my sap or syrup, though I think you need separate devices for measuring sugar content unless you get that fancy gadget that costs a few hundred... fwiw I just do some maff....# of l of sap divided by # l of finished syrup to get my ratio....batch #2 was 31:1 this one looks more like 28:1...what species of maple are you tapping? Those ratios seem awfully low....though a few years back there was a season with stupid amounts of sap but very little syrup.

Batch #3 which I literally just finished right now, got it like a catwhisker off of Brix - if it's the 6l that it looks like, then it's 26.6:1. If it's 5.5l then 29:1.

@paulslund, can I borrow your kids for the next big run? Also I've had batch #3 turn out really light in colour in the past, usually it's batch 1 or 2 that's very light.

[jungmaria]

Yes but your trees are amazing!
I have a very young sugarbush, only 3 of my 80+ taps are doubles, so those ratios are pretty normal for us. They’re all sugar maples. I leave the sweet in the pans so don’t truly know my ratio until the end of the season, so it may be a little better than that.

batch #2 was 31:1 this one looks more like 28:1...what species of maple are you tapping? Those ratios seem awfully low....though a few years back there was a season with stupid amounts of sap but very little syrup.

Batch #3 which I literally just finished right now, got it like a catwhisker off of Brix - if it's the 6l that it looks like, then it's 26.6:1. If it's 5.5l then 29:1.
.

[ir3333]

buy a sap hydrometer..they are fairly inexpensive and very useful.
Earlier this year we had a small run that i collected the following day.To my surprise my buckets had about
5 inches in them....but i soon found out about 2 1/2" was ice.I collected the free sap and checked the brix
with my sap hydrometer and it was 4.5 % sugar! Just the water had frozen...poor mans' RO!I also use it
to check when the sap levels drop below 1% sugar. I won't boil sap that low.

[Galena]

@ jungmaria ah I see. The bulk of my trees are mature sugar maples, 3 of them are bush sugars (one of them now has 2 spiles, the other 2 one each) and this year a red is in the mix, which may be affecting things. My biggest sugar is off the line this year as it had surgery in January. Doesn't stop it from dripping sap on me though if I walk close by! I wouldn't mind knowing the sugar content, esp of the 3 bush maples, but I think it kinda ruins the fun ;-)

If I ever do get a sugar measuring thingy then I'll check the content of my trees sometime, but nowadays ago by what I get once I finish hotpacking. Just bottled up a sold 5l of #3, and there's a bit more - probably another .25l - slowly filtering out. 160l of sap/ 5.25l syrup so this batch's ratio at just over 30:1.

ETA: just checked batch #3 expecting to see beautiful clear syrup in all the containers....but guess what there's a layer of nitre on the bottom of every.single.freakin. jar and bottle. I know I did everything right.

But the one thing I did differently this time, which I sure af won't do again, was set the pot of 186 degree hot syrup off the stove and onto my 2' thick ash countertop. Clearly the wood held the heat all too well, coupled with Maillard's reaction, and the nitre formed in the jars.

Soooo that's a mistake I'm never making again!!! Kicking myself and having a sulk before I roll up my sleeves, decant the bottled syrup back into a clean pot, get out the nitre and start all over again. Hope I have enough new lids for the jugs. Argh.

[paulslund]

@paulslund, can I borrow your kids for the next big run? Also I've had batch #3 turn out really light in colour in the past, usually it's batch 1 or 2 that's very light.

:lol: Now that's funny right there!!! :)

Seriously though, they are now catching up on homework all morning before we do a bunch of bottling this afternoon. The school system changed things recently and we can designate certain "chores" as volunteer hours (due to the lack of volunteer activities due to the pandemic).. so I made sure they were extremely engaged in this and they didn't let me down! I told them I give them at least a 90% if I had to actually grade them! :-)

Just by my looking at the containers I'm definitely at the ~30:1 ratio or better!

[Galena]

:lol: Now that's funny right there!!! :)

Seriously though, they are now catching up on homework all morning before we do a bunch of bottling this afternoon. The school system changed things recently and we can designate certain "chores" as volunteer hours (due to the lack of volunteer activities due to the pandemic).. so I made sure they were extremely engaged in this and they didn't let me down! I told them I give them at least a 90% if I had to actually grade them! :-)

Just by my looking at the containers I'm definitely at the ~30:1 ratio or better!

Good to hear! Definitely read my sad tale and learn,,,or do you bottle straight off the evap?

[ir3333]

for those of you that sell a bit of syrup what do you find is preferred ... light, medium or dark?

[Galena]

for those of you that sell a bit of syrup what do you find is preferred ... light, medium or dark?

The few times I have sold it, Amber is by far and away preferred; most people want syrup that looks and tastes like maple syrup.

Some ol' timers swear by Light, but I always warn them that my Light doesn't taste much like maple, it has more of a vanilla/marshmallow flavour. Only my eldest brother and I prefer late-season Dark, which usually starts to go towards brown sugar and molasses after batch 5.

[ir3333]

i have found the same..amber by far.

[Galena]

i have found the same..amber by far.

The Amber category is always the biggest one at fairs I've entered (Spencerville, Carp, Richmond so far) as again it seems the most *typical* (looks like maple and tastes like maple) syrup. You don't really see much Light on most grocery store shelves, though you might see some Dark. Quite curious to see how my only really good Delicate/Light batch will do, if I am able to enter it anywhere this year.

Wondering if Bruce Leggett, with his massive amounts of syrup knowledge and experience entering fairs, will chime in?

[jungmaria]

Did my calculations over again today and it’s 36:1 not 44:1! Oops. That’s a bit better but still not in your league.
**** about the nitre. What a pain.

@ jungmaria ah I see. The bulk of my trees are mature sugar maples, 3 of them are bush sugars (one of them now has 2 spiles, the other 2 one each) and this year a red is in the mix, which may be affecting things. My biggest sugar is off the line this year as it had surgery in January. Doesn't stop it from dripping sap on me though if I walk close by! I wouldn't mind knowing the sugar content, esp of the 3 bush maples, but I think it kinda ruins the fun ;-)

If I ever do get a sugar measuring thingy then I'll check the content of my trees sometime, but nowadays ago by what I get once I finish hotpacking. Just bottled up a sold 5l of #3, and there's a bit more - probably another .25l - slowly filtering out. 160l of sap/ 5.25l syrup so this batch's ratio at just over 30:1.

[jungmaria]

Thanks, I likely should. I never figured I needed to know, but that’s a good point about not boiling below 1%. Just a waste of time and wood.


I also use it
to check when the sap levels drop below 1% sugar. I won't boil sap that low.

[jungmaria]

Lots of people seem to want the dark, they think it’s ‘stronger’ or something, but I’m all about the Amber.


for those of you that sell a bit of syrup what do you find is preferred ... light, medium or dark?

[paulslund]

So bottled up the syrup from my first boil and yielded 13.9L from the 470L boil for a ratio of 33.8:1, which is a bit lower than I thought it was going to be but still a very respectable ratio, considering Silver maples constitute about 3/4 of my taps.. I think my second boil might be even better (but I've clearly overestimated my other batch so I won't get ahead of myself).

@Galena, sometimes there is always just a bit of the fine niter that can get through the filters.. I'm currently using the 5 micron Orlon filter with 2 prefilters and there always seems to be some very fine stuff that needs to settle.. I keep my jars in the oven set at 170 to avoid cooling down too fast and I waited until the syrup was down to 185 before running through the filters (into a semi-insulated coffee percolator that I use for pouring into jars). I may try the 1 micron filter next year (or if I run out of jars and need to freeze nearup for later processing). If your syrup is 186 I didn't think it would form more nitre even sitting on a well insulated surface.. unless it was actually higher than 190-195 perhaps.. have you calibrated your thermometer?

