April Journal

Here it is April 9, still no journal started. We must have all been too busy.
Anyways, I have boiled the last of this year's sap, have boiled down the contents of the flue pan and the front pan is down to less than 1/2" deep. The auto draw put about 20+ gal of Amber in the draw off tank. I will now need to drain the rest from the front pan and get it all to proper density. First I need to put what is in my finisher in a barrel and maybe pack the rest into retail containers. Then pump the 20+ gal of Amber to the finisher and get it all to proper density and then likely put 16 gal into a barrel and pack the rest in retail containers. Then I will finish cleaning the pans, pack another bourbon barrel with syrup to start another batch and bottle my next batch, which is ready to pack.
Then it's time to pull taps and wash tubing. I should have a final total for this year's production by this time tomorrow.
My last sap of the season was collected 4/7/19.
We had a good season. The sugar was up above the last 2 years. We did not however get to meet or beat our .52 gal/tap of last year. I still need to do the math to get our season sap sugar %.

I'm still going here in Loudon NH. What was once looking like it was going to be a very poor season is starting to look a lot better. I should finish with around 20 gallons or so less than last year which I'm happy about. I only had 20 gallons made prior to Maple Weekend and was wondering if I was going to make 100 for the season. I'm currently at 149 with sap in the tank and temps looking good through Friday. I checked the sap that I collected tonight and it's measuring at 1.8% which is pretty high for red maples this close to the end.

High pressure washed the evaporator pans yesterday after work, which makes me 100% done, cleaned up and put away.