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I collected 46 L yesterday, by the time I got home from work that is all I could get before it was to dark, I was hoping to collect then go back for more. It will all be ice now, so it will have to stay where it is for now. Guess I will continue boiling what I have at nights till we get rid of this cold snap.
Following some advice I see pop up now and then regarding ice removal. This is a bit much though.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...de4f956964.jpg
That's is a bit much, I gotta believe there's sugar in that ice.
As someone said to me before "Popsicle's freeze too!"Quote:
Originally Posted by TurkeyJohn
When it's this cold out I don't think the old chuck the ice rule applies. I'm surprised there was even unfrozen sap in the pail.
I collected about 50 gallons from some buckets I put out last week to flush my RO didn't get around to flushing it out in time before it got cold and the sap is sitting frozen absolute solid in my Cage tank. Probley going to take a week for it to thaw out. Hopefully the tank and the valve survive. And of course i have it sitting in the most shady coolest spot on the property. So it never sees sun. Hard to believe we were getting thunderstorms last weekend at this time. -25 this weekend. Crazy weather.
Everything froze solid here too this morning, -24C when I got up
I just hand bombed 15 buckets of frozen sap in the garage and cranked the heat to 22 degrees. Should thaw out soon.
Batch #2 94l sap, 3250 mls syrup, so again a pretty solid 3%. Finished at 223.5-224, just one hashmark over Brix so no need for more tinkering! :-)
You boiled today? Wasn't it frozen?Quote:
Originally Posted by Galena
Hehe yes my sap still all frozen! I should clarify...I collected Feb 27-Mar1 and boiled sap down into about 8l of nearup. Then last night I dumped all of the nearup into finishing pot, pulled up a chair and very patiently waited from 8:30 to 11:00pm. Got er done very slowly, but it saves me messing with distilled H20 down the line!Quote:
Originally Posted by c0ps
Waiting on the supplier to bring all the cases and cases of bottles to stack in the house so they can warm up to put the labels on. Some work to be done in the bush,but that wind is deathly cold. Finished boiling everything yesterday that we couldn't get before,line pulled apart so couldn't suck the sap over from the other bush,got that fixed,then the generator didn't want to start. Got generator started and warmed up,then had to get vacuum pump going,then sap finally got coming over,got a small fire going in the arch,primed the pump to pump sap to sugarhouse,pump frozen and wouldn't start. My wife went home for a thermos of hot water,got the pump running,but sap wouldn't flow from the tank to the evaporator. Came home to get the propane torch,got the line thawed out,then the floats were frozen down. We finally got everything up and running around noon,last batch of syrup off at 1:15 ,then a quick shutdown and drain of the system to leave for the bus run at 1:30 . Not good to try and make syrup in the dead of winter I guess!
So here's where we ended up today...https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...91a877aebb.jpg... no regrets on ditching the ice...started at 630 and done at 4, not bad for our little set up.
Looks like we'll tap in on Monday. 14 day forecast still not great but a daytime swing of +2 or 3* would make all the difference.
On another note..... I went to drop off and cut up another 15 pallets (what we use for firewood) and found this in my parents garage. I guess we've upgraded. I was extremely surprised since every time I mention upgrading or changing something I get the look of disapproval from the old man!
It's the smallest CDL you can buy. Pan is an 18"x48" flat, divided. We've only ever boiled on a flat non divided pan. This sure will be a learning experience.Attachment 15867Attachment 15868Attachment 15869
I have the Dominion & Grimm version of that evaporator and it works good. I can get around 10gph with my blower going. Nice hobby sized rig! Hope it works good for your season!!Quote:
Originally Posted by DrewCP
Batch #4
261 litres of sap made 7650 ml of syrup!
Ratio 1:34
Sugar content 2.5%
Wow Leslie, you are really doing well this season. Where are you getting the sap? Things have been frozen solid here for days. There must be some giant storage facility in your forest.
nice supprise. looks like you got an extra pallet to! it's a win-winQuote:
Originally Posted by DrewCP
Well before the cold snap hit I boiled what I had stored and ended up with 9 liters of amber finished and bottled.
I have 35liters of super sweet concentrate drawn ffrom the pan and in freezer to sweeten the pan once the cold snap is over and sap starts running again. It took almost 140 gallons of sap before the first draw of syrup then after that i was drawing off a half a liter every 30 minutes.:)
Attachment 15874
We were storing it on our deck in a big 55 gallon barrel. We had tons of sap to boil from our warm spell. And have been slowly working away at it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Run Forest Run!