[Galena]

...@Galena, sometimes there is always just a bit of the fine niter that can get through the filters.. I'm currently using the 5 micron Orlon filter with 2 prefilters and there always seems to be some very fine stuff that needs to settle.. I keep my jars in the oven set at 170 to avoid cooling down too fast and I waited until the syrup was down to 185 before running through the filters (into a semi-insulated coffee percolator that I use for pouring into jars). I may try the 1 micron filter next year (or if I run out of jars and need to freeze nearup for later processing). If your syrup is 186 I didn't think it would form more nitre even sitting on a well insulated surface.. unless it was actually higher than 190-195 perhaps.. have you calibrated your thermometer?

Paul, this is the first time ever that I have had nitre form once hotpacked, and the only thing I did differently was have the pot sitting directly on my wooden kitchen counter as opposed to staying on the burner or, as today, on a cooling rack placed next to that burner.

Yesterday, I poured off the clear syrup from each jar and left residual syrup and nitre in the bottoms, then collected all that together and filtered it through my ever-popular and actually pretty good coffee filter and clothespin setup :-)

Today I heated the jars at 190 for 10 min (probably even longer) then turned the heat off; residual heat in the oven would have kept them around 170 like you say. Meanwhile, I slowly reheated the syrup, which I kept covered overnight in the fridge, back UP to 185; the second my therm (a professional food-industry grade digital therm, a Taylor) read 185.4, I took it off the burner, put it on a heavy duty cooling rack and hotpacked again. No way is that therm off; I'm still willing to bet that that 2' thick slab of ash that is my countertops was responsible for retaining heat. Again, Maillard's reaction.

Just finished hotpacking again, will let you know in a couple hours. Meanwhile this exact same process has left me with 2 batches of perfectly clear hotpacked syrup, nitre free, safely stashed away.

ETA: Just checked and that syrup, along with the other 2 batches, is crystal clear. No nitre at all.

[ir3333]

i see some of you bottle during the season. Once I have finished collecting and boiling sap I
clean and sterilize all equipment, pails, reservoirs, taps and put it all in storage until next year.
Once that is all complete i bottle everything at once.

[Galena]

i see some of you bottle during the season. Once I have finished collecting and boiling sap I
clean and sterilize all equipment, pails, reservoirs, taps and put it all in storage until next year.
Once that is all complete i bottle everything at once.

Yep I'm one of the ones who bottle all season and get several batches throughout. Once the trees dry up, I pull spiles and clean up and finish up my last batch if it hasn't already been done.

So you just bottle up one huge batch of syrup at once? Or do you store separate batches and bottle them separately?

[Fort Wisers]

Been meaning to post for a few days now, where does the time go!
We boiled every night last week minus Friday evening.
With the cold weather coming over the weekend (from last week's perspective) and a bunch of other obligations, we decided to finish up and end our season early.

Thursday night we worked until about midnight, boiled, finished / filtered and bottled a total of 15.75 liters of sweet goodness.
Niter was worse this year than in previous years so filtering was a bit slow, but not unmanageable.
Friday afternoon and Saturday morning were spent cleaning everything up and putting it all back into storage.
It was a short season but a good one in our books and we're happy with the results.
We wish everyone else luck in their operations!

Brent and Katie

[Galena]

Glad you had such a crazy busy season, Wisers! Don't blame you for pulling spiles, the runs this year in our area have been slightly insane. Have a great rest of your year! :-)

[ir3333]

Yep I'm one of the ones who bottle all season and get several batches throughout. Once the trees dry up, I pull spiles and clean up and finish up my last batch if it hasn't already been done.

So you just bottle up one huge batch of syrup at once? Or do you store separate batches and bottle them separately?

Depends on how much i have stored..usually over a couple of days.
This has a couple of benefits. I can bottle the last pail with the first...and the second last pail with the second pail and so on.
which makes everything medium amber. You can still finish batches separately if you want dark or light
Additionally you'll find after being stored a few weeks your syrup will be crystal clear with the sediment at the bottom.I pour the clear off and finish
but save all the sediment in one container and let it settle finishing it last..gets every last drop!

[Galena]

Depends on how much i have stored..usually over a couple of days.
This has a couple of benefits. I can bottle the last pail with the first...and the second last pail with the second pail and so on.
which makes everything medium amber. You can still finish batches separately if you want dark or light
Additionally you'll find after being stored a few weeks your syrup will be crystal clear with the sediment at the bottom.I pour the clear off and finish
but save all the sediment in one container and let it settle finishing it last..gets every last drop!

I prefer to have my batches separate, as they have their own unique properties, but your method clearly works for you! :-) It's already been a few weeks and my first batch of finished has no sediment at all. Neither do the other two, as I already did what you mention, pour off the clear, hotpack it. I also save sediment and nitre in a salvage jar. That way if I have someone who wants to witness the miracle of making syrup, or if it's summertime and I'm just really bored, I can toss the salvage jar's contents into a gallon of distilled water and *make* a batch on the kitchen stove ;-)

[ennismaple]

for those of you that sell a bit of syrup what do you find is preferred ... light, medium or dark?
Depends on the customer - we sell maybe 5% GD, 5% VD and an equal split between AR and DR for the balance. Many customers don't have a preference so you can often steer them towards whichever grade you have more of to sell.

[ir3333]

With a separate syrup pan and a divided sap pan, you can also extend the boil
on the front pan to the color you prefer for any particular batch.
There are 100 ways to make this stuff. A very experienced friend has a 24" x 12' evaporator. He routinely
fills his pans to 10",fills the fire box with wood up to 8 ft. long and goes home for the night.
Comes back the next morning to a few inches of liquid and carries on!
Lots of stops and starts this year in my area.

[Bricklayer]

With a separate syrup pan and a divided sap pan, you can also extend the boil
on the front pan to the color you prefer for any particular batch.
There are 100 ways to make this stuff. A very experienced friend has a 24" x 12' evaporator. He routinely
fills his pans to 10",fills the fire box with wood up to 8 ft. long and goes home for the night.
Comes back the next morning to a few inches of liquid and carries on!
Lots of stops and starts this year in my area.

I would not sleep a wink if I left my evaporator fully fired and walked away.
Even if the pans were full right to the rim. That’s playing with fire. Literally

[Galena]

I would not sleep a wink if I left my evaporator fully fired and walked away.
Even if the pans were full right to the rim. That’s playing with fire. Literally

Ditto. If the evap still has some fire left, or even just a healthy pile of embers producing enough heat to basically just steam off lots of water, then I will usually add a couple litres or so of fresh sap so the pan doesn't go dry. Then I shut down all the air intakes and make sure everything is as safe as can be before locking up and leaving. But jacking up the fire before leaving for bed?! NFW.

[ir3333]

I routinely leave mine to gather sap or work in the shop, eat lunch whatever. I run 1"-1 1/4" over the flues in my sap pan
but i have a gravity feed tank so the level can't go below 1" unless i don't match the infeed to the boil rate. I fire
with bigger wood so i have about 20 minute window before the arch needs more wood.It will boil much more GPH
with small wood but I no longer chase maximum GPH. My stuff is all home made hobby style.

[Fort Wisers]

Same to you Galena! I hope all goes well on your end....



Glad you had such a crazy busy season, Wisers! Don't blame you for pulling spiles, the runs this year in our area have been slightly insane. Have a great rest of your year! :-)

[4Walls]

I leave my pans on "low" all the time. Have to run to town to get a kid. Maybe it will be very cold overnight and I don't want to risk freezing and cracking a weld. Or Im tired and want to take a break for an hour and cook supper for the fam.
I am running a 2x8 D&G with flat bottoms. 2007 vintage. I've converted the wood arch to burn used veggie oil. Another story all together. It burns hot, at full throttle I'm pulling 40 GPH. The best I could get with small, split, dry wood was 22. Big wood goes slower.
But If I need to leave for a while, I turn off the compressed oil air mixture and toss some big house wood into the stove. It fires right up from the heat on the glow plate. I will loose about 3 inches from the cool down with wood so I just make sure that I have enough in the pans or leave the sap running. I never leave the sap running overnight.

