600 gallons on 710 taps seems like a fairly good run considering that you don't have vacuum. Your taps have been in how long now?
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600 gallons on 710 taps seems like a fairly good run considering that you don't have vacuum. Your taps have been in how long now?
Most had been in 8 weeks. All new drops and Leader seasonal taps and they show no signs of slowing down as of yet. Got about 750 in 24 hours last monday, but well up in day last 3 days before they thawed out. Prob ran 500 yesterday in about 10 hours. Left about 300 in woods last night that ran up into the night. Nice light syrup.
Picked up another 645 yesterday and boiled it off. Cleaned out evaporator and steamaway yesterday morning with vinegar before boiling in the afternoon. More light syrup. Waiting now for another freeze to get them started again. Sap still not running that good. North side still has lot of frost in the ground and fairly deep. Guess there is frost on the south side too if you dig down 3 or 4 inches and keeping sap flow slower.
Light syrup and the taps have been in for 8 Weeks. Most people wouldn't expect that, it has to be the cold temps. Steady as it goes seems to be the way for your season so far. I wonder if you will get any snow out of the coming storm? The low pressure system may give you a decent run.Quote:
Originally Posted by WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER
Calling for some snow but not showing any accumulation. 13 Wed night and 18 Thurs night. Hoping that holds true so we will see. I would guess the 8 week old taps giving light syrup has a lot to do with the cold weather and the new drops and spouts on everything. I try to sanitize and rinse all my stainless field tanks least once a week when the sap is running and sometimes a couple of times which helps a lot. The 620 holding and 320 feed tank in the sugarhouse get blasted out every day.
Ya, cleaning your tanks and sanitizing often definitely makes a difference. I know new drops and spouts help your tap holes stay fresher, so it has to hold the grade also. Your doing everything right for sure.
Picked up another 455 this afternoon which was way more than expected. Season total at 4580. Hoping for 2500+ more. 60 yesterday and 66 today and deep freeze the next 2 nights and then looks like good syrup weather for the 7 days after that. Hoping and praying so. Sugar seems little low this year. Would guess it would have to be because of the ground being frozen so hard still. Sanitizing and cleaning all the tanks saturday really helped as syrup today was probably still light in spite of running since sat night and being warm the last 48 hours. Tanks and buckets all cleaned and sanitized for the next run hopefully starting again on friday.
Brandon,
Nice work! thanks for the update. 600 plus gallons boiled in one day very nice.
Regards,
Chris
Picked up 502 gallon yesterday and boiled it off. Making medium syrup. Weather looks good for next 10 days with about 6" of snow forecasted for tonight and tomorrow. Don't think the tap holes are going to hold out for the 10 days. The north side ones might as they have been in aprox 6 weeks but the south sides went in Jan 8th & 9th and they are about done despite being all new drops and taps. We are less than 50% of syrup to tap ratio compared to last year. Hoping to make another 20 gallons in next 10 days.
Boiled off 125 gallon today for my wife's 6th grade science class she brought over on a field trip. Normally wouldn't start up for that unless end of season but managed to get that much out of the tanks yesterday evening in spite of cold and ice. Hoping for a run this week and maybe next week. South sides are about done but north sides might make it another week or so. Still have about 300 taps on the north side that will hopefully run some. Warmed up this even for a few hours after being frozen since saturday night and tomorrow looks good so will know tomorrow afternoon how much sap we will have to boil on thursday.
Hi Brandon ,
I am curious how you do this vinegar wash , my machine is a 3x12 and the sweet is quite dark after 45 days .
The 1000 gallon tank is washed each nite and the sap is crystal but once it goes to b in the machine the system never recovers to a lighter grade
regards
ED
Ed,
The last cleaning I had only boiled 1100 since it was cleaned before that. I just put 1 gallon of vinegar in the front pan after removing all the syrup and it ate off all the buildup in about an hour or two and hardly no scrubbing needed. The first cleaning, I had ran 3400+ gallon thru so I drained flue pan and syrup pan and put gallon of vinegar in each one and about 4 inches water in the syrup pan and 2 inches in the flue pan and brought it up to a light boil and it cleaned off good. Best way is to put about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of vinegar in the syrup pan overnight and it washes everything out the next day with a water hose. I cleaned the steamaway today with syrup in the flue and syrup pan. I have it plumbed with soldered ball valves so I have an outlet that bypasses the flue pan for draining or cleaning and I dumped about 15 gallon of distilled water in and 1/2 gallon of vinegar and let it bubble for about 3 hours and looks like new. Just rinsed it good with water hose about 3 times and ready to roll for tomorrow without anything but cold distilled water.
Picked up about 680 gallon of sap this even. South sides running okay and north sides were rocking even with 7 week old taps. Hoping to get that boiled off tomorrow and collect whatever runs through night today and tomorrow and boil it on friday.
Ed,
Forgot to mention that when I drain evaporator, usually what is in the syrup pan is close to syrup or past syrup, so I drain it off and finish it next time I can. I try to run the flue pan down to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch and I drain everything out of it and run it through the filter press. This lightens it up a ton and cleans out the buildup out of syrup and flue pan. I then dump all that into the syrup pan after cleaning and start over with raw sap in the flue pan the next run. If I am boiling, I put a couple inches in the syrup pan and add a gallon or two at a time opposite the drawoff side if the level drops. If someone else is boiling I usually put all of it in the syrup pan and have them pull the plug out opposite the drawoff side when level drops to where it is supposed to. By running it through the press and starting out with raw sap, makes a big difference in getting grade way back up.
Hi Brandon ,
Thank you for that detailed relpy , this will save me a lot of experimenting .
Because of the ro I must run 2 inch deep pans and the pulls are 2gal to 10 gal , however even @2 in deep sometimes the pull will
do a (Run Away ) and the syrup will go up in temp until there is a disaster :( I call it freight train .... Once the syrup is 2 deg past set when this is happening I open the front doors to stop the (Run Away )
Because of this there is a lot of sweet in the front pan which wants to go to dark .
In my mind I was starting to ponder how to address sweet in the front pan / hot days this when I saw your post :)
These trees run hard ,13000 gal out of about 600 tapps . smallest run last nite 404 gl .largest 1827 gl in 27 hrs , had to do a 3am on that one only have a 1000 gl stainless holding tank .
We have a lot of 55 to 60 deg days also so keeping the system lite always a issue .
Again tx
ED
peepers came in side last nite :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward Howell
[QUOTE=WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER;248162]Ed,
The last cleaning I had only boiled 1100 since it was cleaned before that. I just put 1 gallon of vinegar in the front pan after removing all the syrup and it ate off all the buildup in about an hour or two and hardly no scrubbing needed.
Do you use white vinegar or cider vinegar or even wine vinegar?
Seems as though your season is still chugging a long and you will have a decent season total of syrup before all is said and done.
I use just white vinegar from Sams Club. 5% acidity. $ 3.58 for 2 gallons, can't beat the price. Yes, season is chugging along. Today started week # 11.
Ed,
I could probably put that much or more sap with vacuum but thats why you are seeing 1% sugar. Sucking up a lot of water. I got 7985 last year on 580 taps gravity and it was close to 2% sugar.
Helpers boiled off 690 today that I collected yesterday and I collected another 500+ gallon today after finishing boiling and shutting down evaporator. Still making medium syrup, might get to dark one of these days. Today started week # 11. UNBELIEVABLE how clear the sap was today considering how long the taps have been in and that it hit 61 degrees yesterday and never froze last night. 5890 gallon of sap boiled through today and aprox 114 gallon of syrup. Sugar content is lowest I have seen in at least 5 years but not terrible. Supposed to freeze 3 or 4 days in row next week and that will probably been the end. Should be able to collect another 100+ gallons tomorrow that is still running as of dark this pm which should put us over 6500 gallon of sap for the year. Hoping for few hundred more next week. Turing out to be a good season this year considering that the ground is finally almost thawed out.
Will have to give credit where it is due. The clear sap and trees still running have to be a result of the new droplines with the clear Leader seasonal spouts and thank the Lord for his blessing this season.
Took 8 hours yesterday with startup and shutdown to boil down 690 gallons so getting good evaporation rate with a 2x8. Got to 27 last night, so hopefully get a small run today and tonight from it and boil again tomorrow PM.
Boiled off 535 today that collected yesterday. Evaporator running good took 5 hours and 45 minutes with startup and shutdown. Hope to collect about 250 more tomorrow and boil that down and wait for the four day freeze we are supposed to get next week. Don't think we will get any off the south sides next week which will be in 11 weeks but the north sides should still run decently as they have only been in for 8 weeks by the time it warms up again next week. In low 60's today and supposed to be 59 tomorrow before cool off. Sugar content is low. Only about 7.5 gallons of syrup today and grade dark med or dark.