That being said. Not a drop from the past 4 days due to the deep freeze in weather. Tomorrow looking more promising.
Well we ran with the warm days out here by Elgin and ended up with 11 almost 12L amber but another 4-5 L at near up stage for finishing before anticipated new run later this week. It was almost frozen solid 250L sap leftover but with hatchet able to chunk it into pan. We too believe there is sugar in that Ice cube so won't waste a drop. Odd we had to dump 1 tree running yellow sap. No off flavour just no flavour? We'll add in new lines and pails once trails clear if season allows expansion.
Tree pee, as I lovingly call yellow sap - so long as it's clear and has no off scent to it - is perfectly safe to boil though some like to dump it on general principle. It just means precip in the form or rain or snow has got in with the sap.
Our first boil was last Wednesday. We had only 3500 taps in but there was close to 6,000 gallons of sap to process. Neither my brother or I could get to the sugar camp until after work so it was a late night! RO was on at 7pm, did a short wash at 11pm and fired up The Beast. 84 minutes after our first full fire we had syrup coming off the front and the auto-runoff barely turned off for the next 5 hours. RO was off at about 4am, last fire was on shortly thereafter and by the time I was done washing up the sun was up and I was listening to the morning show on the radio! Ended up with 120+ gallons of beautiful Golden Delicate that will make great butter and candy. We had to drain the pans as soon as the arch was cold because it was -10 C by the time I left the sugar camp and it would have frozen solid in the pans.
We got the remaining taps in on the weekend and we're ready for this week's warmer weather. It looks like we'll get some time off this coming weekend to maybe spend some time with the people who look like me and live in the same house...
Nothing since March 2, crickets chirping at this end...maybe will get some tomorrow.
It's a tough call sometimes. Every year we end up with sap frozen around the edges of our storage containers. I check multiple times every year to see what % the ice is. Typically the ice is around 1 % and our "concentrate" comes out around 3-3.5%. We are 100-120 gallon batch boilers with a finite amount of time to commit to making syrup. It's a no brainer to us. At 1% it's not worth our time. Sap hydrometers are relatively cheap and really satisfy that curious side. Just like skimming off foam, it gives you something to do while you watch water evaporate!Quote:
Originally Posted by TurkeyJohn
I can't believe the terrible weather. -18 at night this weekend? Looks like we are going to push out another week before tapping. New date is Monday March 13. Typically we tap before March 10. Crazy times.
Same here... Was thinking about today but will only get tree pee with this rain..Quote:
Originally Posted by DrewCP
That's great info right there Drew, had a feeling, but you've only made the decision even better. We have other demands on our schedules and a lot of times, and after having to dump a can as we couldn't boil off in time before it turned cloudy, we needed to save what time we could....Thanks again, TJQuote:
Originally Posted by DrewCP
I don't know about where you live, but right now I have the most amazing red sky to the west....WOW!
The view tonight;Quote:
Originally Posted by NTBugtraq
Attachment 15921
Hey not true! Got masses of freezing rain last night and plain ol rain too, and very little tree pee. And I use pails. Got about 15l today. Slow but good to see something other than a few dribbles of frozen sap in the bottoms.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vandy
Collected 102 litres today.. taps still dripping! Supposed to be good for a few days and then.. going into a deep freeze again! Gotta get it when the goings good!! 😆
Turned on Vacuum pump at 3pm today when I got home from work. Just got back from Bush and tank was full. Wow does vacuum ever make a difference.
What do you boil your sap on?Quote:
Originally Posted by Lespetras
Sap didn't start flowing today until 10:30am, but its coming in very slowly.
Meanwhile, bottled 14L this morning. Its my same dark amber that I usually get...but the taste is still amazing.
Hello Mark,Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkReynolds
Right now, propane burners.. sometimes a wood fire arch.
Trees seem to be finally waking up today. Nothing yesterday,but made 34 gallons today in just over 4 hours. Everything all cleaned up and boiled in,tanks all washed out ready for the next run
Was just out checking trees to ensure pails still there. 68l sap in 2 days' time.
The next run for me might be a week from tomorrow :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce L
Yeah, my 10 day forecast has ZERO sap running days in it...;-[Quote:
Originally Posted by Big_Eddy
Just wait it out. You will live. And more importantly so will the trees. Unlike the poor trees belonging to this idiot: http://mapletrader.com/community/sho...gh-a-cold-snap...