[Galena]

...I've converted the wood arch to burn used veggie oil.....

OMG I know someone who also has converted everything he runs to veggie oil...a car, van, tractor....it works!

[paulslund]

[QUOTE=4Walls;403428 I've converted the wood arch to burn used veggie oil[/QUOTE]

I saw your post on that and your youtube video.. it's got to be the coolest thing I've seen when it comes to evaporators.. I might try to incorporate that if I finally build my new arch this summer..

[4Walls]

Everything I design is put up for open source. Anybody can copy it and I will help with some Ideas for the setup. Hit me up with a message and I will give you my cell so I can help with a build.
I took it over to a buddies place last year. He has the D&G 18x48 hobby evaporator. We got it going with wood and then turned on the oil. It ran for a solid 4 hours on oil without adding another stick to it. Much smaller evaporator than what I have so the oil was turned down a lot. The rig burned about 14 litres of the used oil in 4 hours. It burned hotter, clean and consistent for the whole run. The tank and fuel control/mixture and ejector port are very transportable.

You should see my 8 gallon SS vacuum filter that I just built. I will have to post a complete write up with plans. The whole thing cost less than 200$ and will run 5 gallons of syrup through clear in 2 minutes without a single drop spilled or wasted.

[Galena]

4Walls, think you could build an RO?

[Someclown]

OMG I know someone who also has converted everything he runs to veggie oil...a car, van, tractor....it works!
That must be one of the vehicle I follow on the road that make me want to go for french fries every time.
BAHAHAAA

[Lanark]

I'd like to see the photos of your vacuum filter. Did you use DE in the 5 gallons?

[Bruce L]

With a separate syrup pan and a divided sap pan, you can also extend the boil
on the front pan to the color you prefer for any particular batch.
There are 100 ways to make this stuff. A very experienced friend has a 24" x 12' evaporator. He routinely
fills his pans to 10",fills the fire box with wood up to 8 ft. long and goes home for the night.
Comes back the next morning to a few inches of liquid and carries on!
Lots of stops and starts this year in my area.

Some day we’ll all read about a sugar house burning down,I’m nervous to step outside to check the sap tanks even. I literally take the 1 minute run there and back to see how much has come in from the bush

[paulslund]

Everything I design is put up for open source. Anybody can copy it and I will help with some Ideas for the setup. Hit me up with a message and I will give you my cell so I can help with a build.
I took it over to a buddies place last year. He has the D&G 18x48 hobby evaporator. We got it going with wood and then turned on the oil. It ran for a solid 4 hours on oil without adding another stick to it. Much smaller evaporator than what I have so the oil was turned down a lot. The rig burned about 14 litres of the used oil in 4 hours. It burned hotter, clean and consistent for the whole run. The tank and fuel control/mixture and ejector port are very transportable.

You should see my 8 gallon SS vacuum filter that I just built. I will have to post a complete write up with plans. The whole thing cost less than 200$ and will run 5 gallons of syrup through clear in 2 minutes without a single drop spilled or wasted.

I have some pots I've been wanting to convert to a vacuum filter so I"m always looking for more ideas before I take the plunge and drill into my pots.. LOL

The arch I'm planning will be 18x48 (just a bit wider actually.. I have 2 double full hotel pans that I boil on.

Paul.

[paulslund]

Well..if the forecast holds true these next 5-6 days might be it for the season! Hopefully we get good runs before then but the overnight lows aren't as low as I would like..

:cry:

I guess we take what we can get..

(hmm..trying to upload jpg of weather forecast and won't let me).

[Someclown]

(hmm..trying to upload jpg of weather forecast and won't let me).

FYI Image posting on the site has been down for months now so it's not your issue

[paulslund]

FYI Image posting on the site has been down for months now so it's not your issue

Oh good.. thank you!

[Swingpure]

I have some pots I've been wanting to convert to a vacuum filter so I"m always looking for more ideas before I take the plunge and drill into my pots.. LOL

The arch I'm planning will be 18x48 (just a bit wider actually.. I have 2 double full hotel pans that I boil on.

Paul.

I followed 4walls design and it works fantastic. Filters very quickly and filters well. I still need to add the over center clamps to make it perfect.

[paulslund]

transportable.

You should see my 8 gallon SS vacuum filter that I just built. I will have to post a complete write up with plans. The whole thing cost less than 200$ and will run 5 gallons of syrup through clear in 2 minutes without a single drop spilled or wasted.

Do you also have a youtube of the filter working? I couldn't find a post for it here..

Thanks!
Paul.

[limestone]

We’re back in action today with an excellent run that put us up over 50% of our expected syrup yield.
Hoping the run continues into the night .Forecasted weather looks promising on into mid next week. Maybe there’s hope for a great season yet,fingers crossed.

[Galena]

Same here, got about 11l this morning and about 32 during the 7pm collection. Checked at 9, some in the buckets but only one tree is really hot think it'll be fine til morning. Warned neighbours (both work in emergency services) to expect to see me wearing floaties and stumbling around in zombie mode and firing up Shack Whacky this weekend, so they won't be concerned lol :-)

[limestone]

From what I se here this morning you will definitely be in zombie mode Galena. Just ducked in for a quick breakfast after collecting.It ran just as good overnight as it did yesterday here.
Off the to a full day of “sugar shack life”

[paulslund]

. Warned neighbours (both work in emergency services) to expect to see me wearing floaties and stumbling around in zombie mode and firing up Shack Whacky this weekend, so they won't be concerned lol :-)

Being a big fan of "Breaking Bad" when it was on, every spring I tell my neighbours that if they see a lot of steam coming from my area, I'm just boiling sap, not making meth! :lol:

Just emptied an almost overflowing collection barrel to the head tank. 200L + whatever is on the buckets.. Not sure what to expect today but it ran decently overnight, but with no freeze I don't know how long the trees will give. Expecting a good day tomorrow though..

So I've decided after the maple run dries up (which might be Monday/Tuesday for me), I'm going to tap the three yellow birch trees I have.. they are suppose to start giving when the maples stop. I've always wanted to try that so I figured what the heck.. apparently boiling over a lower heat provides best results.. :)

[Galena]

Working my way through the first 20+l from yesterday and this morning...approx another 50l to go lol

[MikeC82]

Pulled in 117 G from yesterday - 10:45 AM Today. Ran good all night in some. Up to 619 G so far. Fixing to be decent if the sugar content holds. Gotta cut some more dead cedars and split. Running low on wood.

[ennismaple]

We *thought* we'd left enough room in the tanks for overnight but by sunrise we had 2 tanks running over. Probably 8500 gallons of sap in front of us before it ran at all today. It'll likely be Sunday by the time we get caught up. You gotta waaaaant it!

For anyone in the Lake 88 listening region - I'll be on the radio with Jamie Fortune from 8-9am tomorrow (Saturday) morning to highlight maple weekend + Perth's Festival of the Maples and to take any questions from hobby and backyard maple producers. Call in to ask questions and keep us on our toes!

[Galena]

Ok sugaring peeps, someone kindly tell me why I am sitting bundled up by a woodstove in my sugar shack pushing sap, while my cats are nice n cosy near a roaring woodstove with no wind/rain coming in and ample light to see/read by?

[Big_Eddy]

We had to make three trips to collect today. We use a 100 gallon tank and collected 225 gallons total from 150 buckets.
Good thing I stocked up the sugar shack wall with evaporator wood. There will be plenty of steam rising in the Frankford area this weekend

[paulslund]

We *thought* we'd left enough room in the tanks for overnight but by sunrise we had 2 tanks running over. Probably 8500 gallons of sap in front of us before it ran at all today. It'll likely be Sunday by the time we get caught up. You gotta waaaaant it!

For anyone in the Lake 88 listening region - I'll be on the radio with Jamie Fortune from 8-9am tomorrow (Saturday) morning to highlight maple weekend + Perth's Festival of the Maples and to take any questions from hobby and backyard maple producers. Call in to ask questions and keep us on our toes!

