Sublimes Maple adventure

[sublime68charger]

Hello all,

3rd year backyarder and just found this place so wanted to say high and all that.

Started out 3 years ago with 9 taps and getting a little bigger and better each year.
Had a simple ground stove with 2 pan's and a home built barrel stove which held 2 pots.

This last year I was running 5 different stoves at a time and had 20 trees tapped. Able to run 40 gallons of sap down to 1 gallon in about 7 hours between the 5 stoves.

Next year want to have a suger shack setup so able to cook inside instead of outside and a RO system up and running to cut down on my boiling times.

Located in SW Wisconsin.

is there a good way to upload Pics of things at all so far trying to upload Pics I keep getting invailid file type.

[OrangeAgain]

Welcome! This is a great place to learn and teach.

What filetype is the image you want to upload? You can only upload images with filetypes jpg, jpeg, png & gif.

[sublime68charger]

just a jpg. I'm a several forums and not really had problems getting pics to post but seem to be having problems on this one.

Have done the resize of my photos and made them alot smaller and still getting the upload of file failed.

[sublime68charger]

My first year of Sap Steaming can be found on my garage build thread here

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/ye-old-garage.266239/page-23

once I figure out how to get them photos here I'll post them up.

Sap post start's at post 908 for my first year of doing sap.

[wobbletop]

Just use imgur.com or bbimg.com for pictures. They will provide a link you can paste in your post.

I don't know why they don't just kill the hosting of pictures on this site. It's very clunky.

[sublime68charger]

also is there a way to view the threads with the OP topic first then the reponse after that? I click on a thread and it list's the newest responses and have to go to the end to read the first post and go, It just seems kinda backwards to me and wondering is there a way to view like most other message boards? Or I just might be missing something right in front of me on that.

[Pdiamond]

They have been trying to fix the problem now for several months. I don't know where they are at with the resolution.

[Sugarbush Ridge]

Go up to setting and you can pick newest first or oldest first

[sublime68charger]

Go up to setting and you can pick newest first or oldest first

got it set that way now. threads sure due read alot better starting at the first post and going foward from there.

[sublime68charger]

trying to test pic from imgur.com

https://imgur.com/gallery/9mUfRxw



https://imgur.com/gallery/9mUfRxw

[sublime68charger]

Just use imgur.com or bbimg.com for pictures. They will provide a link you can paste in your post.

I don't know why they don't just kill the hosting of pictures on this site. It's very clunky.

signed up for imgur.com and have some pics there but when I due the add pic from URL I get invalid url or it shows

"IMG https://imgur.com/gallery/9mUfRxw /IMG " in the replay but when posted I get nothing There is suppose to be I took the [...] out so the txt would paste but wondering what I'm still doing wrong. I want to get the pictures to post as most people love pics of setups and what not and its a great way to document how your setup has changed over the years.

this is the Imgur link

https://imgur.com/gallery/9mUfRxw


[IMG]https://imgur.com/gallery/9mUfRxw

[wobbletop]

imgur needs a couple steps. Right click on image -> get image link -> paste that between the img tags

I think bbimg will give you the code directly.

https://i.imgur.com/ATC3If3.jpeg

[sublime68charger]

Think I may have this now. First year Ground Stove boiling away. It Did okay but was a pain to have to kneel down and feed the wood under the pans to keep it going. But was made out of all stuff I just had lying around so no cost other than the cost of the pans I guess.

https://i.imgur.com/ywTHlmi.jpeg

[sublime68charger]

And a tree with the Milk jug and bungee cord for collection. Had to go and collect sap every night the 2nd year we went to using 5 gallon buckets and weekend collection's more or less.


https://i.imgur.com/LPcQC6q.jpeg

[sublime68charger]

Last post of my first year setup. This is my Brother-in-Law he built this stove for sap boiling and its works pretty good. Not the fastest by any means but its been my finish it off stove as I have gotten bigger and more pans I still run this one as the last stove when I run in Batch's. I try and run 40 gallons of sap and get it all down to 1-2 gallons and then the wife takes that into the house and will finish off on the stove in there where Heat can be better controlled. All depends upon how much things want to foam up if its a foamy run I'll finish run in a pan instead but I like to try and finish in the round pot then I don't have to worry about scorching the pan as much.

