North Facing Sugarworks 2023

[wvfdc4]

Been a member for a while and figured I should help contribute. Tapped in last Tuesday approximately 175 on two separate surflow setups and another 30 buckets. Gathered in 260 gallons of 2% on Thursday and boiled it all off between Thursday night and Friday evening. Bottled up today, 8 quarts and a pint plus a little for the "fridge jug" which serves to hold all of the remnants from bottling throughout the year and gets used for my own pancakes. Used the hanna meter for the first time, really like the precision 55% LT.

[Amber Gold]

It's nice to have another New Hampshirite posting on trader.

Good luck this season!

[BAP]

Great to hear. What are you boiling on? As Josh said, good to see more fellow New Hampshirites on here.

[NhShaun]

Glad to see more people in NH posting on here, timing and weather are a little more relatable.
How many years have you been running your shurflo set up?

[wvfdc4]

Boiling on a 2x4xl mason, first year on it (boiled on a friends 2x6 last year). Second year on the shurflo but I redid the entire tubing system this past year converting from 3/16 and 5/16 run direct to the pumps to a 3/4 mainline and 5/16 laterals. Seems like the pumps worked better last year but honestly haven't had enough flow to tell. Brought in about 80 gallons last night and sent it through the RO. Headed down to boil that off shortly. Got about 35-40 gallons in the tanks but I'm not sure if I'll get it pumped out before things freeze up.

[LMP Maple]

Boil on NH! Sounds like a nice set up!

[UB29]

On my 5th year with the Mason 2x4XL. Love it, but have to really dial in my batches on the Mason and RO on big flow days. Processed 540 gallons the other day and found that if I crunch 100 gal. batches on my single post 40; I can match up fine with the 15ish gpm rate I'm getting on the 2x4.
Right about 2,000 gal. of sap for the season as of today. Going to process everything in the tanks today and then hunker down for the big freeze.
Hope everyone is having a good season. So glad I tapped early (Feb.5).

Thanks, Bill

[Hillcrest Maples]

What made you switch to 5/16 and 3/4 main? I did that method first then switched to 3/16 straight down to the manifold. I’m on low slope though. 25” no leaks, Only pulling 15” right now but I think there’s a leak I gotta chase down. As soon as I saw North Facing Sugarworks I assumed it was someone from NH! Good luck this season.

[wvfdc4]

Brought in another 75 or so gallons last night and crunched it, worried about the freeze up so I wanted to get everything as empty as possible. Boiled up another 2-2.5 gallons that I will get filtered and bottled over the weekend. Honestly the impetus for the swap was a seminar that I sat through on tubing system design during the VT maple conference. I hope to swap from the shurflos to real vac in the next couple of years so that was also a consideration. As far as the name goes, my sugarbush faces almost perfectly north, so it just seemed natural. Makes for late starts to the season as I am backed into a hill so we don't get much sun during the day until late in the season. I keep telling folks that my next taps are going to face south. I have a lead on a property just down the road but it's just me in the sugarhouse most of the time and I still have a regular job.

[wvfdc4]

Bottled up the last boil today, came out with a quart under 3 gallons, more than I thought. Lighter than the earlier stuff though 58%LT but I think part of that was a batching issue I ran into on the first boil of the year. Made syrup in the middle right channel of the pan and although nothing burned, drew off really heavy and had to be adjusted heavily to hit the desired density for bottling. Frozen up tight right now and seems to be snowing about every third day, looks like we may get a warm up this week but I don't much trust the weather guessers.

[wvfdc4]

Finally back to boiling after a long cold spell. Brought in 165-170 gallons of 2% last night, crunched and boiled it. Drew off about 2 1/2 gallons that appear to be the lightest of the year but I won't know until I get it fully filtered and bottled up. Lesson learned from last night- don't try to do too many things at once. Normally I filter and bottle on non boiling days but last night I had the bright idea to filter straight off the evaporator into my CDL vacuum filter. Worked great until I turned the vacuum on and the hose shrunk up causing the filter to tip. Being not overly bright I reacted by grabbing the filter and splashing my hands with syrup straight off the evaporator. It was indeed hot and thus my lesson was learned. only spilled maybe a cup but it was enough. Luckily I have plenty of snowbanks to stick my hands in and there appears be no real damage. Rest of the week looks good-It's Go Time!!