I couldn't even visualize what 8,500 gallons looks like (assuming US gallons?).. and then I think of my above ground pool.. it's 15 x 30 and holds 10,000 US gallons. So basically.. you have a pool's worth of sap... :o. And here I thought my "to the brim" barrel this morning was a lot (caught it just in time, too, before it overflowed)...:lol:

[Bruce L]

We *thought* we'd left enough room in the tanks for overnight but by sunrise we had 2 tanks running over. Probably 8500 gallons of sap in front of us before it ran at all today. It'll likely be Sunday by the time we get caught up. You gotta waaaaant it!

For anyone in the Lake 88 listening region - I'll be on the radio with Jamie Fortune from 8-9am tomorrow (Saturday) morning to highlight maple weekend + Perth's Festival of the Maples and to take any questions from hobby and backyard maple producers. Call in to ask questions and keep us on our toes!
Marty we thought the same thing,pumped sap up to sugar house Thursday night to have some room in the tanks,but by Friday morning 3 out of 4 tanks were going over,with the 4th one only 4” from the top. That’s about 1700-1800 gallons from just under 1200 taps. Started boiling at 10:00, by noon had the head tank full to the brim,even though I’d been boiling for two hours,that’s 800 gallons,plus what was sitting in the tanks in the bushes.2.5 hours later,tank was empty and started pumping sap from tanks in the bush. All done firing at 5:15 last night,went through quite a bit of wood and came home with 45 gallons of light amber

[Galena]

My trees kept me busy too, even though I am down by 3 taps and 1 tree. So I am on 15 live taps on 7 trees but perhaps it's just as well. I slept in a few more hours and my arms still feel like they're about to fall off!

Yesterday I fired up at 8am and kept a steady rolling boil going all day, didn't quit til 10:30pm. Pushed through 95l of sap, the 8l of resulting nearup are now on the stove getting taken down to a more manageable level. Have enough to make batch #4, so may as well do it now before they get at it again...

[paulslund]

Pushed through almost 260L of sap yesterday evening from 6-1:30am and have another approx 200 to get through today.. hoping to light the fire by 1 (have more wood to cut up or I won't have enough) and clean up in the shack to do first.. then will hopefully empty out the barrel and buckets again as I near 6ish to keep boiling down what I have.. Might call it quits after this, regardless of the weather.. Although I've said that in the past.. there's something about wanting to push past one's previous record by a lot, instead of by just a little..but so far this year I will have collected more in these 3 weeks than I did in last year's 5+ week (if I recall correctly) season...

Is anyone else noticing a decline in prices of syrup at stores? I was in the Walmart in Kemptville the other day and they were selling the 540ml cans for around 8$.. those are usually $12+. Costco always has cheap syrup (12-13 for 1L jug) but I discount them when thinking of market prices.. i wonder if that is forcing other stores to drop pricing levels.. :-|

[Galena]

Yeah the forecast after Tuesday not looking promising.

Certainly not breaking any records this year, don't mind that cause I need to sleep sometimes lol. Pushing 70l today. Have fun everyone!

[paulslund]

Got through another 260L today.. I surprisingly still have a bit of wood left.. probably enough for a 3-4 hour boil.. so I'll see what we get tomorrow and Tuesday.... Hoping not too much as I tend to feel obligated to process what the trees give or I feel like a hypocrite! :lol: Broke last year's record.. I'm at approx 1,400L vs last years 1,240.

[ir3333]

Pulled my pails Saturday., and poured out quite a bit of sap.The large trees crowded in the hardwoods were below 1.5% sugar
and the small ones were at 1% or less.
Those trees will still run but for all intents and purposes it's just water. I kept the buckets on the very biggest trees that have lots
of space, large crowns, and no competition they are still at 2% or 2.5% sugar.
A sap hydrometer will save you a lot of firewood and long hours boiling for small amount of very dark syrup.

[Galena]

...A sap hydrometer will save you a lot of firewood and long hours boiling for small amount of very dark syrup.

True, but even with long hours of boiling - my barrel evap is very well insulated so I'm not motoring through wood (and gives me a chance to get rid of that frickin elm that won't split cleanly) and I get a lot of syrup, and I like dark tbh :-)

Looks like 4l for batch #4 from about 110l sap. And next year I plan to have a small RO so that should help quite a bit.

[ir3333]

Absolutely, and if you prefer dark syrup i would keep on keepin' on. During the early part of the season
larger batches or flat pan boiling will make darker syrup as well. There are a hundred ways to make this stuff!
I think somebody already said that...

[Galena]

Oh I love all the grades of syrup that I get, but for personal preference I love the darker Amber and Dark stuff. I very rarely ever give away any from batch #6 on.

[Bruce L]

Packed it in today.got a whiff of a “ swampy” smell off the sap yesterday,syrup has a bit of a nip to it today,no freezes coming,so called it a year today. 251.5 gallons of light and golden syrup,bubbler system made a big difference this year

[ennismaple]

Yesterday's sap was still coming in quite clear and made beautiful 65LT amber-rich. We've had a freeze-up each of the last 3 nights and it'll freeze again tonight so I expect we'll be making syrup through the weekend. There's still snow in half the woods and the ground is still frozen so that'll help us get through some warm days this week. It's shaping up to be a record year.

We had an awesome weekend and made 0.4L/tap from Friday to Sunday. After 3 long days we finally got caught up and had mostly empty tanks by sunset yesterday. We've only made maybe 1 drum's worth of dark-robust so far at the start of a couple boils - which quickly lightens to mid 60's AR once the new sap pushes through.

I had a big brain fart yesterday and didn't set my timer to add defoamer - so of course I forgot while distracted with other tasks. I just loaded the fire box with my 3rd fire of the day, turned up the blowers and 10 seconds later there was foam shooting 2 feet out from all 4 hatches of the steam hood! Oops...

In my opinion anyone that's lowering their prices this year needs to look at their numbers more closely. Container costs have gone up 60% over the past 5 years and we all know what gas and diesel are worth right now. The Quebec Federation has nearly zero table grade syrup in warehouse and very little processing grade syrup. There was no bulk syrup available in Ontario at the start of 2022 and consumer demand is high.

[PaulRenaud]

I'm still getting sap with a Brix north of 2 and snow still in the woods, so will keep going if weather cooperates. I've started a regime of washing sap collection pails and tanks, and the sap being collected is still clear. Got a tsunami of it over the past couple of days, and am still catching up with the boil.

Syrup is amber (haven't graded it yet), not dark. So looks like I'll keep going this week if weather doesn't warm.

[Galena]

My trees definitely slowing down. Still got 25l off of only 7 trees and 15 active spikes...for some reason the S and Sw taps had very short runs and quit about a week ago. Still a few keener trees doing all the heavy lifting and sap still perfect, so not pulling spikes yet.

Batch 4 will be about 3.5l once hot packed came in at grde A amber. Wouldn't mind some dark so hoping batch 5 will give me some. Doubt I'll get 6 batches this year.

[Bruce L]

Might also mention that I’m glad I’m done. Stick of wood dropped off the woodpile and hit right on the top of my foot where you tie your shoelaces. It’s literally taking me 5 minutes to walk 5 feet,hate to see my wife doing everything on her own tonight,but I just get in the way

[limestone]

Like the others here we have made around 30% of this years syrup since Thursday. Sap tapered off at noon today when it clouded over. Supposed to just barely freeze tonight and tomorrow. If it runs we’ll call that a bonus.

[Bricklayer]

Bruce,
I’ve done the exact same thing many times. Never hits the steel toe. Always like 3” behind it.

[Galena]

Poor Bruce, I definitely felt that ouch on the chunk of wood hitting the top of the foot and not the toe, esp when you have steel toes on. Hurts like crazy. On the other hand, I've had my toes stepped on countless times by horses and yet never had a broken toe. Go figure.