But for a stove made out of a barrel and scrap iron this works just fine. It usually gets set up on cement block or car ramps to make it a bit higher for feeding wood into.

https://i.imgur.com/beRDnGi.jpeg

[sublime68charger]

So there that is year 1 9 trees tapped on milk jug's the ground stove and barrel stove I think we cooked for 3 weekends before we called it a season.

I'll have to ask the wife how much syrup we made but that was pretty much Season 1 for us in a nut shell.

Pretty decent for not knowing I was going to get into the syrup business till my Nine year old daughter got a sap starter kits for xmas. Heck had to go out and struggle to find trees that first year as well. Im not the best at maple bark spotting. Red Oak/White Oak/Pin Oak/Cherry/Walnut/Shaggy Bark Hickory I got those real good but maples are more of a challenge for me.

Year 2 season will be coming up.

[sublime68charger]

1st year side pic of my ground stove

22745

[sublime68charger]

Year 2 old home basement stove set up for sap boiling
22747

I need to figure out how to make the Pics bigger?

[sublime68charger]

me and making big Pics just not getting along.

https://imgur.com/Y4ZTVFl

what due I need in front and behind to get them to input into the post?

thnx.

[ScottT]

Very cool. I'm on year three as well. My first year had only 4 taps and I started way late in the season. Literally had only a few days before the sap stopped. This year I'm going to 25+ taps. Still small, but I need to work through the basics. Lots of fun regardless.

[sublime68charger]

Im Year 4 now.

Pics on this thread are only up to year 2 but in the Garage journal Thread that I linked to on first page has all the sap stuff there every spring.

year 2 was Basement Stove, Fischer Stand alone stove small barrel stove and then Big Barrel stove on last weekend that we ran with 15 trees tapped.

year 3 was Basement Stove, Fischer Stand alone stove 2 big barrel stoves and small barrel stove runing like 20 trees. Avg was 40-50 gallons of sap weekend to weekend.

Year 4 I have a 5x 10 suger shack with 4 of the stoves inside and small barrel outside its gonna be warm and cozy but I hoping to cut down on the amount of wood that I go threw last year on boiling I burned threw 1 month of wood running the stoves for 5 day's. I have a outdoor wood boiler so wood supply is not really a problem but I don't need to be burning it up at high usage rate. also wont have to be outside and deal with the wind taking all the heat off the stoves or that is the plan.

Hoping to tap a bit early this year as I now have a place to cook and boil where I can be inside regardless of the outside weather.

[Pdiamond]

You better be careful having four evaporators in one building. Does your building have a metal roof? How are you running the chimneys? Are they single wall? When you boil sap its not like burning a wood stove or wood boiler. You are supposed to keep a rolling boil all the time. My stainless steel pipe will glow red, granted I have a blower and I am sure my temperature is around 1000+ degrees going up the chimney. I understand wanting to be out of the weather, you might want to consider everything before you put all of them into one building.

[sublime68charger]

Will most likley keep the door open the whole time and then I cut a vent hole in the back wall and will have a fan blowing out the vent hole at the peak as well.

3 Stove's Have 12" exhaust holes in the roof and the stove pipes are only 1 at 8" diameter and the other to are 6" stove pipes Metal roof. the 12" pipes Have whirly Vent on the top of them I test ran the Fischer wood stove this last weekend and it seemed to work okay.

Metal shed as well. The old basement stove the back end stick's out the front of the shed and its stove pipe runs independent.
have 4th 12" vent hole in roof as got 4 of the 12" whirly vents and since I had it I put in on the roof to act as a roof vent. Roor is not sealed at all either.

It may be Hot and steamy in there and I may only go inside to add wood and fill sap pans every 5 min or so when its all up and running. The first few hours I'll be sure to keep a close eye on as when the shack is running somebody will be around it the whole time.

I have run the basement stove with Red Hot Pipe but not had the other stove pipes have not gotten up to that level.

Shed was free as if I had made this it would have been bigger but its what I got to use and its got to be better than having the stoves running outside.

[sublime68charger]

Pics of Sugar shack and roof venting are here.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/ye-old-garage.266239/page-45#post-9945172

If I can figure out how to post them here I will.

[Pdiamond]

You may have to put one more section of pipe on each evaporator to get a good draft under the pans. Man, that is really a tight fit in there. you'll be sweating on the inside and freezing outside. Good luck, but you will be out of the weather mostly.

