Tapped in Chester

[berkshires]

No mishaps today. Despite it being 47 when I left this afternoon there was not a drop yet.

Off we go!

Gabe

[berkshires]

Oh and I used my new drill and real Maple bit. Wow what a difference. I requested the drill for x-mas from my wife, based on what I read on this forum. Got through 23 taps like they were nothing. So much better than last year where I was struggling drilling every tap. So big thanks to people who participated in the favorite drill threads.

GO

[sublime68charger]

Im in SW Wisconsin and tapped my 20 trees and out of those I had 2-3 that was already running when I tapped them temp was 35 of so.

[berkshires]

After a little less than a week I did my first boil over the weekend. Week started slow due to the very hard cold snap, but by the end of the week they were gushing. Sugar was best I've ever had at the start of the season at 2.15%. And I collected 65 gallons, for 0.47 GPT. That is a ridiculous amount of sap for me for this early in the season. I don't usually even tap until later in Feb, and even then I usually only get dribbles for the first few weeks. Anyway it was enough to sweeten the pan and make a half a gallon of what I suspect will be golden delicate with a very strong marshmallow flavor after it's finished and filtered.

Oh and I was very very happy with my boil rate. With my blower set up and pretty well optimized (I closed it about 60 of the way) I was boiling freezing sap full of ice crystals in less than ten minutes, and I averaged 11.5 GPH on my little 2x3 flat pan. Extremely happy about that. Only problem is that my wood pile is getting chewed up way too fast. Unfortunately it's probably more than half hemlock, which burns hot but fast.

GO

[berkshires]

Wow.

I thought last week was a great week. It was nothing compared to this week. Biggest gusher I've ever experienced. This is the big down-side to being a two hour drive from my sugarbush - I only waited four days between collecting, but nearly all my buckets were overflowing. It's sad to lose that extra sap, but that being said, I'm not sure I could have handled much more sap! My best tree produced 24 gallons on three taps in four days. And the barrel I use for collection (that I thought was overkill) was overflowing! It blows my mind.

All told I boiled 111 gallons yesterday, which is double the biggest boil I have ever done before this year. Made 2 1/4 gallons of syrup. Really made my little 2x3 Mason with a flat pan work hard! Thank god I added the blower. I'm now getting consistently over 11 GPH with it. Last season without the blower I was getting 7 GPH. That would have been a nightmare! Instead it was just a long (and very satisfying) day.

GO

[bigschuss]

Awesome Gabe. Good job!

We just got back from a visit with friends today who live in Chesterfield and they reported the same...trees just gushing sap last week. Huge run. I think if I had tapped my trees we would have had the same run here in Savoy. But I am still dealing with downed trees on all of my trails. Should have it cleaned up tomorrow and maybe start tapping by the end of this coming week.

[berkshires]

Hope you can clear the trees, get tapped, and join the fun. With any luck the wild ride has just begun!

22894

Gabe

[Aaron Stack]

100+ in a day would be a looong day for me - nice job. Finished off 40 gallons of sap and got a full gallon today. None left so hoping to have something to boil tomorrow, but Monday's a holiday so I have then to :)

[berkshires]

Yeah it's been too warm or too cold, but today and tomorrow should get the trees moving and give you something to boil.

Cheers,

Gabe

[berkshires]

Might have to call it quits early this season. :(

Had another big boil yesterday. Not quite as big as last week, but 86 gallons of sap is quite a bit for me. This is by far the most sap I have ever gotten this early in the season. Sugar level in the sap has dropped a bit, but still made a gallon and a half of syrup. That's all fine, but....

I am completely out of firewood. I don't know if I should blame the blower I added, or the fact that 2/3 of my wood is softwood this season. I'm getting 50% faster gallons per hour compared to without the blower, but I'm also using more than double (maybe triple?) the wood. So now I've used up everything I planned for the whole season, plus all the wood I left big for the stove, plus all the scraps I have lying around. I split some more wood, but while it's seasoned, it's also soaked, and it'll take a few weeks at least for the moisture to come out of it. I tried burning it and it burned like it was green.