ETA: Trees definitely slowing today, which sucks cause my sugar content is up - I'm around 28:1 at the moment. Usually 25-27:1 this time of year. Probably the fact that there is a red on the line (still hasn't fluffed out yet) is a factor. Anticipating an increasingly slower run will probably pull by the weekend. Hate to see sap dribble from the spile holes.

[Bruce L]

Had a good nights sleep,high potency pain killers,so was able to get one bush pulled and tubing washed this morning,side effects of the pills though is I feel nauseous. Now to fill the pans with the distilled water I saved from the steam away this afternoon so they’ll be done by the weekend

[paulslund]

Last boil tonight.. pump is pulling the last few drops it can from the trees.. buckets have dried up.. barely an inch in the bottom of some of them..and those are the full ones.. I think I have about 70+L to get through, so that will be a quick boil, which is good..I think I have just enough wood to get through that. Sap is looking much cloudier than the weekend (but still made medium I think.. I actually don't know how to grade this stuff.. I just go by yum or yummier) so will test a pot on the stove before firing up. Will be shutting off the pump and pulling the buckets tonight an then start clean up tomorrow.

[DrTimPerkins]

Stick of wood dropped off the woodpile and hit right on the top of my foot where you tie your shoelaces.

Common type of baseball injury from a tipped ball. Very painful and takes a while to heal. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[ennismaple]

We're still going strong north of Hwy 7! Another 2 GPT of 2.2 Brix sap over the past 2 days is being processed this afternoon.

[Galena]

Gaaahhh trees trying to kill me...got 26l today, not enough to fire up evap so doing in house, I should open a freakin spa here...some slightly cloudy sap but not overly concerned, never been an issue in the past, it's fine otherwise.

[paulslund]

Boiled down the last 80L yesterday evening.. Buckets barely had anything in them so dumped then.. lots of flies in them.. (although in hindsight I should have kept it as it probably totaled 10L). Sap was very cloudy with signs that some fermentation (or is that microbial action?) is occurring as I'm seeing floaty things in the barrel.. Test pot on the stove was good. I think sugar is down though as I think I'll have a bit less than 2L whereas other batches have been around 33:1 (or something..give or take.. haven't bottled all my batches yet). Funny thing is this is the lightest batch I've made all season.

I've pulled the buckets, and turned off the pump.. I debated keeping it on as it still pulled 80L from 23 taps over 2 days..but I'm out of wood and out of snow so no way to keep the sap cool until I could boil again. So I'm calling it a season. I think I pulled almost 1500L of sap this year with yesterday's haul. Syrup count to be determined.

Martin..I wonder if you've had colder weather even though you're only about 1.5 hour away from Ottawa.. all my snow is gone over here..

Good luck to everyone still at it!
Paul.

[Galena]

Tiny amounts of sap in the pails, spiles drying up...also heard seagulls this a.m....all signs to stop . Will collect what is left and add to batch 5 which is going to be massive. What a season.

ETA: just collected the last of the sap, just shy of 3l, some has a slight whiff to it. Will cook it up separately before deciding what to do with it. Short season, only a month for me!

[ennismaple]

Martin..I wonder if you've had colder weather even though you're only about 1.5 hour away from Ottawa.. all my snow is gone over here..

Paul - we still have some snow on the north facing slopes and our cedar swamps are mostly frozen over. We also benefit from being on the edge of Bennett Lake which is still frozen over and creates a colder micro-climate later in the season.

I have 5000+ gallons of pretty decent looking sap to get through again today. Incoming sap is down to 2.0 Brix, which is normal late in the season without a freeze up. Hopefully we can get through tomorrow to the cooler temps forecast for the weekend.

[limestone]

Emptied the tanks ,lines and boiled that along with yesterday mornings small run. We pulled the spiles in the afternoon with mostly dry holes. Next it’s on to wash up and cutting firewood for 2023.
Overall a nice average syrup season. I’m sure our “maple fever” will build again next December or so and it’s off we go again.

[paulslund]

Paul - we still have some snow on the north facing slopes and our cedar swamps are mostly frozen over. We also benefit from being on the edge of Bennett Lake which is still frozen over and creates a colder micro-climate later in the season.

I have 5000+ gallons of pretty decent looking sap to get through again today. Incoming sap is down to 2.0 Brix, which is normal late in the season without a freeze up. Hopefully we can get through tomorrow to the cooler temps forecast for the weekend.

Wow.. I wouldn't have thought there could be such a difference so close by. Let us know how the run is this week.

So that last 80L batch I boiled on Tuesday, although it tastes fine, is, well.. a wee bit stringy... when I run it off a spoon it appears fine until the last few drop just keep stretching, and stretching leaving a spider-web thin line.. I've never seen that before, but I guess that means it was the right time to stop. I'll be keeping this batch for coffee and BBQ sauces I think..

[ennismaple]

Yesterday's boil went well. The incoming sap still looks good but was coming in to the RO at 55 F by the end of the day so we cleaned up everything we could hoping we can get through the next few days and into the weekend. First drum was 45 LT but lightened to the low 50's midway through. Great flavour with no aftertaste.

[DrTimPerkins]

it tastes fine, is, well.. a wee bit stringy... when I run it off a spoon it appears fine until the last few drop just keep stretching, and stretching leaving a spider-web thin line..

Yup, stringy (ropy). Rejected in Quebec if the string is 4 cm or longer.

It'll stick to your ribs though...both inside and outside. :D

[ennismaple]

It looks like we're not done yet! We got 3/4 GPT in the last 24 hours and it's still good sap so we'll fire up again tomorrow.

I drained the flue pan and gave The Beast a bath tonight hoping we still get a few more boils before the hot weather that's coming next week. At this point in the season it is critical to wash all the tanks and sap/maple contact surfaces as frequently as possible or you'll get a tankful of snot pretty fast!

[paulslund]

Yup, stringy (ropy). Rejected in Quebec if the string is 4 cm or longer.

It'll stick to your ribs though...both inside and outside. :D

Hmm.. Definitely perfect for BBQ sauces then. :lol: I think it definitely was around the 4cm mark.. maybe longer. So that's what ropy syrup is.. learn something new every year.


It looks like we're not done yet! We got 3/4 GPT in the last 24 hours and it's still good sap so we'll fire up again tomorrow.

I drained the flue pan and gave The Beast a bath tonight hoping we still get a few more boils before the hot weather that's coming next week. At this point in the season it is critical to wash all the tanks and sap/maple contact surfaces as frequently as possible or you'll get a tankful of snot pretty fast!

Wow! It's snowing this morning in Ottawa so I bet you also had a cold night.. hopefully a good run today too!

I wonder if washing out my collection tank would have helped prevent my ropy syrup on that last batch.. it was pretty warm Monday and Tuesday.. Pulled my pump and noticed my strainer basket was full of slime, so I bet that didn't help.. I should have cleaned all that out after my Sunday evening boil (although I really thought that was the last of it so wasn't thinking ahead). I pulled all my taps yesterday but lines seemed to be full of sap even though buckets did nothing.. I think I'll factor in some changes next year to make it easier to clean during the season.Weekend cooler than expected so I may have gotten more.. Lesson learned.. :D

Have a great weekend to everyone still boiling!

[Galena]

Just graded my last batch, #5, at 49 on the Hannah so it's a nice Dark Amber. Lots of nitre in this batch so patiently filtering it out, should come out around 4.5l. Ought to have the annual *class picture* up soon!

@paulslund, sent you a pm.

@ennismaple, also sent a pm.

[ennismaple]

@ennismaple, also sent a pm.@galena - my inbox was full. Try again?

[Bruce L]

Finished washing all the tubing this morning,just before my wife headed off on some much needed r&r with her sisters

[Galena]

@ ennismaple pm sent again.

[paulslund]

@galena - my inbox was full. Try again?