[sublime68charger]

Yep it'll be cozy but it should be better than having all the stoves outside. It may be take a breath run in top off a pan, run back out. Run in throw some wood into a fire and run back out.

The very back of the basement stove is my warming pan it sits on top the stove pipe out the back of the fire box in that furnance so it might be scoop out of the warming tray into transfer pot then take pot in dump in boiling tray rinse repeat, so I can pull form the warming pan outside fill up the transfer pot take inside and dump into boiling pans where needed. Have a Glass cup we use for pulling out of warming pan and then would dump into a transfer pot and then take pot over to dump into boiling pans where needed.

may just have to sit my stool close to the door to stay a little warm but not be hot!.

I'm hoping this cuts down on my wood consuption as well last year in 5 days of sap boiling I burned threw enough wood that would have heated my house for a month.

Having all the stoves inside will help hold the heat and not loose it all to the wind like in years past.

Got this little shed for free so other than my time of 3 day's putting in metal floor covering and then putting in the roof vents will see how it goes.

[Pdiamond]

Do you take any of the sap down to syrup or do you transfer it to a smaller pot and finish it inside on the stove.?

[sublime68charger]

Do you take any of the sap down to syrup or do you transfer it to a smaller pot and finish it inside on the stove.?

Yes I get it down to 1.5 gallons or 2 gallons then the wife will finish on the regular stove in the kitichen or on the fisher wood stove as it has more even heat.

we have finished on the small 35 barrel round pot barrel stove that we have as well but you have to watch that one close when trying to due it on that one.

For finish sap she just goes by how it drips or drains off the strainer scoop that we have. would like to get a murphy cup for this year is on the wish list That way would have a better idea of where we are at.

[Pdiamond]

murphy cups the way to go for sure.

[maple flats]

Murphy cup, yes, but you still need a hydrometer. The Murphy cup only tells you what the hydrometer should read at the temperature of the sample, you still need a hydrometer. So, get at least a hydrometer, then add a Murphy cup as soon as it fits your budget. In fact, I always have 2 or 3 hydrometers, in case 1 gets broken.

[sublime68charger]

set up my sig that has overview of each year and then a link to where I have my Pics uploaded on my garage build thread its easier for me to link to that for each year than to try and get pics to upload on this forum.

sig break down as I had to stay under 500

Y= year
T = Taps

Pan count

year 1 was 2 pans 2 pots
year 2 3 pans 2 pots at start Fisher added 2 half pans and 3 pots, 55 barrel added 1 more pan
year 3 was 5 pans 2 pots plus fisher 2x half pans and 3 pots
year 4 same amount of stoves but now in small shack

[sublime68charger]

so Im 2 weeks into my season for this year and Have done okay.

Ill give a brief run down.

Week 1 I tapped early as the weather said the sap would run 3 or 4 day's out of 7 so tapped my 20 trees.
Week 1 boil got 4 buckets of sap and 4 buckets of Ice from the 20 trees so pitched the Ice and boiled down the 24 gallons of Sap. Started 2 walls of my sugar shack on fire. Wall 1 was Next to the Basement wood stove it stared smoking so dumped water down between stove and wall and stopped feeding wood into that Stove. Up next was Barrel Stove Right. I have 2 Barrel Stoves set up side by side on back wall of sugar shack Barrel Left I brick lined the inside the barrel and left Barrel Right as empty barrel I wanted to compare them as to how they did. Any way Barrel Left I stared first and it got going and all was well I then started Barrel Right and it got the wall behind the stove hot and on fire so threw some water on that wall as well and quit feed the wood to Barrel Right for the day. So week 1 I ended up just running on Barrle Right and the Fisher Wood Stove.

Next day I revamped the Walls beside Home Basement Stove and added Metal to the walls around the barrels Stoves.

229232292422925

[sublime68charger]

So week 2 was on a 5 day soak as I was busy for the weekend. So I had 32 gallons of sap and it snowed 3" plus during the day so it was super nice to be inside for the boiling regardless of the weather.

Also from Week 1 I cut a 10" hole in the peak of the back wall and put a small fan there to blow out steam and such during the boil and 1/2 way threw the week 1 boil my small round plastic Fan stopped working. So plan B I got a 8" duct fan from Menards and set that up for exhaust which It worked well all day.

