Canadian TireQuote:
Originally Posted by Trends
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/m...p.html?loc=plp
The sale ends December 29th.
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Canadian TireQuote:
Originally Posted by Trends
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/m...p.html?loc=plp
The sale ends December 29th.
Thanks for the link. I have a CTC fairly close I'll check it out before the sale ends.
Have a safe & happy holiday season.
We are all experiencing the winter storm right now. Our power has been off since early yesterday evening, but we have a generator with Generlink so that is not an issue.
If the long range forecast holds, by next weekend, we will all have an early January thaw, that if the forecasted temperatures and rain amounts hold, it will do a number on the snow depth on the ground. We have a lot of snow, so I doubt it will all go. I think I will hold off making paths along my lines.
Long range forecasts do change.
73 days until the Sugar Moon. I still have a number of little things to do to get ready.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/09aU...yfzKmzOqBKS8Ew
My lines were pretty tight, but just looking at the lines on my property, they are so snow covered from the wet snow, a few of them are even touching the snow below. When the storm passes, I will remove the snow, also the pending melt will resolve it.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/056w...Ihxjy-0kBs36fw
https://share.icloud.com/photos/087O...SZieSCtf9zuKAQ
Attachment 22671
Edit: I couldn’t wait and cleared off the lines on my property and the two adjacent ones. I think when the lines get real heavy, there can be a tendency for the lines to slid down some ot the trees they wrap around.
Well, I might have fewer taps. A large poplar tree fell on the power lines at my neighbour’s. They pulled it off, up and over and it fell on a number of my short lines and knocked over a maple I was going to tap.
I will cut up the tree and see if I can get my lines back up. I am one drop down and maybe 13, we will see.
There are a couple of swear words in the video in case you are sensitive to that. The video starts after they got it back up.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/051C...yJ_e9mUirD4Hcw
I only have the one line up right now out front by the road. It has been so blasted cold and windy, and with the subzero temperatures, it can weather the storm until next weekend when it gets up to the 50's. I'll check it then. Just can't handle those subzero temperatures.
The cold does not bother me very much. It was below freezing all day today and I was out most of the day without a coat, just a hoodie and snow pants with a bib. Cleared snow for over 6 hours.
At the end of the day I had a chance to check some lines as well as the lines that came down as a result of the tree falling on them. Last year I never saw once the lines weighed down as much as this year. I guess just the right type or precipitation to stick to the line and then build up on them.
The snow is knee deep, but the big melt will reduce that. I still have to check the three long lines on the steep hill, but that will happen a few days from now. Tobogganing and snow fort building is on the agenda with the Grandkids for the immediate future.
The hydro guys that drop the tree, cut it up fairly well. I think after next weeks melt, I should be able to get the lines back up. These were just the ones I added extra, so no biggie if they are damaged and they do not go back up.
It’s hard to see in the picture, all the places that the crown of the tree are on the lines.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0cao...LZWGVISxhQSh3w
Attachment 22676
I made 14 batches of syrup last year, but the very first batch, when I tasted it and my wife tasted it, we both said it was the best maple syrup we had ever tasted. I had my one mistake of the season, while bottling batch #1, which reduced how much syrup was actually bottled. Batch #1 was also my lightest batch I made.
I saved a one litre mason jar of batch #1 for Christmas and we will be enjoying that syrup tomorrow with the Grandkids. Tonight while transferring some of it from a mason jar to a bottle, we had a little taste of it. My daughter and my wife both thought it was still amazing. I look forward to tomorrow’s “big breakfast”. For a backyarder like me, this is really what this hobby is all about.
Edit: Everyone loved the syrup. About 400 ml was used and we will finish the bottle during their Christmas vacation with us.
My maple season is already a success and oh yeah, I tapped 17 trees today.
It is rare for my daughter and grandkids to be up while I am tapping. Today my daughter helped me recover the lines that were trapped by the fallen trees. It was great working with her in knee deep snow, in the tangle of branches, with snow falling. We were able to free the two lines and restring them without having to make any cuts or adding any new fittings.
