Red Roof Maples 2016

I made another 14 1/2 gallons last night. I lost my grade and am now making golden. The flavor went with the color too. The syrup taste good but it has almost no maple flavor.or any flavor for that matter. I hope that problem goes away real quick. I need more darker syrup as 41 gallons ain't gonna cut it as far as having something to put on the shelves is concerned. I'm boiling again tonight to get everything emptied before the big freeze. Next week's forecast looks a little warm. I hope it's not as warm as they predict and cools down again sooner too. We need 2 or 3 days of below freezing weather and a foot of snow to give this season a boost, not a week of temps in the 60's.

That was my thought too Russ. After the 5 days of above freezing its looks workable. But those warm days could be the end of it.

Agreed I am a bit nervous!!! I hope the forecast changes!!! 30 gallons aint gonna cut it here either!!! Dismal runs here not much on buckets I am just gonna let em freeze... and sugar is low so color is very dark. good flavor just really dark. Buds are still really tight but I am still very nervous!!!

I made another 8 gallons of golden tonight. That puts me at 63 1/2 for the season so far. I need to make 175 gallons to be at 1 qt per tap. The forecast doesn't look good for next week but time will tell. It is usually colder than they forecast here which could put me in the sweet spot for next week. I sure hope so and I hope that my syrup darkens up some. I don't like making this golden crap.

What about shutting down the bubblemaster wouldn't that darken it up a bit?

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Originally Posted by Dill

What about shutting down the bubblemaster wouldn't that darken it up a bit?

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I tried that last year. It slows down the boil and it would take more than 1 session to darken the flue pan enough to darken the syrup. It's amazing how much the bubblemaster increases the evap rate and cuts down the foam. We were going through a ton of wood and defoamer without it.

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Originally Posted by Russell Lampron

I made another 8 gallons of golden tonight. That puts me at 63 1/2 for the season so far. I need to make 175 gallons to be at 1 qt per tap. The forecast doesn't look good for next week but time will tell. It is usually colder than they forecast here which could put me in the sweet spot for next week. I sure hope so and I hope that my syrup darkens up some. I don't like making this golden crap.

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I agree with you Russ. I have no need for that golden crap either. I tend to blend small amounts in darker syrup just to get rid of it. People don't like the color or taste (or lack there of).

Are you running the bubblemaster in both pans? How much does it increase your boil rate by? I've thought off/on about building one, but don't want to listen to a wet/dry vac outside the sugarhouse, and I like making dark syrup. I thought about tapping off the high pressure blower that feeds the evaporator, but that air's not filtered, and I don't know if I'd be robbing the evap. of too much air.

Yes I have it in both pans. I'm not sure of the number for the evaporation increase but it seemed like quite a bit when I was boiling without it. When the evaporator first starts to steam I turn on the bubblemaster and the amount increases dramatically. With the bubblemaster the flue pan boils hard all of the way to the back too. When I built the bubblemaster all I could make was dark syrup. If I was lucky it might get just light enough to call dark amber but most of the time it was legit B or darker. That was from the first boil on. I'll take what I get now because I have made dark syrup with the bubblemaster and know that I will again it's just a question of when. My sugarhouse is quite loud when we are boiling with the bubblemaster, RO, vacuum pump and blower all running at the same time not to mention the sound of the boiling sap too.

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Originally Posted by Amber Gold

Are you running the bubblemaster in both pans? How much does it increase your boil rate by? I've thought off/on about building one, but don't want to listen to a wet/dry vac outside the sugarhouse, and I like making dark syrup. I thought about tapping off the high pressure blower that feeds the evaporator, but that air's not filtered, and I don't know if I'd be robbing the evap. of too much air.

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Just reread this and was thinking of trying to plumb the bubblemaster into my blower but filtration and not knowing if it would work or not made me go with the shop vac. I would like to find a quiet air source for the bubblemaster and may try something with a woodstove blower. I think I can fabricate an air filter that uses automotive cabin filter elements for filters. The question is would the woodstove blower create enough pressure and flow enough air to make the bubblemaster work right. The shop vac puts out more air than the bubblemaster needs.

It feels good to have a night off. I emptied everything yesterday so that I wouldn't have a block of ice sitting in the tank in the woods or in any of the other tanks and buckets. I'll be rested and ready for another tsunami. The forecast is looking better after a couple of warm days next week. It's looking like I might see some freezing nights here about next Friday. I sure hope that happens.

I forget where I saw it but for the bubblemaster they were using a blower from a bouncy house there are a bunch on ebay. they seem a bit quieter that a shop vac. just an idea.

