Had more in the buckets than I expected tonight. Collected 65 gallons and boiled it, had a couple draw offs too. Getting closer to bottling some finished syrup!
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Had more in the buckets than I expected tonight. Collected 65 gallons and boiled it, had a couple draw offs too. Getting closer to bottling some finished syrup!
Why can't the issue with posting pictures be fixed?
Was surprised to find my tubing trees running hard when I got home from a work trip yesterday afternoon, not so much today with the wind and overcast weather. It's not a good day for boiling, either, but we've got a full tote of sap waiting to go one it warms up a bit!
Nice! I thought today was going to be warmer but looks like high of low 30's only. Couple days next week look stellar, but a little nervous about the extended forecast. Seems quite warm with a lot of nights above freezingQuote:
Originally Posted by ADK_XJ
Another decent day for my taps on tubing, around noon I made it out to the woods (had to take my daughters to an outdoor Girl Scout cookie booth in the morning, brrrr) and it was running well. By the time I got out with the tractor and the pump it was overflowing the tote, I really need to switch in my new 425 gallon tank for the old IBC but when there's sap coming in it's hard!
The RO is running in the garage now and then I'll start boiling again tomorrow since I've got the week off from work...love when a plan comes together.
Great news! Glad to hear tubing is at least producing, buckets are having a dismal season so far and it's not looking promising after a couple good days this week.Quote:
Originally Posted by ADK_XJ
Pretty great day for me too. All my buckets had something, and my high producers were near full. I'm hoping it either continues though the night, or gets just cold enough to run hard again tomorrow.
With that said, it's looking to be a disappointing year. I'm a bit less than 50% of last years sap right now...which was a slow year for me. Hoping it cools down a bit after the warm spell.
Collected 115 gallons yesterday around 2:30 in the afternoon and buckets were dripping good. I think we got a freeze last night so today could be crazy but it's going to be quite warm and I dont see a freeze after tonight until next week possibly
Shew, it is RUNNING. We had 26F overnight and 62F at noon deep in the woods in the lowest spot where our tank is. I've taken 400 gallons off the collection tank already Sunday to today, this was the first day with full buckets and I imagine the tote will fill up again by midday tomorrow. It's supposed to be 28F overnight but cooler in the day, imagine it will run some more but not like this.
It did not freeze at my place Monday night like I was hoping (elevation hurt me this time as it was 28F in the valley but 38F up on the mountain) but regardless the sap poured like crazy. There is still enough frost and ice on the ground that the 65+ degree temps had the sap flowing like a faucet. I collected 125 gallons from my 47 gravity tubing taps and boiled it all down last night. I haven't bottled it but it looks like it will be around 3.25 gallons and its some really tasty syrup. It was back down to 26F this morning so things should reset and keep the season going. I was getting worried for a little while that this year was going to be a bust as the runs have been small. I am running leader CV spouts so hopefully this warm weather this weekend again wont mess things up too bad.
I am currently dreaming of getting a float box on my rig. I currently have a smoky lake feed pan that going right into my back pan and they sell a float box and hose that i can keep using the feed pan as my head tank but utilize the float box. Maybe next year...
Busy couple of days! Looks like everyone else was in the same boat. Boiled 200 gallons the last couple of days and probably have 7-8 now that is ready to be bottled. Will be using the RO Bucket filtering and canning system for the first time, sure hope I don't screw up. lol. Carl at RO Bucket is awesome though, always willing to take calls and help and he said we could set up a video call so he can watch me to make sure everything goes smoothly. Sounds like mistakes can be reversed so that is a good feeling.
Let us know how the filtering goes. I didn't know they made a filter setup but looked it up and it seems nice! I just use an inverted cone filter right off the evaporator to filter which works well but I'm always looking for new things to spend money on haha.
Will do! Prior to this new system, I would draw off the evaporator and pour into a finishing tank through three filters. That would remove the niter, the problem was reheating the syrup to get it up to density prior to bottling. I would wait until I had 5 or more gallons before bottling to make it more productive.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Heldeberg Sapper
Gotcha I have a continuous flow pan so I draw off multiple times when it gets to syrup and it always ends up being on the heavy side (on purpose). I filter it right out of the rig into a stock pot where I then slowly reheat for bottling and achieving the proper density. I haven't had any issues with niter reforming but to be safe because I bottle mostly in plastic I always fill an 8oz glass jar so I can make sure that batch doesn't do anything weird. I also mark all of my with a serial number so I can keep track of everything. For example when I bottle tonight everything will be labeled as 25031265. The 25 is the year, 03 is month, 12 is the day, and 65 is the light transmittance from my Hannah digital grader (haven't actually checked this batch yet but am curious how dark it will be). Last year I made all Golden and Amber Syrup, I have a feeling this year will be on the lower end of Amber and getting into Dark Robust.Quote:
Originally Posted by MRFNY
I was curious about that system, definitely report back on how it goes...I built myself a DIY style vacuum filter at the end of last year after being so fed up with cone style filtering (as you described). It works real well but I need a critical mass of syrup to make sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by MRFNY
Another awesome day of boiling here near Saratoga and had some help from a few retired friends to boot! We hauled the 6th and 7th load of 100 gallons on the week, that's on top of two more last week. I'd love to say I hit 1000 gallons processed before I go back to work next week but we'll just have to see how it runs these next few days.