I retooled, then my daughter, 11 year old grandson and my 5 year old granddaughter joined me and we tapped 17 drops. I was able to pass on to my grandson what I knew about tapping, looking at the tree, looking a good spot on the bark to drill, check where last year’s taps were and where to tap the new hole and why, bracing his elbow why he drills, a straight in and straight out hole at a slight angle, what to listen for when you are tapping the spout in, the distinct sound when you have gone in far enough.
Whether we get an ounce of sap out of the lines pre season does not matter, spending time with my daughter and grandkids doing maple stuff, was priceless.
Now to get back to tapping in December in Northern Ontario and I am sure some people might think I am bat sugar crazy.
I did it for the following reasons:
1 - I was able to tap while the grandkids were up. Whether I get any sap from them or not, does not matter.
2 - All 17 taps were bonus taps, I added them just because I could, and my thought when I added them was that I would experiment with them and tap them a couple weeks prior to all of the others.
3 - After the tree fell on them, the fact that they came back, it was like a second life, and they had endless possibilities.
4 - Originally planned to be experimental, and being bonus taps, where it did not matter if I get any sap or not, it would be a neat experiment to see if I get any sap from this thaw, or any other thaw’s, prior to the season starting, and how long will the spouts stay open once the season starts.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/03dI...1kH1zS1Q8R8B2w
https://share.icloud.com/photos/028w...SuOufu_x0QZtBw
https://share.icloud.com/photos/097j...wFxpVlUCwbHASA
I will boil any sap I get in a large pot or pots, on my three induction elements.
I asked my daughter and wife and grandson what we should call the syrup, if any, produced. I suggested calling it “Christmas syrup”, but my 11 year old grandson immediately piped up and said call it “Sappy Holidays”. That name kind of stuck.
On a side note I put the 5/16 tubing on the drill bit as a stop, it fit slightly loose, and was worried it could fall off, sure enough before I tapped the first tree, it was gone. I had a pouch full of the stops and this time I grabbed a dowel stop I made, it fit snugly and worked perfectly.
Hopefully they will be able to come back when you are boiling and making syrup. Congrats on teaching and spending time with your daughter and grandkids. Passing along a tradition is as you said priceless.
I remembered I had forgot to add a drop to a pail yesterday and I did that first thing morning, then I realized that the tree that fell, took out a different maple than I thought and the maple I had planned to tap, was still there, so I tapped it as a drop to another pail. So there are 18 experimental taps.
More snow fell overnight so I the snow is getting deep to walk through. Warmer weather arrives tomorrow, the melt starts and maybe some sap will flow tomorrow, maybe the next day. It will be fun learning.
I spent the morning plowing snow and the afternoon playing with the grandkids.
On the first three shots you can see the two maple trees that still have their leaves on and on the next two photos you can see my evaporator shelter.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/062t...bPzSfbHLc5IcnA
https://share.icloud.com/photos/061B...KnJ3LKvEqSd8Dw
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0c1Z...H6hbw-aER5cFAA
https://share.icloud.com/photos/053_...E4hVVuwWYL6VBg
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b7j...NYtKyZeFxDUSLQ
It was fun today to see if any sap was running, but it was just not quite warm enough to thaw out the trees. Whether I get sap or not, I am enjoying the process. We will not have enough days as originally forecasted in the 4°/40° range, so I may not get any or much sap, but we will see. I am still happy I did it and they will be in place for any other thaws or for the start of the true season. I also tapped today two other very short lines beside my detached garage, so that totals 27 drops tapped. That leaves me with 151 drops to tap when the season starts.
In two days I will walk the three lines on the steep hill to look for any down trees on the lines. The depth of the snow should be measurably reduced by then.