I think I am gonna build one of those for next season so I will try to get up there sometime after the season to pick your brain on the one you made. what works what you would do differently etc. I can set up a shop vac in my RO room so it won't be so noisy in the sugarhouse. I need to see your operation anyway... been meaning to get up there for some time!!!


I wonder if it worth doing the syrup and the flue pan or just the flue pan I may start with that and see how that is first. Although I like the dark syrup as do my customers but I may just use it to make a few gallons just to add variety and have some nice lighter stuff for glass. Does the light color hold up for candy? just curious.

yes forecast is slightly cooler than it was I hope we get the freezes in there. but it could change either way at anytime. (please cooler) we actually got a couple of inches of snow here hopefully that will help a little.

Brad it was supposed to get up to 36* here today, it never hit 30* and we only got a dusting of snow. We'll see what actually happens but my 10 day forecast is showing 30* for a low next Thursday and 29* Friday. I know it's to far into the future at this point but it is showing freezing nights just about every night after that in the 15 day forecast.

A bouncy house blower might be too big. You only need a small volume of air at high enough pressure to push through the sap. Even the small shop vac has more than enough pressure and volume for the bubblemaster. I have it in both pans but probably don't need the one in the front pan.

The golden syrup works good for candy. That's about the only thing it's good for.

I need to get down to your place too. I'm on vacation the week before Maple Weekend. Maybe I can make a road trip.

It was too cold for a sap run here yesterday. I turned on the vacuum pump at 1 pm and had about 65 gallons at 5 pm. The buckets were about 50/50 and the ones that did run barely covered the bottom of the bucket. The sun was out all morning but when the sap started to run the clouds rolled in which didn't help. It's looking better for today with an overnight low of 18* last night and a high of 41* in the forecast for today. It is supposed to warm up earlier today and the sun is supposed to take over when the temp gets above freezing. It looks like we will get the real run Monday and Tuesday.

I won't be around much I do have to work. Started working again thus past fall.

Another slow day for sap flow. It's coming in a little better than yesterday but not by much. I'm going to pump out the tank tonight anyway to be ready for tomorrow. It looks like it's going to be cloudy with showers tomorrow afternoon. We may not get much tomorrow either.

I got less today than I did Saturday and Sunday. The pump ran all day and at 5:30 the releaser which holds 25 gallons was not quite ready to dump for the first time. Very disappointing and very disappointed. Hopefully it will start running tomorrow. I need to boil!

Same here it was cloudy and nothing got going I got maybe 40 gallons today if that... was able to collect buckets still lots of ice but road side sugars just keep dripping...

Same here, only running a little. Too long warming up with no sun plus the south to southeast wind.

just broke the freezing mark here at 6am, hopefully we see a little sun today and really get things cranking.

It's supposed to be mostly sunny and 53 here in Loudon today. If that doesn't get things going I don't know what will.

I also got very, very little yesterday. Got colder here last night than the forecast predicted....I'd like to see that be a trend (nights only) this week.

Started to go pretty good for me in Merrimack, I picked up 175 gallons from my 150 taps this morning....almost all were dripping by the time I was finished, so I suspect I will have at least that much again later today.

The sap finally decided to run today. Tonight I boiled in almost 500 gallons of sap and it was still coming in good at 6:00. Still making that golden crap. You would think that the stuff that sat in the evaporator since last Wednesday would have darkened up but it didn't. I'm up to 72 gallons on the season now but still a long ways from a full crop.

The vacuum pulled in 350 gallons overnight and it was still coming in good this morning. It is still running crystal clear and no season ending moths or lightning bugs in the buckets yet. Looks like I'm going to get a frost Friday night. The season is just kicking into high gear here I hope.

I've got my tubing system really tight this year and it is paying off now. I've been holding 27" at the releaser for the last 2 weeks and the needle doesn't even drop when the releaser dumps. It takes over a minute for it to recover when it dumps and I don't even lose a needle width on the gauge. I've gotten almost 1500 gallons of sap from this run and am going down to pump the tank now.

I just hope it lasts... I have had just over 1000 gallons myself which is pretty good for my reds on vacuum. there is another 200 gallons in the tank this morning to start the day.

I had another 325 gallons in the woods tank this morning. That puts me at 1675 gallons from 700 taps on this run so far. It was still coming in and it is still crystal clear this morning. Still making golden and I wish it would change. I've made 84 1/2 gallons of syrup so far. Running low on boil soda's !!! Going to have to make a beer run soon.