The 2 barrels stove's ran great and the fisher stand alone did as well. The Home basment stove that I cut the top out of all it really did for the day was steam up the pans. I wonder with having the Vent fan pulling air to the far wall if the home basement stove wasn't able to get enough air to get the fire going. So Week 2 pics the ATV and sap Hauling trailer. Made a gride work that just sits on the trailer sides and hold each bucket in it own spot then I dont have to worry about the buckets shifting and spilling over. Trailer will hold 12 buckets if needed which when loaded it more than enough for the ATV to have to pull around. I like this little trailer as it follows the ATV tire Tracks in the snow. I have bigger trailers but they track outside the ATV tires and in snow I can't pull them as well.
22926

[sublime68charger]

My Improvments for week 3 is having forced air for the Home Basment Stove. 3 small computer fans that I'm gonna set in the ash tray and hoping that forcing air into the stove will improve the boil on this one. The other 3 stoves all boiled pretty decent but the Basement wood stove only got up to a bit of steam on week 2. I have used it for the last 2 years set up outside and had it doing good boils before.

Some Pics of my Forced air setup. This is gonna get tested this weekend.

Pic of the Basment Stove when it was setup outside as a stand alone. I like the basement stove as I can have 3 pans on it going. 2 over top the fire box area and then the 3rd on top the stove pipe out the back of the stove which I use as a warming pan for the cold sap.

22929

2292722928

[sublime68charger]

so on a 9 day soak I went and collected sap today and from my 20 taps I got 1 bucket of sap and 7 buckets of Ice, well 9 but 2 of my sap buckets the ice didn't want to seperate from the bag liners we have in the sap buckets so they got smashed against a tree and broken up.

Any way gonna be cooking tomorrow and I'm thinking just boil the 1 bucket of sap and toss all the ice. the break down was 1/8 sap and 7/8 ice in most of the buckets.

when its frozen at that ratio is the ice still more hassle that it is worth to process?

My sugar shack has 4 stoves and I finsih on my fisher stand alone stove so I'm thinking Ill just run the fisher and process the 1 bucket of sap and toss the ice?

Though I added forced air to the Home basement wood stove and I may put the 2 trays on that dump some of the ice into those trays add enough water to cover the bottom and start that stove up just so see if my forced air system will work and not melt down. Its just 3 small computer fans I put on a board and set into the ash pan tray to blow air into the bottom of the fire box.

any way any thoughts on the 7/8 ice ratio just pitch and run the 1 bucket of stuff I due have.

Pic of the 1 bucket of sap and the rest of the ice.

22938

[sublime68charger]

got a Murphy Cup this last week which is nice no more guessing if its syrup yet or not.

It works really nice
Pic is sideway's darn photo adding wont let me rotate it. I tried 2x times and gonna just leave it.


.22998

[sublime68charger]

My forced air on the home basement stove work's really well once the stove is up to temp. It makes it a bit smoky for a while till it really gets going then it goes.

I had the front pan on that stove almost foam over on me. caught it in time and added in a bunch of raw sap to know it down and within 5 min it was gonna foam over again so I turned off the forced air and just let it boil a bit slower and all seemed fine. once the boil slowed down I put the air back on it and away I went. First time i have had the bigger steam pan's foam up like that. My smaller round pots have had it foam in them a bunch of times but not the bigger steam pan's. Next time it happens I may try the butter trick to knock it down.

Foamy pan.23000

and the trailer with the 1/2 pan fits nice between the bucket brackets for filling the 1/2 pans to take in and put them on the stove to start to warm them up.

sorry that pic is sideways also.

[sublime68charger]

Tapped Trees on 2/10,

First boil of the year
20 trees 48 gallons give or take.

10 hours to cook down to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNKRGrP9jDA

off and running.

Temp when I started cooking was 11 degrees outside went and got sap the night before so not all my buckets was frozen solid.
I had to leave 2 out in the woods as my trailer was full and went and got them mid day on cooking. So happy to have a shack to cook in vs having to try and due this outside.

[sublime68charger]

Went and collected sap last night on a 4 day soak my 20 trees got 40 gallons from them so looks like im gonna be cooking a bunch this weekend.

goal is to get 40 gallons a week and already at that and will have 3 day's to go before I cook and will collect while cooking.

be a bonus run I'm guessing.