[Pdiamond]

That is not a good way to learn a lesson. I hope your hand is okay.

[wvfdc4]

All good, came down with a cold Tuesday morning and thus haven't done much. Looks like 50 or so sitting in the tanks, probably leave it until the weekend. Weather hasn't cooperated so we haven't had much of a run. Not likely to boil again until Saturday, then it's time to prep for maple weekend.

[wvfdc4]

Let everything set in the tanks until Saturday, brought in 175 gallons and boiled in the daylight for the first time in the sugarhouse (what a neat idea to be done boiling before dinner). Sap is starting to flow pretty consistently here so hopefully production goes up. Boiled around 80 gallons last night, have 6-7 gallons to bottle up today from both sessions. Should at least get some product on the shelves for maple weekend. Snowing now pretty good so I think it's a good day to bottle.

[wvfdc4]

Totaled out with 6 gallons plus a pint and 1 250ml bottle, bringing the season total to just over 11 gallons. Syrup seems to be getting lighter as the season goes on, 60% LT. We didn't get the snow our southern neighbors got thankfully, only about 6 inches. Finally remembered the parts and had the time to add the re-circulation lines to the shurflo's the other day, I knew I needed them but wow do they make a difference, still need to walk the lines after the snow and I think I have one saddle that is sucking a bit of air.

[Old County Road]

Hi - could you describe your recirculation lines? I’m setting up a Shurflo pump for vacuum this week but I haven’t heard of recirculation lines. I’m curious how you incorporate them as well as what effect they have.

Thanks!


Disregard my question! I think your recirculation lines are for your RO not a vacuum system.

[wvfdc4]

Old County- The recirculation lines are on the vacuum setups. Shurflo pumps are a diaphragm pump, they pull far more vacuum when the diaphragm is wet. My lines are simply a 3/16 line leading from the bottom of my collection tanks (weighted with a stainless steel bucket spout as that is what I had handy) that are tied into the mainline. I control the flow with a small clamp on the line. In the off season they will be swapped to a 5/16 line with a proper needle valve to control flow. You want enough to maintain a wet diaphragm but use as little of the pumps capacity as possible. There are a bunch of threads on here with pictures if you do a search.

[Old County Road]

Thank you for the explanation - I was thinking RO first then I researched it and i thought you might be referring to the recirculation lines on a RO.

I’ll search the topic on the site, but basically if I put a saddle on my mainline above the pump and then I run tubing from that into my sap tank (as long as there is fluid) it will get sucked into a continuous loop thereby improving the efficiency of the pump. Does that seem right?

[wvfdc4]

Short answer to that is yes, with the caveat that you will need a way to control the flow through that line. Shurflo's are not a hign volume pump and thus you really only want to have just enough flow to keep the diaphragm wet and not use up more of the pumps capacity than needed.

[wvfdc4]

Got the sugarhouse pretty much set to receive company and just need to hang signs in the morning so no one gets lost. Pumped 200 ish gallons of 2% into the raw sap tank at the sugarhouse in prep for tomorrow. Weather looks good for next week but the wind keeps creeping in and shortening what should be great runs. Hope everyone has a successful maple weekend.

[wvfdc4]

Boiled off the 200 gallons plus around 100 from a friends taps yesterday as I don't have the ability to keep the sap from freezing in the raw sap tank overnight and it only reached about 28* today. Made 6 gallons of beautiful syrup that will get bottled up later this week. Brings the season total to 17 gallons. Boiled about 100 gallons of water today as I had a busload coming to tour the sugarhouse. Had a bunch of visitors and sold some syrup, overall a good weekend and I am looking forward to doing it again next year.

[Old County Road]

Short answer to that is yes, with the caveat that you will need a way to control the flow through that line. Shurflo's are not a hign volume pump and thus you really only want to have just enough flow to keep the diaphragm wet and not use up more of the pumps capacity than needed.

Thank you for the information. I will put a valve into the line to reduce circulation flow.