Russell,
Do you think the golden color is because you use an RO and the Sap boils for less time in the evaporator and doesn't really even get a chance to darken up? I would of expected mine to have some nice golden at the beginning of the season but my color has pretty much stayed the nice medium to darker amber and I was thinking because I only get 20GPH and therefore my sap is cooking longer and giving it time to darken up.

-Scott

he makes lighter syrup because of the bubblemaster!!! Smaller rigs traditionally make darker syrup. one of the classes I had with Glen Goodrich he said he would never want to boil on a small evaporator he said they are so hard to control there is no room for error simply because they are so finicky and can have drastic changes day to day sometimes even with the load you are burning at any given time. but NH fancy taste good!!! :)

I used to make plenty of dark syrup with the concentrated sap. I was having the sap in the flue pan caramelizing before it went into the syrup pan. I built a bubbler to fix that problem and now I can't make any dark syrup.

Made 10 more gallons of golden tonight. That makes 31 gallons of syrup from this one run. All of the syrup that I made in February was amber and so far all of the syrup that I have made in March is golden. It did look a little darker tonight so I think I'm moving in the right direction. I'm thinking that I will be making dark on maple weekend. I sure hope so!!!

Went down to the woods to find 250 gallons in the tank this morning. That put the running total at 2125 gallons from this run and that's just over 3 gpt. Not bad for a bunch of swamp maples and no freeze since the run started on Tuesday.

I am going to be boiling tomorrow afternoon and everybody is invited to come and check out my sugarhouse.

Update: I got another 200 gallons of sap today making a total of 450 gallons for tomorrow's boil.

There was another 75 gallons in the woods this morning which made the total from this last run 2450 gallons or 3.5 gpt from 700 taps.

The sap is running good today after a better than predicted freeze overnight and a lot of sunshine. There's a cool breeze blowing out there that's helping keep the temperature from warming up too fast and slowing things down. The prediction for tonight is a low of 35* but I have a feeling that we are going to get another frost.

I'm lighting the evaporator 1:00 if anybody that isn't too busy with sap of their own wants to stop by.

The sap ran good here yesterday. I had 600 gallons by 6 pm and it was still coming in good on the vacuum. All of the small trees on buckets had stopped running by late afternoon but the big trees were still going strong when I gathered at 5 pm.

The weather looks kind of crappy this week but it looks good for Maple Weekend. There's 28* in the forecast for tonight and the last time it was supposed to be that cold it actually got to 23*. I hope it happens again. The long range looks pretty good for when I have to go back to work. I'm on vacation this week and it always seems to work out that way. The trees are looking pretty good here. If they can survive the warm weather this week I can keep going when it cools down again.

The plan is to boil it as I get it until Wednesday and then save it for Maple Weekend. With the freezes in the forecast for Friday and Saturday nights I should be able to have sap to boil both days.

I'm glad the sap is running for you still. I went and checked all of mine yesterday and after my flood of sap Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday when I got just under 500 gallons I had barely 15 gallons on 160 taps. When I woke today it's still 50 degrees here in Merrimack, so as I predicted mine are all done. Keep up the good work Russell!!


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I woke up to 45* this morning and found 250 gallons in the tank. That makes 800 from this run which is over 1 gpt. It is still coming in but real slow. I don't think I will get 100 gallons today. We are supposed to get a freeze tonight so the sap will run tomorrow I just don't know how much.

Boiled 800 gallons this afternoon and made 8 gallons. Add that to yesterday's 5 gallons from 450 and it took almost 100 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. Glad I've got an RO !!! The Amber flavor is back but the color is right on the golden sample in the test kit. This syrup was made from the cloudiest sap of the season and it still made golden syrup.

Went down to find 200 gallons in the tank and sap still coming in. It's not time to pull the plug yet! I'm hoping that this weeks stormy weather will put some moisture in the ground so that I will have sap for Maple Weekend.

My total now is at 107 1/2 gallons made. I made 135 in 2012 and would like to at least match that if I could.

The sugarmaker at the end of my road came down this afternoon and was impressed with my RO. He has vacuum now and a blower on his evaporator from previous visits and talk over boiling sodas. Now he wants an RO too. I'm a bad influence on people. :)

If your tree's hold out till the end of the month you should have a good shot at matching your goal.
Golden...I hear ya, done everything I could to make some darker syrup but it's not happening, even fired the old low efficiency barrel evaporator (didn't help). I must say though the flavor is pretty good for the lightness of the color.
Now to see if that line works on all the people I got hooked to dark amber..:lol: