Wnybassman 2010 - Wyoming County

[wnybassman]

I put out 19 taps last Sunday and got a touch of a run late Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Not much though, not even enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket. A couple days ago I threw off some ice in the storage bucket and brought the remaining to a boil to kill any bacteria, then put it back outside. Today I realized the next run is way too far off and decided just to finish was I had. Besides, we are out of syrup!! I threw off a little more ice and put a few inches in two stock pots. Just finished it up a few minutes ago and got exactly a pint. I took the syrup just a tad too far, but not bad. I guessed my boiling point at 210 (like I always do) and according to "the chart" is was 209.3 today with the barometer. I wish my digital candy thermometer was in tenths and not just even degree amounts. So, I guess that's the reason I took it too far.

Anyway, I got syrup in the fridge again!!

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s163/wnybassman/maple/firstpint2010.jpg

[KenWP]

Looks just fine and I bet it just enough for one breakfast for one person or maybe two. Now you just have to wait a bit for the next batch.

[wnybassman]

Dripping a little better today, gathered about 10 gallons. Hope to get a little run tomorrow as well. If we do, I might fire up the rig Thursday afternoon and try out the new pan and work out the bugs before the big run starts this weekend.

Got 24 taps in now and am going over to the neighbors Saturday to put about 6 to 8 more taps in there. He wants to get his kids involved and help me out by doing some of the gathering there.

[wnybassman]

Both yesterday and today were predicted to be 33-35 and both days topped 40. Sap ran decent today again. Up to 23 gallons to boil. Not bad for two days that is wasn't really supposed to.

I dug the rig out of the snow pack today and got it ready to go. Might do a partial boil tomorrow afternoon, should have 30 gallons or so.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s163/wnybassman/maple/2010rig.jpg

[wnybassman]

I think the first boil with the new pans was a success.

I got the front section of the pan boiling in less than 10 minutes. Not to bad considering the sap was ice cold. I Initially started the fire with finely split soft wood to get it ripping. Problem was there was not enough heat to the back. After an hour I introduced some hardwood and then the back pan started to go good. I'll have a better idea what to do the next time. I've always used this fire pit as a big open fire pit that I stuffed with wood, so this year with a ramp/baffle to push the heat up to the back section is a bit new to me. It works great though.

So for about an hour or more I was able to stuff wood in as fast as it burned it. Evaporation was excellent during this time. Once I got the last of the sap into the preheater I started to taper off on stoking the fire. This took a bit longer than expected to get all of that sap into the main pan, so next time I'll know to keep stoking the fire longer. I ran both front and back sections around an inch deep, while keeping a steady drizzle out of the preheater and ladling into the front section.

From lighting the fire until I smoothered the fire to end things, I took 32 gallons down to less than 5 gallons in 4 hours and 15 minutes. I think I can shave nearly an hour off that with things I learned this time, and obviously the more sap I have and the longer I can keep the fire at its hottest, the rate will be even better.

I'm happy.

A short youtube video from today. This was taken before the back section even started to boil!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89hF7vo3_Gk

[innoxen]

Hope you don't mind but it looks like I will be copying you with that set up...

how do you have those shut off valves in?? Just got my pans ( 2 ) yesterday,
bytheway I am in Wyoming County Pa.... Thanks Tom

[wnybassman]

Hope you don't mind but it looks like I will be copying you with that set up...

how do you have those shut off valves in?? Just got my pans ( 2 ) yesterday,
bytheway I am in Wyoming County Pa.... Thanks Tom

They are just 1/2" ports that were welded in. I had Paul from SSC add the second one for the back section.

I debated when I ordered these if I wanted a traditional channeled pan or stick with the batch type system I am used to. I stuck with the batch system, but figured I could have two lengthwise channels welded in the back and one crossways channels in the front section if I wanted some day, of course knocking a pathway through the current divider as well.

I am not getting a ton of warmth in my preheater pan. It was better once I really started to push the wood through, so I might see a bigger difference on longer boils. When the back section was boiling good I did not kill it while drizzling in from the preheater, so that is a plus.

[concord maple]

Got my taps in yesterday (64 of them) using snowshoes and snowmobile with an attached sleigh. Some trees that were in the sun ran good while others deeper into the woods really weren't running at all. Hopeing to fire up the evaporator tomorrow depending on what I might get for a run today.

[wnybassman]

Got the fire cranked at 6:30 this morning and boiled off 40ish gallons by 12:30. Had to leave for a funeral by 1:00, so I was cut short. Hate shoveling snow into a perfectly good fire. Oh well, had to do what I had to do.

Got back from that and got the pan ready for the next boil, probably Tuesday after work. Might be a late night. Collected another 25 gallons just before dark tonight and the bigger trees were still running strong.

End of the week looks dicey. Nothing below freezing from Thursday morning through Monday night at least.

Tomorrow night I'll finish off what I have boiled already, should be just under 2 gallons or so.

[boneheadben]

well this week i got in 5000 myself and on sat i got some help finallly and put in 1300 so roughly 1200 left fired up fri and sat dotn know how much made though since i was tapping. real nice fancy though. still way to much snow in woods.:(

[wnybassman]

My trees have just about stopped. It didn't get real cold last night, just barely kissed the freezing mark if that. Small trees stopped and larger trees are dripping very slow at 41 degrees just before dark. Calling for 26 tonight, but after that no below freezing temps for up to 8 days. :o

Could put a hurtin' on things, but we did start a big drywall finishing job today so it would actually be good (for me) if it stopped for a week or so until my time freed up better.

Got 55 gallons out in containers right now to boil tomorrow night.

[wnybassman]

It has not been below freezing in several nights now at my house on top of a ridge. I drive 2 miles down the road into the valley and frost everywhere the last two days. Trees have nearly stopped. I have not collected yet tonight, but I bet I haven't got 6 or 8 gallons in my 32 taps.

I boiled down 65 gallons last night. Started fire at 4:00 and got back in the house at 12:30 am. Finishing it inside right now.

Looks like a break for a while. :-|

[wnybassman]

I lied.

Trees gave up 18 gallons of sap today, and I combined that with 6 gallons of sweet from the back section of the pan from the last two boils.

Ended up jarring up a tad over a gallon, and the second best color of the season!

Maybe a break now?? :lol:

[wnybassman]

We had one 30 degree night early this week and that got the trees running slightly. Last night I boiled down 30-35 gallons, and some of it was the cloudiest sap I ever tried to process. Not terrible, but certainly couldn't clearly see the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket.

Tonight I finished it in the house and bottled up another 2 1/4 quarts. Great medium to dark amber and very clear once again. Tasted great too!

It was good timing because I received a new hydrometer in the mail today. I discovered I had to take the syrup 1 degree hotter than I usually do to be finished. I bulk stored most all my other syrup so I will reboil and bring that up to better density as well.

I also got a sap hydrometer while I was at it. All this talk about percentage got me wondering what my trees put out. Although I pulled all my taps yesterday, I left taps in the two 3 buckets trees I have for experimenting. The one tree put out 2.5% today, although I had to chill it in the fridge to get in down to 38 degrees :lol:

Had a great year, albeit a short one. Learned a ton on this site, expanded a bit, and spent a great deal of money. Oh yeah, made about 4 gallons of syrup too LOL!