LOL..so was mine.. I just cleared a bunch a space.. Can you please send again?

[Galena]

@ paulslund sent again.

*cough coughDrTim* Jeez site admins, wish this site allowed for more than just 25 emails at a time.

[Galena]

Marty...phone # incomplete...please re-send! Thanks! :-)

[Swingpure]

Finished washing all the tubing this morning,just before my wife headed off on some much needed r&r with her sisters

How did you wash yours?

I am a week or so away from doing something with the lines.

Thanks

[limestone]

Mostly washed up just need to do the flue pan and head tank with the pressure washer. Boiled down the pan concentrate on the turkey fryer and that put our yield to 231 litres from 230 taps on gravity.
We’re happy and put that up as a good year. If it wasn’t for the run Thursday-Sunday it would have been a very different story. All the best to the “north of 7” sappers that are still at. Hope you get a good run this weekend.

[Bruce L]

How did you wash yours?

I am a week or so away from doing something with the lines.

Thanks
We mix a light chlorine solution and pump back through the mainline,as we pull the spiles it blows the old sap out,also good time for finding leaks that we mark with red electrical tape

[Bruce L]

Pans all pressure washed this morning,looking like new ready for next year. Syrup going out the door like crazy this weekend

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey Paul! Is the sap running for you this weekend?

[Run Forest Run!]

Hi everyone! It's been an adventure since everything hit the fan in March of 2020. But I wanted to say hello to the syrup gang!

I have been enjoying a decent syrup season, with maybe one or two collection days left . . . . or maybe none.�� Mother Narure is the boss!

How have your syrup harvests been this year?

[Bruce L]

Hi Karen,how are you doing? Great to see you on here. Wasn’t on much during the season,didn’t know if you were active on the forum or not.

[Run Forest Run!]

Hi Bruce! It's been a couple of seasons since I last posted. I really missed all of the great interactions with everyone. As I am the primary caregiver for my parents, things really hit the fan for me in 2020. Hopefully we are heading in the right direction and can all get a much-needed sense of calm back soon. Hope you've been well! ��

[Galena]

Hi Bruce! It's been a couple of seasons since I last posted. I really missed all of the great interactions with everyone. As I am the primary caregiver for my parents, things really hit the fan for me in 2020. Hopefully we are heading in the right direction and can all get a much-needed sense of calm back soon. Hope you've been well! ��

Karen sweetie! So good to hear from you. Understand that you've been quite busy. I had a really short season, and as my best tree had surgery in January, I didn't tap it. Still quite a decent amount of syrup from the 580or so ls I got. Also started a new business. www.darkhorseappraisals.com. Take care and stay in touch!

[paulslund]

Hey Paul! Is the sap running for you this weekend?

Karen!!! So good to hear from you!

Tree spouts were leaking today, but I pulled all my taps earlier around mid week. Boiled my last 80L Tuesday evening and made some *slightly ropey* but still very tasty syrup. Think I pulled in around 1,500L, but season was only about 3 1/2 weeks for me this year! I haven't bottled it all, but even my last batch gave me about 2.5-2.6L out of the 80 so good sugar content this year!

Hope you are having a good season and things are well on your end!

Paul.

[Sinoed09]

How did you wash yours?

I am a week or so away from doing something with the lines.

Thanks

Life happened so I only ended up with a few taps on 3/16” gravity. I pulled and sanitized today with 10ml syringes and a 2L Pepsi bottle. For the taps I just squirted 10ml into each one. For the line, I drilled through the cap on the Pepsi bottle, inserted a piece of 3/16” hose and wrapped with duct tape. Silicone would be better for sealing since mine dripped. I used a joiner and added the bottle to the end of the line and tipped it upside down. Had to invert it a couple times to crack the cap and let in air but I’m thoroughly impressed with the vacuum I get on top of the ridge - crushed my bottle. �� I’ll have to measure it next year for sure. A valve of some kind to let in air would be great but my low tech and free solution did the job well. A bit of work sealing the 2L cap properly and I could just leave it in on the line by screwing a smaller bottle in place. Just thought I’d share - simple stuff everyone already has for the most part.

https://www.amazon.ca/10ml-Oral-Syringes-Terumo-Administration/dp/B07SF6TNSK/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=B07SF6TNSK&psc=1

[Galena]

@ennismaple - thanks again Marty for the tour and talk and showing me fun stuff like collecting tanks beg enough to swim in! And next time I get ahold of some scrap copper, I think I know what I'll do with it ;-)

[4Walls]

I have posted a video of my improved vacuum filter. Design, build and operation. Everything I create is open source for and anyone can copy it. All in it was less than 200$. Works as well or better than the CDL version for 2800$ Just wanted to catch you all before everything is put away for the season and you will have time to hunt around for parts if you want to build for next year. We should have at least another few weeks of sap here in the North Bay Area. The Toronto brewing kettle goes on sale all the time. That is the big ticket item for this build. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8nbZd8EOT0

[paulslund]

So here is a question for those in the know.. my last batch made some slightly ropy syrup, but still fine tasting. Is the ropy syrup caused when the temps were too warm and bacteria started to feast, or is it because it's been warm and the trees are starting to bud (although with Silvers it's hard to tell as they start to bud in the fall and hold them until the spring)/

Reason I'm asking is it's going to be -3 overnight for a good 5-6+ hours.. if I reconnect my taps and start the pump up, will the sap still give me ropy syrup, or do I have a good chance at getting one last good run?

If ropy syrup is caused by the tree budding, then I won't bother.. but if ropy is caused by warm temps and bacteria eating the sap.. I just might be tempted to put the taps back in for tomorrow and see what I get..

Anyone? Bueller? :D

Thanks!

[Bricklayer]

If your into ropy syrup I don’t think it’s gonna get any better at this time in the year.
In my opinion ropy syrup is a mixture of both the temperatures and the tree putting out buds.
I’m sure there’s a more scientific explanation to it. But I would just pull your taps and call it a season.
Last Tuesday was our last sap day and called it a year. Once the sap gets a bit cloudy we don’t risk it.
Waste of time if you spend all that time boiling it and it comes out a snotty sour mess.

[paulslund]

If your into ropy syrup I don’t think it’s gonna get any better at this time in the year.
In my opinion ropy syrup is a mixture of both the temperatures and the tree putting out buds.
I’m sure there’s a more scientific explanation to it. But I would just pull your taps and call it a season.
Last Tuesday was our last sap day and called it a year. Once the sap gets a bit cloudy we don’t risk it.
Waste of time if you spend all that time boiling it and it comes out a snotty sour mess.

That's what I thought too but wanted a second opinion. Actually come to think of it I barely have any wood left to boil anyways so it's kind of a moot point! :lol:

Thanks!

[paulslund]

I have posted a video of my improved vacuum filter. Design, build and operation. Everything I create is open source for and anyone can copy it. All in it was less than 200$. Works as well or better than the CDL version for 2800$ Just wanted to catch you all before everything is put away for the season and you will have time to hunt around for parts if you want to build for next year. We should have at least another few weeks of sap here in the North Bay Area. The Toronto brewing kettle goes on sale all the time. That is the big ticket item for this build. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8nbZd8EOT0

Now that is a nice rig! I'll be bookmarking that video for my own build..

Thanks!

[ennismaple]

If your into ropy syrup I don’t think it’s gonna get any better at this time in the year.
In my opinion ropy syrup is a mixture of both the temperatures and the tree putting out buds.
I’m sure there’s a more scientific explanation to it. But I would just pull your taps and call it a season.
Last Tuesday was our last sap day and called it a year. Once the sap gets a bit cloudy we don’t risk it.
Waste of time if you spend all that time boiling it and it comes out a snotty sour mess. We've had our flue pan go ropey on us a few times - normally towards the end of the season and after its sat for a few days with just the right sugar content in the pan. My flue pan today was looking like it wanted to go ropey and the float box definitely was ropey. I drained the float box and drew off some concentrate from the valve closest to where it was starting to get a little thick. Once new concentrate was coming in I just had to watch the defoamer for 10 minutes or so and then it settled back down. It ended up being very good syrup and filtered fine.