I've been calling around, I'll see if I can come up with some dry seasoned wood. I know it'll cost me. I've never had to buy wood in my life, always bucked it and split it myself, but there's a first for everything. If that doesn't work I'll be looking to give away my sap!

Normally my season runs to the first week in April. I really don't want to throw in the towel already.

Gabe

[Rastis]

Are you running AOF or AUF? We had a major increase in efficiency going AOF. We used less wood and and saw an increase in boiling rate from about 25gph to over 50gph when I set up AOF. This is on a leader 2x6 drop flue pan set

[eustis22]

you might try local lumberyards to see if they will part with pine slabs for a reasonable price.

[berkshires]

Are you running AOF or AUF? We had a major increase in efficiency going AOF. We used less wood and and saw an increase in boiling rate from about 25gph to over 50gph when I set up AOF. This is on a leader 2x6 drop flue pan set

AUF. I added a160 CFM Fasco squirrel cage blower (https://www.surpluscenter.com/Electrical/Blowers-Fans/AC-Centrifugal-Blowers/160-CFM-120-Volt-AC-Fasco-70639814-Blower-16-1548.axd) which I run about 1/4 to 1/3 open.

GO

[Rastis]

I tried AUF at first and saw a slightly faster boil rate, a big increase in wood usage and a huge increase in stack sparks. Switched to AOF it solved all the issues. Less sparks, decrease in fuel usage and huge increase in boil rate

[berkshires]

Well I didn't give up yet. I bought the better part of a face cord (12 bundles of wood), and I took a day off work to buck and split some dead trees that are off the ground so they're not too wet. That gave me about another face cord. I planned to use the wood I bought for the next couple of weeks while the newly split wood dries out a little, and then hopefully that will get me through the end of the season.

It didn't work out the way I planned. The wood I bought lasted maybe seven hours, and then I had to dig into the newly split wood. I had no choice. Of course it mostly turned black and hissed, but what choice did I have? Instead of the 11+ GPH I've been getting, my boil rate dropped to under 10 (that's 7 hrs at a great boil rate, and then 3 hours at a terrible one). Before next season I have to figure out what to do about this wood situation. I can't buck and split 3 cords of wood just for a 2x3 evaporator, that seems crazy! I may just have to greatly reduce the number of trees I tap.

The good news is that the output was another monster week of syrup making in what has already been an incredible season. I collected 97 gallons of sap, and the sugar level was up from last week. I wound up bringing home over two-and-a-half gallons of syrup to finish, filter, and bottle. That's a record for me on one boil. And it puts me at 6.8 gallons for the season. Last year I made 5.9 gallons in the whole season, and that was a record for me. And there's still almost a month in the typical season. Some years are good, some not so great, and this one is oh-my-god-I'm-swimming-in-sap. It would actually be a fun but wild ride if I just had this wood situation under control.

Gabe

[Andy VT]

Gabe, if that's not the perfect lead-in for an R.O. system advertisement, I don't know what is!

[Aaron Stack]

Hey Gabe! I have way, way more wood than I'll use this season and you're welcome to any you need. It’s cut small so may not be perfect, but better than folding up shop early. Heck I even have a pallet of 2' 4x6 posts (untreated) you can grab and save me some table saw time this summer.

[berkshires]

Hey Gabe! I have way, way more wood than I'll use this season and you're welcome to any you need. It’s cut small so may not be perfect, but better than folding up shop early. Heck I even have a pallet of 2' 4x6 posts (untreated) you can grab and save me some table saw time this summer.

That's very kind of you Aaron! If you really can spare them I'd love to swing by and pick some up, thanks!

GO

[Aaron Stack]

Great. I’d love a visitor who knows what their doing to. Sent a pm with my schedule and the address.

[berkshires]

Great to see your setup Aaron. I'm really jealous of your sugar shack. It is so swanky compared to my old falling down hunk of junk! Oh well. A great big thank you to Aaron and his firewood keeping me in business. A lucky thing, too, since the sap just keeps coming like crazy, week after week. Boiled 109 gallons yesterday. Not sure how much syrup I drew off the evaporator. Something around 2.5 gallons I think. That means I'm closing in on 10 gallons of syrup, with three weeks still left to go in the season.