Sounds like you guys down south are having a good year this year.
Been an average year this year. Last year was a great year and this year and been struggle through the season but a good season regardless. Boiled 275 gallons yesterday and supposed to be cold today until thursday and hopefully at least one more run before we call it quits. Anything past March 21st is a bonus as that is normal end of the season. South sides are probably done after 10.5 weeks but north sides only have 7.5 weeks on them and about 300 taps, so hoping for one more good run from those. 6705 gallons of sap so far and aprox 128 gallons of syrup.
Thursday started week # 12 and the Lord keeps blessing. We had our annual open house yesterday with a good turnout which was by far the latest we have ever had it and well after normal end of the season. Collected 455 gallon of sap that ran from thurs to Sat morning and boiled during the open house while wife and mother-in-law were serving free pancakes and maple syrup for the visitors. We are about 90% sold out of syrup already and should be around 135 gallons for the year. Bitter cold again and getting more snow as I speak. Looks like one more small run tomorrow until Tues morning and we are done for the year. That will put us 2 days short of 12 full weeks since starting tapping just before sap started running. Syrup is dark but not strong at all and very good syrup. We are at aproximately 60 gallons light, 50 medium and the rest is dark. We never got a big extended run all season but a lot of small runs and smaller boils but in the end we are going to be about 10 gallons of syrup per tap. So far, 7160 gallons of sap. If you guys up north can have same type of season I had it will turn out to be fairly good. We are ending season with around 750 taps.
Boiled off 330 gallons Tues night after waiting for electric to come back on for 6.5 hours. Ended season with 7490 gallons sap and 141.5 gallons of syrup. Sugar very low this year but rather have lot of sap and lower sugar vs good sugar and little bit of sap. March was a record month. We made 101.5 gallons of syrup in March which was after all of the taps being in 5 to 8 weeks starting March other than a few buckets and taps I added in the middle of the month.
Brandon,
That's a lot of boiling. Thanks for the update. Your sugar content was pretty good to make that much syrup!
Regards,
Chris
Not very good sugar, 53 to 1 ratio.
Brandon,
I boiled again in April, basically batching the flue pan sap with the front pan, two years in a row! This global warming thing is killing us? Lol.
My cousin and I visited the rookies camp in the sinks, he had is best day ever on 4-1-14. Over 18000 gallons of sap. We stayed all afternoon on 4-2-14 to celebrate his 100th barrel.
Not bad for a rookie season! He told us his releaser from the 12000 plus mountain was dumping every 30 sec. Syrup grade was near fancy, he is hoping to make it to the 15th. He caught a good freeze Saturday night. And if the weather forecast is correct for his elevation and location should catch to more good freezes this week.
My cousin had another good season, over 1000 gallon from his 2900 taps, again not bad production for a non-maple producing state!
I'll keep you posted as I hear more from the high mountains.
Mark 220 Maple
Been an odd year, Too cold for many runs and too late of a thaw when it did run. Higher then normal sugar content made up of it a little. Time to get the taps all cleaned up and get the camp ready for summertime.
Last boil was April 1st and all lines are flushed, all tanks washed and stored in sugarhouse, all buckets washed and all the firewood is in the woodshed and ready for next season. Evaporator is filled and soaking with vinegar and water and appears all the scale on the syrup pan dividers is flaking off slowly but surely. Probably leave pans filled for another 7 to 10 days as Steamaway is cleaned for next year already. Hoping and praying about adding RO for next season as that looks to be in the plans for now along with adding a lot more taps.
Brandon,
The rookie in the high country finished on April the 10th.
Mark 220 Maple
Mark,
What was his season totals??
Brandon,
I probably shouldn't post his total barrel count on here, I'm pretty sure he got over 250000 gallons of sap from his trees, divide by your sap to syrup ratio! that should get in the ball park for his total.
Mark 220 Maple
Took the plunge and ordered a 500 gph RO unit from Deer Run Maple(Ray Gingerich). Hope to pick up later this month and have everything hooked up several months before season. Ordered 15 rolls of 3/16" tubing and fittings and hope to add at least 200 to 300 new taps and convert some old ones to 3/16 for next season.