Managed to push another 94 gallons of very dark to dark syrup today and with the hard freeze coming tomorrow night we'll likely get one more good boil on Tuesday before calling it quits.

Galena - nice to see you on Saturday and glad I could give you a bit of a tour. If you'd been there today you might have learned some new words... "someone" didn't check the concentrate levels going through the RO and created high-test concentrate that ran off so fast I couldn't filter it fast enough and had to stop firing for an hour to catch up on the filtering!

[Galena]

Galena - nice to see you on Saturday and glad I could give you a bit of a tour. If you'd been there today you might have learned some new words... "someone" didn't check the concentrate levels going through the RO and created high-test concentrate that ran off so fast I couldn't filter it fast enough and had to stop firing for an hour to catch up on the filtering!

Haha, don't think I would have been offended by the new words, probably heard and used em all before...and I'd've been glad to take some of that uber-concentrate off your hands ;-)

[paulslund]

We've had our flue pan go ropey on us a few times - normally towards the end of the season and after its sat for a few days with just the right sugar content in the pan. My flue pan today was looking like it wanted to go ropey and the float box definitely was ropey. I drained the float box and drew off some concentrate from the valve closest to where it was starting to get a little thick. Once new concentrate was coming in I just had to watch the defoamer for 10 minutes or so and then it settled back down. It ended up being very good syrup and filtered fine.

Managed to push another 94 gallons of very dark to dark syrup today and with the hard freeze coming tomorrow night we'll likely get one more good boil on Tuesday before calling it quits.

Galena - nice to see you on Saturday and glad I could give you a bit of a tour. If you'd been there today you might have learned some new words... "someone" didn't check the concentrate levels going through the RO and created high-test concentrate that ran off so fast I couldn't filter it fast enough and had to stop firing for an hour to catch up on the filtering!

Was that "someone" you by chance? :lol:

(In my case the only person I can blame if something goes wrong is myself.. :D ).

[paulslund]

We've had our flue pan go ropey on us a few times - normally towards the end of the season and after its sat for a few days with just the right sugar content in the pan. My flue pan today was looking like it wanted to go ropey and the float box definitely was ropey. I drained the float box and drew off some concentrate from the valve closest to where it was starting to get a little thick. Once new concentrate was coming in I just had to watch the defoamer for 10 minutes or so and then it settled back down. It ended up being very good syrup and filtered fine.

Now that's interesting.. I couldn't tell it was ropey until it was done.. during the boil everything looked, tasted and ran off the ladle in a normal manner. And it's actually the lightest batch I've made all season!

[DrTimPerkins]

And it's actually the lightest batch I've made all season!

It isn't real uncommon to get really light syrup late in the season. Sap is normally a bit acidic, but as it spoils it turns more acidic. During boiling, sap goes through an "alkaline degradation" phase, where the pH rises sharply, then drops off. It is during this time (high pH, alkaline) that niter forms and there are lots of chemical reactions that form flavor and color. So if the sap starts out quite acidic, it may never or just barely reach an alkaline pH. If this happens, less color and flavor are made (very light-colored syrup), less niter forms...all seems really good...except that the syrup may taste sour.

[paulslund]

It isn't real uncommon to get really light syrup late in the season. Sap is normally a bit acidic, but as it spoils it turns more acidic. During boiling, sap goes through an "alkaline degradation" phase, where the pH rises sharply, then drops off. It is during this time (high pH, alkaline) that niter forms and there are lots of chemical reactions that form flavor and color. So if the sap starts out quite acidic, it may never or just barely reach an alkaline pH. If this happens, less color and flavor are made (very light-colored syrup), less niter forms...all seems really good...except that the syrup may taste sour.

Come to think of it, there was a lot less nitre than my other batches.. I had attributed that to being my smallest/shortest boil, but I think proportionately there was less.

Now this question may appear blasphemous, but would physically altering the PH with, say, baking soda, offset the impact of what you described? I'm sure this would be considered an additive, so it's more an academic question than anything...

I think I read that someone studied how to reduce ropey-ness, or maybe it was buddy flavour..(can't remember at the moment) by continuously adding distilled water in order to pro-long the boil.. I'll have to try and find that.. if the effect was to reduce ropey-ness I may try it on a small batch later this year.. just for fun! :D

[DrTimPerkins]

1. Yes, modifying the pH would both affect the outcome and be illegal.

2. There have been some suggestions on ways to reprocess ropy syrup. We're looking into it but aren't ready to endorse anything as yet.

[Galena]

Reworking ropey syrup...hmmm seems like tilting at windmills to me. I'll just stick with my parlour trick of *making* a small batch of syrup from my collection of syrup-laden nitre, saved for visitors who've never seen syrup made before. Chuck it in a pot with about a gallon of distilled water, boil as per usual, filter and eh wala I can get around 500ml of reclaimed syrup from nitre :-)

Very happy with my end of season total of 18.5l. Averages out to around 34:1 seasonwide which is low for me, usually I'm about 28:-26:1 this time of year. But then the red was on the line helping out.

[ennismaple]

Was that "someone" you by chance? :lol: Yeah nobody to blame except the guy staring back at me from the mirror! I adjusted the RO concentrate flow a bit and didn't give the system enough time to settle down before sampling what went into the tank. It tested 2 Brix lower than I wanted so I cranked it down again. When I tested the tank later it was 20 brix - which I've discovered the hard way we cannot filter fast enough!

[DrTimPerkins]

In my opinion ropy syrup is a mixture of both the temperatures and the tree putting out buds.
I’m sure there’s a more scientific explanation to it.

Turns out there is. It is a spoilage microbe (same one that spoils milk) that causes ropy. It is pretty much always there, but when it is warm it can proliferate. It has nothing to do with the buds on the trees, except that they both tend to happen when it warms up. Best thing to do to avoid (ropy) it is to process your sap quickly, maybe aerate the sap or ultrafilter (jury still out on those), and fire up your pans every couple of days when it is warm to knock them back until you boil again.

We had a terrible time with ropy last year. Hot weather and lots of low and slow flow days. Sap was coming out of the lines really loaded with microbes, so by the time we could get it through the RO and into the refrigerated bulk tank it was already too late. Ruined about 25-35% of our crop. Our worst production year since 2004...even counting 2012.

A few places are doing some research on possible uses of ropy syrup...turning it into alcohol or something else useful. If it isn't too bad there is a process that "might" be able to salvage it, but again, not enough info yet.

[paulslund]

Turns out there is. It is a spoilage microbe (same one that spoils milk) that causes ropy. It is pretty much always there, but when it is warm it can proliferate. It has nothing to do with the buds on the trees, except that they both tend to happen when it warms up. Best thing to do to avoid (ropy) it is to process your sap quickly, maybe aerate the sap or ultrafilter (jury still out on those), and fire up your pans every couple of days when it is warm to knock them back until you boil again.

We had a terrible time with ropy last year. Hot weather and lots of low and slow flow days. Sap was coming out of the lines really loaded with microbes, so by the time we could get it through the RO and into the refrigerated bulk tank it was already too late. Ruined about 25-35% of our crop. Our worst production year since 2004...even counting 2012.

A few places are doing some research on possible uses of ropy syrup...turning it into alcohol or something else useful. If it isn't too bad there is a process that "might" be able to salvage it, but again, not enough info yet.

So that's interesting.. the ropey-ness isn't due to budding at all.. I could have helped prevent it by cleaning my tank and pump filter as it warmed up! Good to know for next year.

So two quick questions: 1) you mention running through the RO and then into a refrigerated tank.. I don't use an RO but there have been discussions on some of the FB maple pages where users swear that you can't refrigerate concentrate.. it needs to be boiled right away.. But from what I'm reading that is not true? Concentrate can be refrigerated until you can boil? 2) I was going to try and make sugar with my ropey syrup.. I can usually make sugar with my last batches of the season, but should I not bother trying with ropey syrup?