I received a package from Amazon with my cone filter holder that I will put on top of the kettle that will catch the syrup I will pull off the divided pan. The pre filters I will be using primarily to catch and foreign objects and some sugar sand, should arrive in the next day or so. My main filtering will occur after I finish the syrup on the vacuum filter.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0e8o...wNCC1sMCpgE_oQ
Attachment 22682
The one thing about metal roofs on the sugar shelter is they sure shed the snow off of them when it warms up. I shoveled away the 2 feet+ of snow that came off the roof onto the other snow. I also shoveled out any snow that had made its way into the evaporator Tomorrow is supposed to be 8°/46°. If it does not rain the whole day tomorrow, I will put a up the two foot tall tarp walls around three sides of the shelter above the wood piles. That should keep most snow from entering.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/088-...NRNJ_GqG1yPTsg
Next week I will contact my pan and base stack maker to see if there is any date yet set for when they will be built. Cutting the hole in the roof for the stack is the biggest job left prior to the season starting. Along with the base stack, I will be getting the base stack base that the base stack will sit on. My thinking is that I will have the base welded to the frame that the pan will sit on, to ensure a perfect seal between the two pieces and to give the base plate more strength. Not sure if there is a down side to welding the two together?
I went out at 11:30 pm and the sap was running in 3 of the four pails. Some pails have more than one line feeding them and one line is running and the other was not. It will remain 5°/41° overnight, which should continue to thaw the trees.
We will see in the morning how much I get.
Keep your line into the bucket up out of the sap. If not, when the tree freezes itvwill draw sap back up into it
Thanks for the tip!Quote:
Originally Posted by DRoseum
It is still dark out, I am excited to see what has flowed. Counting today, I have 6 more potential days of flow.
To be honest if I my new base stack had already arrived and was all set up, with the new pan, I would be tempted to add even more taps, but right now, my boiling capacity is two large 16 qt (15.1L) pots, so there is a sweet spot of just the right amount of sap, to make a few bottles of syrup, including one for my grandson who helped me tap and who named this edition of syrup, “Sappy Holidays”.
All good fun, I am a 67 year old little kid right now.
Gary
Now that's what it's all about! Doing a few early taps is definitely the way to go if that's when the grandkids are there.
My Grandson and I collected 11 gallons of sap this morning and it has been running all day to various degrees of flow. One pail had 3% sugar content, the other two were 2.5%.
I might end up with close to 20 gallons at the end of today. There are still five more potential days of sap collection. I might end up with close to 60 gallons of sap. That might be optimistic, but it makes for easy math. That should produce at least 1.5 gallons of syrup or 5.7 L.
When I see my Grandson next weekend, I will bring him one or two of the bottles of what he calls Sappy Holidays syrup.
I am boiling the sap in two large pots and one small one. This is certainly a low event boil compared to last year.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0cbR...K-c74Yy0-1EEhQ
Attachment 22683
I collected another 6 gallons and all of the lines are still dripping, however slowly. I might collect again at 10 pm, we will see.
The temperature never dropped below freezing last night, and I believe whatever flow I got during last night and today is from the trees coming out of their winter freeze.
Tonight it will get close to freezing, but may stay just above. After that there should be a freeze thaw cycle.
The boiling with the pots is going slower than expected, one large pot and one small pot are boiling well, but the other large pot boils, but is not boing near as briskly as the others. Tomorrow I might replace the under performing pot with a smaller pot.
My goal is to get all 11 gallons collected this morning, to a boil. I will not come close to making syrup today.
I will have to decide whether at one point to stop adding sap to the large well performing pot and make syrup. I was hoping to do that once I had boiled 40 gallons, but I may do that after 25 or 30 gallons.
In the morning I collected 11 gallons, this afternoon 6 and just now 3 more gallons for a total of 20 gallons. That is two days of boiling with my pots or less than two hours when I get my evaporator running in March. 5 more days to collect sap before it turns cold. I really don’t want and don’t expect to get 20 gallons each day.
Each 12” diameter pot should boil .79 gallons per hour. I have two of those, plus a 10” pot, but I doubt I am getting anywhere close to that boil rate.
I think I have to run the pots with a lot shallower sap levels. Right now they are a half to 2/3’s full. I have to think of them as pans.
TAKE THE LIDS OFF! Let all that steam escape!
Keep the level low like your sap pan, the evaporation rate will be better. Pour in new sap as it boils down.
Maybe I have to be more patient, but they seem to boil much sooner and much better with the lids on. The steam seems to find a way out. A couple of times now I have taken the lids off, just for the reason you suggest and the pot immediately loses it’s boil, an I wait for it to regain it’s boil and finally give up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Z/MAN
Thanks I have been trying to keep it lower today, but likely can live closer to the edge than I have been.Quote:
Originally Posted by aamyotte
Last night the temperatures did not drop below freezing, so the trees did not recharge. I only collected 4 gallons of sap today. Next Tuesday’s run should be fantastic and even tomorrow’s should be good.
I have been boiling all day and I am still boiling. I do have the sap levels lower, but I guess I have to go lower yet.
I just might be able to make syrup close to New Years Eve. That would be cool. My syrup temperature is 217.83° right now. I like my syrup at 66.9/67 Brix, so that is more likely a 218.75° temperature.
Would I tap trees again mid winter! Absolutely, with two caveats:
One - my evaporator would have to fully functional. I could have boiled up all of this sap in under two hours.
Two - I might go more in, install more taps, maybe them all.
You'll still evaporate faster with the lids off. In the earlier stages of concentration, I'm not even sure how essential it is to actually be in a true boil, but it essential to not have anything in the way of the steam escaping. If you're doing it with lids on, and its going slow, that why it's going slow.
Okay, I will be starting a fresh boil likely tomorrow, so I will do it all with lids off.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy VT
I hope to make syrup tonight.
Edit: I consolidated everything in one pot to boil down and finish. I took the lid off, it immediately lost its boil. I waited 25 minutes and although there was some upwelling, there was no boiling. Go figure.
If you can achieve 200F, (edit, rechecked my notes, make that 205F) you'll lose an inch an hour of liquid without lids. More if you can get higher.
Curious, how many inches an hour, boiling, with lids on? (this is good data)
First syrup made in 2023, bottled at 1:30 am, January 1st!
https://share.icloud.com/photos/032P...MIQMJX2KrlGUAQ
Attachment 22686
Just a few thoughts on making the syrup.
This was my first time making syrup starting with so few gallons of sap to start with (20 gallons). Near the end when I was finishing it, the syrup level was fairly low in the pot. I will wait until I have at least 40 gallons to start with, before doing it again.
I made less syrup than I expected. I thought I should have made at least another 500 ml of syrup. The 20 gallons should have made 1.9 L of syrup, and I made 1.375 L.
The taste of the syrup, based on the remnants in the pot, was different from when I boiled last spring over a wood fire. This time it was all done on an induction stove. It was still good, but different.
The DYI vacuum filter, with the new overcentered clamps I added, as per 4walls design, worked perfectly.
Having the new stainless steel pot allowed me to transfer the hot sap directly from the vacuum filter kettle pot to the finishing pot while it was still hot, so I had very minimal reheating to do.
I still cannot figure out the boiling without a lid thing. With a lid it boils vigoursly and steam is finding its way out and without a lid, it really does not come to a boil. All I know is it took me double the expected time to boil the sap.
Today I have to clean up last night’s pots and utensils from the sugar making, I will be walking the three steep lines to see if there are any trees or branches on them and then hopefully I will collect some sap. It did drop below freezing last night, but not as much as forecasted. Counting today, there is three more days to collect sap.
This is the colour of last night’s sap in the daylight. I seem to have a knack for making amber coloured syrup.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0ddv...E8W2EvMMGUMyQw
Attachment 22688
For the lid issue maybe put a couple of wooden spoons across the pot to create a gap to let more steam out while keeping the heat in to help with the boil.
The other thing to do would be to occasionally remove the lid and shake off the water droplets on the underside of the lid. It would be a shame to have them drop back in the pot having to reboil them.
Your syrup looks nice.
Thanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by aamyotte
I walked the three steep lines today. No trees or branches on them. There were two locations where the lines were in the snow. This was not because they were strung low, but rather the lines spanned a fairly lengthy area and the unprecedented for me, amount of snow on the lines, simply weighed them down.
Last night the temperature was supposed to drop down to -3/26.6 °, but it barely dropped below zero, so once again it did not recharge the sap flow very much. I will only get a few additional gallons at the end of the day.
Tomorrow I will contact my pan builder to see if he has a best guess of when my pan and base stack will be built.