Thank God for this RObucket 4x40 upgrade, it's the only way I could keep up by making nearly 8% concentrate through recirculation in the head tank. Still, I think I've pretty well maxed out my current 2x4 divided pan setup. I know my homemade arch is not as efficient as it could be, the door is useless and it needs a blower probably. I've got the firebox bricked but should probably do the whole thing if I want to kick up my evap rate. That will be a next year project, for now we're having a ton of fun collecting and boiling on these long days!
RO'ing this morning and then onto boiling. Trees dripping early this morning, some faster than others so I would anticipate a collection later today.
ADK_XJ - How do you like that single post RO? I am thinking about upgrading to it next season. There are a couple features I like compared to my RB15 kit, one being everything mounted on the dolly. I have mine mounted on a board now and it's a little cumbersome if I RO in different areas of my barn/garage.
I really like the 4x40 and, for the cost, it seems like a real value compared to more "commercial" options (i.e. the Leader Micro and whatever CDL's equivalent is). I especially like the flow meters and the fact that the pumps can run dry (vane pumps can absolutely never run dry and my boiling usually involves beer so accidents happen)! It's also very, very quiet compared to most single-post systems. I chose to do the kit and mount to my own dolly, which is not an exact match to the one he uses and I had to Jerry-rig the mounting for a couple things like the power source and the filter housing. If I had any criticism, it would be that one of the two pumps crapped out on me toward the end of my first season BUT he sent me a replacement right away for free.Quote:
Originally Posted by MRFNY
Did you end up collecting yesterday? I did with my daughter but only our buckets (which were all full) as she doesn't quiet have the patience for pumping out the 275 gallon IBC totes. It is just barely running today after not freezing last night, I'm hoping that by keeping all the sap in the woods where it's shady it will stay okay until I can boil tomorrow.
Very nice. The flow meters are another feature I like about it too. Like you, there is typically adult beverages involved so if I can prevent any accidents from happening I'll all in. HA!Quote:
Originally Posted by ADK_XJ
Yeah I collected Friday afternoon after boiling and then yesterday morning I finished up the buckets that were still dripping and in the colder areas of the property. RO'd and boiled that yesterday.
Today will be finally testing the new filtering / canning system from RO Bucket.
I have no idea what remains for the rest of the season. I see a couple potential good days later in the week but is it going to be too warm to get the trees to reset when we finally get a cold night?
I just came back to the forum to say this same thing...not really sure what to expect from here on out! It's gone like gangbusters for a little over a week but finally tapered off yesterday morning and has not come back online yet. I did "invest" (they were a few cents more a piece) in the check valve taps and my hope is they may salvage a few more weeks of the season by protecting the tap holes from the warm weather bacteria growth.Quote:
Originally Posted by MRFNY
Still, it's been in the mid 60s a few days in a row during the day and this morning it was 52F when I woke up. No bueno.
Looks like we may hit high 20s Monday night, a 50/50 shot at just below freezing Tuesday and then some colder temps by the weekend. I would be pretty bummed to only get one good week out of the season, but we've made some really good stuff and a decent amount of it since I took the last week off work. Crossing my fingers!
I honestly don't know what to think! I'm not giving up yet though. I'm just worried that it's been so warm during the day and the nighttime temps are also quite warm that we would really need a couple good days of a deep freeze to reset the trees. Who knows though, I'll never figure out mother nature!Quote:
Originally Posted by ADK_XJ
Update on the RO Bucket filtering / canning system: it is pretty freakin awesome! I had 5.5 gallons in the canner and brought it up to density without any issues. I was worried about a potential boil over but the canner easily holds 8 gallons so I was well below that. It's very easy to control temps and the boil. Once the syrup was up the density, I let it cool to 200 degrees then added the filter aid and ran it through the filter. After 20-30 seconds the syrup made it's way through the filter and out of the exit hose. As the instructions state, just run the syrup back into the canner until it runs clear, so once I saw that I then started filling up canning pots with crystal clear syrup. Once the canner was rinsed, I poured the syrup back into the canner for bottling. Maintaining proper bottling temps was a lot easier than the pervious method of using a Leader finishing tank controlled by propane.
I thought I was making pretty clear syrup until today. It's awesome looking syrup and I give all the credit to the new system. It did take some planning since my sugar shack doesn't have power so I had to transport near syrup to the location I will now be bottling. Not a big deal at all. I also did order the hobby canner from Roth so I could save a little time by not having to rinse the RO canner in between filtering and canning.
Overall a very impressive unit for the price! Props to Carl at RO Bucket too. Pretty sure I drove him nuts with a lot of questions but he was always available and even offered to facetime to watch the process.
Glad to hear that the new filter setup worked out well for you! Things really opened up for me last week, I ended up getting 245 gallons of sap from my 47 gravity tubing taps from Monday to Saturday. I pushed out my pans with water Saturday night and finished the sweet on my stove (only took about an hour as I had it pretty close). This puts me at 9.5 gallons for the season which is about half what I normally do but I still have syrup from last year. Looks like it will get down to 25F tonight which should reset things and then some freezing weather over the weekend. I also am running the CV spouts so I don't think the tapholes will be dried up. But not sure I have it in me to keep boiling this year, this warm weather has got me thinking about other things to work on.
That's awesome, I may have to look into that as the filtering and canning is definitely the "bottle neck" (pun intended) of our operation. I lost probably 10 gallons of near-syrup last year because I let it sit so long in food grade jugs in the garage dreading the process of filtering a gallon at a time.Quote:
Originally Posted by MRFNY
What is the Roth hobby canner? I've never heard of that!
Yes, was crossing my fingers for a solid freeze like they forecast and we got it...26F at 7am according to the temp sensor on my vacuum pump, I swapped the deep cycle battery and powered the unit back-on expecting a big run today. Can't wait to get home and check.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Heldeberg Sapper
It's a game changer for sure and I highly recommend it just after using it once.Quote:
Originally Posted by ADK_XJ
Here's a link to the Roth hobby canner. My new plan will be to run the filtered syrup into this new Roth canner for bottling, saving the step of cleaning out the RO Bucket pot and pouring finished syrup back in for canning
https://www.rothsugarbush.com/produc...hobby-bottler/
ah ha, that's very similar to the double wall brewing canisters they make for quick wort heating...awesome idea!Quote:
Originally Posted by MRFNY
Sadly I came home to very little sap in the tote, I imagined if it would run it would run like gangbusters after the cold night. The trees were trickling but nothing like I would have expected on a 50F sunny day. It should just barely freeze again tonight, maybe they need a second shot to get going? I sure hope so, it'd be sad to pack it up at this point!
Yeah I was a little disappointed as well. Some trees were still dripping fast around 5:00 so I am hoping to get a decent amount and will process that this morning before it really warms up today. Definitely seeing some buds on some of my red maples. I don't think I've heard peepers yet though.Quote:
Originally Posted by ADK_XJ
Things started to pick up in the evening for me yesterday. I awoke to about 80-90 gallons of sap this morning. Unfortunately I have made the decision to stop boiling for the season as I am running out of free time and have other things to work on (mostly firewood for next year home heating).Quote:
Originally Posted by MRFNY
If anyone wants free sap I am located in East Berne the weather actually looks good with 10 nights in a row projected to be below freezing.
Trees did run pretty well all night it seems. I should have 100+ gallons to RO down today then boil. This should ensure it won't be the lowest production year for us.
It's so funny how similar we all are...I also listen for the peepers as the indication it's coming to an end, they've been out the last few nights in a row here! It froze again last night, down to 27-28F it looks like. If it's going to do anything more this is the chance. It will be almost 70F this afternoon, but it drops down through the weekend so if I get a haul I should be able to process it by Sunday.Quote:
Originally Posted by MRFNY
Nice, I had to leave early and didn't get a chance to check mine but my neighbor was going to take a walk out there and let me know. Crossing my fingers!Quote:
Originally Posted by MRFNY
Good luck and post how much you ended up getting!Quote:
Originally Posted by ADK_XJ
Turns out I am going to have about 140 gallons todayQuote:
Originally Posted by MRFNY
Woah! I'm heading home now, my neighbor said the pump was reading 28" of vacuum when he checked at lunchtime so that means it's running solid...may still have a season yet! Will report back.Quote:
Originally Posted by MRFNY