[ennismaple]

It isn't real uncommon to get really light syrup late in the season. Sap is normally a bit acidic, but as it spoils it turns more acidic. During boiling, sap goes through an "alkaline degradation" phase, where the pH rises sharply, then drops off. It is during this time (high pH, alkaline) that niter forms and there are lots of chemical reactions that form flavor and color. So if the sap starts out quite acidic, it may never or just barely reach an alkaline pH. If this happens, less color and flavor are made (very light-colored syrup), less niter forms...all seems really good...except that the syrup may taste sour. This happened to us today - the 2nd drum we filled came all the way back to 60LT.

[paulslund]

So this is interesting. This whole season I had been of the mindset that it was shorter but much more furious than last year. However I just checked my logs.

I tapped on March 16/2021 last year, with my first boil on March 20th and my last boil on April 4th/2021.

This year I tapped on March 10th (well, the lines were running on March 10th..the buckets were hung on March 7th, but barely had anything in them). My first boil was March 17th (we had a freeze for 2-3 days over the weekend of March 12th) and my last boil was April 5th.

For me, this season was actually almost a full week longer than last year while this whole time I thought it was shorter. Approx 1,530L of sap this year vs 1,242L last year. Boiling was all done within about 3 weeks from first boil to last boil in both years.

Funny how the mind works sometimes..

[ennismaple]

Paulslund - We've been tracking data on our seasons for decades. Over the past 20 years both out mean and our median season is 32 days from first boil to last boil. This year was 28 days (> average), 2021 was longer for us at 34 days but produced less syrup.

[DrTimPerkins]

1) you mention running through the RO and then into a refrigerated tank.. I don't use an RO but there have been discussions on some of the FB maple pages where users swear that you can't refrigerate concentrate.. it needs to be boiled right away.. But from what I'm reading that is not true?

We concentrate to 32 Brix, refrigerate from 1-5 days (down to about 25 deg F), then boil when we have 500-750 gal of concentrate. It can still go ropy, but much slower than otherwise. We are looking at ways to slow down that process even more (aeration, UV treatment of filtrate, etc.), but typically if we're concerned about it going ropy we will boil.

As far as making sugar...hard to tell. Depends on the invert level and HOW ropy it is. Best I can say is give it a try (maybe on a smaller scale).

[DrTimPerkins]

This happened to us today - the 2nd drum we filled came all the way back to 60LT.

Yup...looks great. Doesn't always taste great though. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

[PaulRenaud]

It isn't real uncommon to get really light syrup late in the season. Sap is normally a bit acidic, but as it spoils it turns more acidic. During boiling, sap goes through an "alkaline degradation" phase, where the pH rises sharply, then drops off. It is during this time (high pH, alkaline) that niter forms and there are lots of chemical reactions that form flavor and color. So if the sap starts out quite acidic, it may never or just barely reach an alkaline pH. If this happens, less color and flavor are made (very light-colored syrup), less niter forms...all seems really good...except that the syrup may taste sour.

What about Brix level? In the last week, after 4 days of hot weather followed by snow, the Brix level in my sap jumped from 2.5 to 3.0. I was expecting it to drop as the season wore on.

[DrTimPerkins]

What about Brix level? In the last week, after 4 days of hot weather followed by snow, the Brix level in my sap jumped from 2.5 to 3.0. I was expecting it to drop as the season wore on.

The general trend over a season is downward, but it can pop up after each freeze temporarily.

[paulslund]

Well I'm happy to announce that my slightly ropey syrup made maple sugar just fine.

I'm also announcing that I have been binge watching way too much Gold Rush/Aussie gold hunters/Bering Sea Gold. I had my daughters read out the scale as I poured the fine sugar into a container (12oz) and separated the big nuggets from the small nuggets into separate containers (7.5oz total).. In today's gold prices that would be about ~USD$38k! We all cheered and high-fived ourselves! :lol: I have no idea how much $ that is in today's maple sugar market.. :-|

Happy Easter everyone!

[paulslund]

So looking at my maples I noticed my silvers are in full bud/almost bloom, but the few sugars I have are just now showing some swelling buds.. Seeing as we've had some cold weather these past few days (it was -3/4 in Ottawa the other night) is anyone still getting good sap from their sugar maples?

[Galena]

So looking at my maples I noticed my silvers are in full bud/almost bloom, but the few sugars I have are just now showing some swelling buds.. Seeing as we've had some cold weather these past few days (it was -3/4 in Ottawa the other night) is anyone still getting good sap from their sugar maples?

My reds are only just starting to bud. Sugar maple buds still closed up tight but no fear, I'll be still be doing lots of raking in the fall!

Pulled my spiles April 7th, would never dream of re-drilling and tapping all over again. My trees have done their work for the year.

[paulslund]

My reds are only just starting to bud. Sugar maple buds still closed up tight but no fear, I'll be still be doing lots of raking in the fall!

Pulled my spiles April 7th, would never dream of re-drilling and tapping all over again. My trees have done their work for the year.

Oh no I wouldn't suggest re-drilling.. was just wondering if anyone is still pulling in sap or not..

[Galena]

Oh no I wouldn't suggest re-drilling.. was just wondering if anyone is still pulling in sap or not..

Ah ok. BTW how goes the birch tapping?

[Rodmeister]

Finally pulling taps today. Boiled yesterday for hours with only one miserable draw yet day before was best production all season, took bulk tank almost dry so fill-up overnight seems to be low sugar content. Out of bottles as well so all good. Had to store some production in bucket so best guess is around 1.4 L syrup per tap for season.

[paulslund]

Ah ok. BTW how goes the birch tapping?

I made a small batch just by boiling gently every day on the stove (birch sap spoils easily as it flows when it's warm). Burnt my last batch but I have about a L+ of nearup in the fridge that I'm going to finish this weekend. In hindsight I should have just kept the few buckets on the sugars like I usually do for end of season boiling on the stove.

It's a different taste.. not something to put on pancakes in my opinion.. the taste has mellowed when it cooled down, but when I sampled it hot it had a worchestershire sauce like flavour.. so i figure BBQ's and stir-frys will benefit from this.. I don't think I'll do it again though.. much prefer the maple..

[Galena]

...It's a different taste.. not something to put on pancakes in my opinion.. the taste has mellowed when it cooled down, but when I sampled it hot it had a worchestershire sauce like flavour.. so i figure BBQ's and stir-frys will benefit from this.. I don't think I'll do it again though.. much prefer the maple..

Yeah I tried tapping my Manitoba maples one yeat, def not worth it just for slightly different flavour. I understand birch syrup is big in Scandinavian countries, but then so are all kinds of weird pickled fish dishes ;-)

[paulslund]

So I finally managed to finish bottling the buckets of frozen nearup I had been storing.. figured a rainy day like today was a good day to do this.

Final count for the 2022 season is approx 1,530L of sap and a whopping 48.65L of finished syrup (1.5L/tap), and a final overall ratio of approx. 31.23:1! A new record for me. I think I can only go down from here.. unless I tap more trees I suppose.. which is still a possibility..heh heh.

Hope everyone had a good and summer and enjoys the upcoming winter (sledding season is soon upon us! :D)

Paul.

[Swingpure]

So I finally managed to finish bottling the buckets of frozen nearup I had been storing.. figured a rainy day like today was a good day to do this.

Final count for the 2022 season is approx 1,530L of sap and a whopping 48.65L of finished syrup (1.5L/tap), and a final overall ratio of approx. 31.23:1! A new record for me. I think I can only go down from here.. unless I tap more trees I suppose.. which is still a possibility..heh heh.

Hope everyone had a good and summer and enjoys the upcoming winter (sledding season is soon upon us! :D)

Paul.

Congrats, especially on the 1.5 L per tap and your new record!