Some steam gets out with lids on, but I am guessing plenty more condenses on the underside of the lid and drips back into the sap.. I wouldn't run any more than 2" of sap in the pot, and add boiling sap to it to maintain that depth.
I certainly had more than two inches depth in the pots. I will try and keep them lower.Quote:
Originally Posted by wnybassman
Thanks
I went to my step-son’s place for supper tonight and brought one of the bottles of 2023 sap for them to try. His wife opened it after supper and she tried it first. She really liked it. She said it was really maplely tasting. The “note” of maple she said was in the forefront. My stepson also agreed. They both really liked it.
The weather forecast for tomorrow, which was supposed to be a big sap flow day has totally changed. It may not go below freezing overnight and will only go slightly above freezing tomorrow, before turning cold for several weeks.
The forecast for the 7 days did not pan out as forecasted, but I did collect 26 gallons of sap and it was a lot of fun doing it and it certainly kept me busy. No sap was running today, so I pulled and cleaned all of my collection pails.
Right now I am boiling the last 6 gallons. I did all of the boiling with no lids and less sap in the pots, it seemed to help. Next time I will get a turkey fryer setup to have more heat to the pot and will likely upgrade one of my induction ranges as one definitely heats up the sap better than the other.
It will interesting boiling the sap down to syrup. 6 gallons of sap will only produce a half of a litre of syrup in the pot. Right now it is a medium sized pot, when it gets close I will transfer it to a small pot to half some depth to deal with. It may not end of being perfect syrup but we will consume it in the next week.
I have not heard back from my pan maker yet, but I hope I get everything, especially the base stack and base stack base in January. This will allow me to line up exactly where the hole in the roof should go and to install the base stack on the evaporator and through the metal roof. It will be cool to see the new divided pan and float box.
Heating up the sap this past week, it struck me how much heat it takes to heat up cold sap.
Right now my setup is to have cold sap from my feed tank go directly to my float box and into the divided pan.
Another option is to have a heating pan (as per the attached photo, I may not have named it correctly) that sits in the end of the divided pan that would heat the sap somewhat and also feed the pan based on how much you crack the valve.
Would you recommend a float box over this heated pan?
I know there are options where you could wrap stainless steel tubing around the stack, but the way everything is oriented now, I do not have that as a choice.
Thanks
https://share.icloud.com/photos/00aj...xxZUSkVgzm-JJg
Attachment 22691
That looks like the pre-heater pan I had on my Leader Half Pint.
An excellent idea vs pouring cold sap into your pan.
Should have a valve so you can let it drip in to keep your level at whatever you’re comfortable with.
The float box wouldn’t do much for you, if it’s getting cold sap.
Look up the Leader Half Pint, lots of us started with that rig - it was awesome.
Good luck this year.
Edit:
Because the heater box just drips into the pan, it doesn’t kill the boil.
Pouring a cup or more of cold sap will tend to do that and you’re always trying to get everything boiling again.
How warm does the heater box get the sap? Like 100°?Quote:
Originally Posted by johnallin
Thanks
I boiled the 6 gallons into syrup. I got it to the right Brix according to my refractometer. I may have over filtered it and came short of the 500 ml I was hoping for.
It was the first golden syrup I have ever made. It certainly had a different taste than the amber syrup I normally make, and it was thinner than usual as well.
I think it came out golden because I did not boil it as long. My wife was not a fan of it tasting it off of a spoon, but it tasted great on the waffles. Tasting it off the spoon, it sort of had a metallic after taste to it, but I did not notice that with the waffles. There was no metal that got into it, so it is not from metal that it got the different taste from. It was just different and far different from the amber batch I made on New Year’s Day which had a strong note of maple.
We both prefer the taste of the amber syrup I usually make, although maybe this batch was not representative of golden syrup.
Overall a fun experience and a learning experience and a family experience.
The middle bottle of syrup is obviously the golden syrup made today in the attached picture.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/071F...iTmpe0x3aobBzg
Attachment 22692
Probably not 100, maybe 60?
Depends on how much you keep in there.
Still way better than dumping cold sap into a boiling pan as you’re only adding by the drop to match your evaporation rate.
You can do the same with any pan suspended in the steam or near a good heat source, and just dripping into the boil.