GO

[berkshires]

My yard tree in Boston is done, but all the taps except one in my main sugar bush are still running like crazy. Collected and boiled over 100 gallons again this week. Well, I guess I can't say I boiled it all. When I ran out of wood I flooded the pan, made sure it all came to a boil, and called it good. Now to track down some more wood for my last boil next week.

Brought home about 1.75 gallons to filter and bottle.

Tomorrow I am doing a presentation in my daughter's school on "Where syrup comes from". I will bring samples. :)

GO

[berkshires]

My yard tree in Boston is done, but all the taps except one in my main sugar bush are still running like crazy. Collected and boiled over 100 gallons again this week. Well, I guess I can't say I boiled it all. When I ran out of wood I flooded the pan, made sure it all came to a boil, and called it good. Now to track down some more wood for my last boil next week.

Brought home about 1.75 gallons to filter and bottle.

Tomorrow I am doing a presentation in my daughter's school on "Where syrup comes from". I will bring samples. :)

GO

The presentation for my daughter's kindergarten class went really well. I did a video presentation. You can see it here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qLH3pHo78ZZ5QFVC6. Of course I narrated it in the classroom. Then I let them taste fresh sap (I boiled it briefly before bringing it in just to be safe), light syrup, and dark syrup. And they could look at and touch a bucket/tap/lid setup (the blue buckets). Then I gave them one of those little maple-leaf bottles full of syrup and a syrup coloring book to bring home. I also gave their teachers bigger bottles. :)

I pulled my taps and did my last boil on Saturday. I had family visiting the sugar shack for the first time this season. Nice to share, though it meant I had to shut down for lunch and dinner to be social, so the boil went until late into the night.

This season has been outstanding, with many personal records broken. I'll put that in a second separate post.

GO

[berkshires]

So my season was outstanding. I was very fortunate. Here are some of my personal records I smashed:

Total sap collected: Last year was a record for me at 236 gallons. This year I collected 631 gallons!

Sap per tap: My average is 11 gallons per tap. My previous record was 15 gallons. This year I got 27.4!

Syrup: Last year was a record for me at 6 gallons. This year after bottling the last of it, it looks like it will be around 14 gallons!

14 gallons from 23 taps on buckets. I had no idea I could have a season like that! I think what happened is:

1 - The season started very early because it was quite warm. My tapping date was a full 15 days before the average best tapping date for my region.

2 - The early season was warmer than average

Combining 1 and 2 above, my February (early season) sap per tap, which is usually very little, was instead enormous. I normally average 2.8 gallons per tap in February. This season I collected 11.3 gallons per tap in Feb. That is four times my average volume of sap per tap in Feb.

3 - There were no exceptionally warm days in the early season. So the tapholes didn't start drying out early

4 - The late season was cooler than usual, so I didn't have as many days that were too warm to produce, and this also helped slow down the tapholes drying out. This resulted in my March sap being much more than usual. Average for me in March is 9.2 gallons per tap. Instead I got 16.1. That is nearly double the amount of sap. in March.

And honestly, nearly all of my trees were still producing great quality sap. Hell, the moths aren't even out yet! But... I have plenty of syrup, I am out of wood, I am out of bottles, and my wife is out of patience! That and I have other projects that I need to get to.

I'll do a third post about learnings from the season:

Gabe

[berkshires]

So here is what I learned:

1 - How much sap I can potentially get when everything lines up right (I typically collect weekly and most of my buckets were overflowing most weeks). This was overwhelming for me this year - I was not prepared. This leads to point 2:

2 - I need to collect and split more wood. I had maybe 1/4 to 1/3 the volume of wood for the volume of sap I wound up with. This leads to point 3:

3 - I need more space to store wood. Build a second wood crib. And finally point 4:

4 - Next year, fewer taps.

I'm grateful for this amazing season, but I hope next year is more like an average one!

Gabe