Howard,
Guidelines just guidelines! If you get that freeze your right back in business! Might warm to thaw things here today???
Good luck! Keep boiling!
Regards,
Chris
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Howard,
Guidelines just guidelines! If you get that freeze your right back in business! Might warm to thaw things here today???
Good luck! Keep boiling!
Regards,
Chris
Quiet on here. Kind of missing boiling, but works been tough anyway. I visited Dave Yeany on Friday. He hadn't boiled yet because of the cold weather. On Sunday everyone was boiling! We visited my coworker and his 4 burner propane rig. He also built a RO in a bucket. It's quite a contraption. Next was Sugarmaker. Got to taste some great syrup and catch up with my mentor. After was Triple Creek Maple. I needed a spare hydrometer. They have a great high tech operation. Syrup was really coming off and at 80Tc. Good luck to you guys on the taste and tour!
Ack. I just had to dump a whole bunch of sap and concentrate, everything was ropy and smelled awful when I boiled it. Think I'm going to have to clean like mad if I want to do anything else this week. Any suggestions on how to clean my RO easily? I do have about 30 gallons of the permeate from the RO in a large trash can.
Wow! Old Sap?Quote:
Originally Posted by helptheold
Nope. 100% dirty RO, I forgot to change the filter before we went on vacation *facepalm* I was close to closing up shop anyway as I'm having eye surgery in two weeks and wanted to get everything cleaned up before then. I'll do some more boiling without running the RO but I'm done for the year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Icefisher
Live and learn.
Sap today! Should be a couple good runs prior to the Tour. Was great to have Gary R and Laura stop in and keep me straight!
Keep boiling folks! another 2 weeks at least!
You can have any syrup grade you want this year as long as its Amber! Maybe it will go darker later? But the 60 gallons so far is only a couple points different in the mid Amber range.
Regards,
Chris
I'm planning to pull my taps later this week.Quote:
Originally Posted by helptheold
Help,Quote:
Originally Posted by helptheold
If the new sap you boil today also has a bad smell, then there is another explanation. Your trees may be starting to bud. Budded sap has a dirty socks smell similar to what you describe. Some people call it "stringy" but I have never noticed that. The dirty socks smell of budded sap can contaminate and ruin an entire batch.
At the end of the season, I try to keep my batches separate to avoid mixing bad with good. I'm about 50 miles north of you, and usually about a week or two behind you, but this season is unusual. With the high for tomorrow forecast to be 70, I may just be a day or two behind you this year. So, I'm going to finish making today's sap before I start boiling tomorrow's sap. And I'll be ready to pitch tomorrow's sap if I don't like the smell.
Best wishes for your eye surgery! I hope it goes well and that your vision improves dramatically as a result.
At about 5pm yesterday, both of my RO filters got clogged with stringy-slimy slightly off-smelling sap. This morning I bottled my last batch. I ended up with 81% as much syrup as my record year.
I haven't collected since Sunday evening. It's 73 out now,plus the previous warm days.....I'm assuming I'll be dumping it. Collecting/Boiling tonight if its still good. If I dump it, I most likely will be calling it a season. My goal was 10 gallons and I'm at that now....same as last season but with a much bigger setup and RO. Everything was much more enjoyable this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by HowardR
sap taste fine....top layer of sap looks funky. im pumping from the bottom...so ill collect most of it and when im closing in on the funky stuff i’ll turn the pump off and dump it. boiling tonight. keeping it seperate from the rest of my almost finished syrup...just in case.Quote:
Originally Posted by sbedilion
sbdelion,
My problems could simply be due to bacteria building up during the long gravity-powered journey through the bush to my RO's. So do judge for yourself. My situation may not indicate that your maple season is coming to an end.
I was more or less saying I was worried my sap from the week was bad because of the hot weather. Buds on my trees are still tight. I may or may not wrap things up this wkend. We might have 1 more week but other hobbies are starting up.Quote:
Originally Posted by HowardR
Based in Murrysville and most of my red maples have slowed considerably at this point (tapped on 2/4). Sugar Maples were still running OK as of yesterday. We will see what the next week brings, but might be wrapping it up soon. Had a great year on 34 taps making 6 gallons. Used a new custom evaporator and RO I built.
https://www.sugartree.run/2019/03/cu...vaporator.html
Done. :) This week's weather looks great for sap runs but after finishing up a few batches yesterday and cleaning up I decided to call it. Finished off the season with around 13 gallons.
This years improvements made things very enjoyable again. Bigger evaporator, RO, 3 lines ran to 1 collection tank verse 3 tanks, NEW TRUCK (my little tacoma maxed out at around 100gallons of sap).
My biggest bottleneck is finishing. Since I batch boil....and my smallest pan is 2x3, I'm pulling my pan off the fire with about 5 gallons of near syrup that will still need boiled down to about 2-3 gallons of syrup. This part takes hours since I'm doing it on a stove. I might make a smaller pan w/ propane burners for next season.
Hope the sap gushes for everyone this week. Enjoy.
Attachment 19738
I'm done as well, now I just have to get the energy up to clean everything. Still have a bunch of near syrup in the freezer that I need to finish, I'll probably put that off until I'm finished cleaning so that I have the motivation :)
That is a super cute bottle, where did you get it?Quote:
Originally Posted by sbedilion
There is a brewing supply store (South Hills Brewing) near my office. I only bought a case (12) of these to make into nice gifts..they are 16oz. I did the rest of my syrup in normal bottles. Still playing around with label designs.
Attachment 19761
Hopping for a couple more runs this week. in PA's great white north land!
Regards,
Chris
Those bottles look great. I didn't do any sugaring this year as I've been too busy with extra work. I kinda miss the long boils and bottling though. I still have a bunch of last years syrup so I'm good there. I did put a single tap out the other day so I could make my favorite drink: sap and Jameson Black Barrel. Sap is clear and delicious.Quote:
Originally Posted by sbedilion
The new homemade R.O. I built for this year works great and took 525 gallons of sap at 2% down to 100 gallons of 11%. End of the season for me. Boiling off this concentrate this weekend. Hope to get a little over ten gallons of syrup
I am based in Murrysville and officially ended my season today. Sap hasn't been running much and red maples are starting to show signs of budding (most of my trees are reds). I pulled down all my buckets and cleaned all my equipment. Was a good season, lots of fun and a little over 6.25 gallons of syrup on 36 taps.
https://www.sugartree.run/2019/03/In...n-is-over.html
https://www.sugartree.run/2019/03/20...son-recap.html
Folks,
Gathered everything this morning and made 6 more gallons of Amber Rich. Checked containers and they have about the same out there again. So will be making syrup again tomorrow if every thing holds together!
Regards,
Chris
haven't had time to read the forums much since the start of march... I'll be pulling taps and sanitizing the lines later this week... I need to catch up on sleep... too many nights up til 3am...
I have a question regarding RO.... and I should post in the other forum... but when you guys RO say 300 gallons, how long does it take? I have a single 4x40, that I'm running at 190 PSI and roughly 200 GPH... just wondering how long it takes you guys to cut it by 50% . I'm only pulling about 15 gallons of perm / hour... I know I have a messed up bypass valve in the mix, but was too late to change it when I noticed it... but still, 15gallon / hour seems awfully slow I would think.. but maybe I am just over hopeful.. For next year, I envision a wall of like 20 RO 4x40 canisters all running in sequence LOL
50 gallons of syrup so far...
I looked around and it was April! Where did the season go? Still hanging on up north but it looks like we will be done this week. supposed to be 54 today, so it should run, taps are beyond a normal length of 6 weeks. I am keeping my sap quantity expectations low for the next several days. My wood shed had to be restocked with some split wood that was for the house when we had a wood stove in there. Might have enough wood to make another 10 gallons of syrup?
I havent heard the peepers, but some others have.
Regards,
Chris
iby,
Good job getting 50 gallons of syrup made!
I believe today maybe the last day of the 2019 season in the great white north. Sap run was a drizzle yesterday. collected, boiled for a hour and made 2 gallons of Very Dark great tasting syrup. Will consider starting clean up in next day or so. It's been good. Lots of friends and family visiting during boiling events.
Regards,
Chris