Sugar content been down this year. We often get multiple days over 3.0 Brix raw sap but never got higher than 2.7 this season.
Type: Posts; User: ennismaple
Sugar content been down this year. We often get multiple days over 3.0 Brix raw sap but never got higher than 2.7 this season.
Thankfully! We made half a normal season's crop in the 10 days from the 8th to 17th. Thank goodness for RO!
Sugar has been down - been between 1.8 and 2.1 Brix for the last 5 boils. It should...
We use the last few inches of sap to give the sides a wipe-down as the tank is being drained. We'll take 5 gallons of drinking water to the tank on the ATV or gathering wagon and use that for a...
There's two types of sugarmakers: Those who've burnt a pan and new producers!
Every tank in our bush and at the sugar camp is washed every time it gets drained - so daily (or more often) when the sap is running. It's really hard to get the IBC totes and poly tanks clean so you...
Sugar content will go up after an extended freeze. When the sap is running very well it spends very little time in the stem of the tree - hence low sugar content. A cold snap means the sap is in...
The 12 producing regions in Quebec can be found at the link below - is in French but you can click on each Region and see where it is on the map and how many millions of taps are in each Region.
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Yikes! It has been 14 years since we ordered ours so i was curious how much pricing had increased.
You'll need to confirm with the manufacturers when they can deliver if you order now. I understand the backlog is quite long so that may affect your decision making, given two equal options.
Had a decent boil last night and made some good Very Dark - Strong syrup to finish up the year. I boiled a few hundred gallons of permeate through behind the concentrate to get as many runoffs as...
Mark,
We replace our tubing every 10 years (using check valves on years 3-10) so if what you're taking down is reasonably new you'll be fine re-using it next season. Slightly used tubing isn't as...
It was a challenging weekend... power went out 3pm on Wednesday mid-boil. Thursday was spent cutting trees and limbs off of roads and mainlines and trying to rig up generators to complete the RO...
Agreed - both are indispensable. I don't know how we lived without them. All our mainlines are now monitored for vacuum and with the tank sensors we know how much sap is in the tanks at all times and...
We definitely want some dark syrup and will be pushing right to the end. With RO low sugar isn't too much of an issue - just dial the concentrate flow back to get your desired Brix and let it run...
We keep the radio on - they don't like Country Music!
Thanks for checking up on me! We're good just been a crazy month. Took us right until tapping time to get the woods back together from the May 21st Derecho storm. We're having a pretty decent season...
I assume you're using the clear polycarbonate CV's? We used them one season and didn't have this issue but have heard of it.
We got about 80% tapped on the weekend, all the mainlines stretched across trails, most releasers out on the tanks, and tested one of the vacuum pumps plus the electric releaser. We'll get the sugar...
We aren't planning to start tapping until Family Day weekend - we need 4 days with a couple crews to get tapped plus another couple in the sugar camp before we can boil. At least the warmer weather...
Congrats on the new toy! Be careful though... it's a slippery slope. Next thing you know you "need" a 20V reciprocating saw, an impact drill, then a mitre saw, then a leaf blower, then an ice fishing...
Trees with larger canopies and larger diameter should generally produce more and sweeter sap. If two trees are close to each other and one is significantly larger than the other you could consider...
The pigs you can buy from most maple equipment dealers are pretty inexpensive - a few dollars each. Clean them with warm drinking water after you're done and let them dry out and they should last...
The pig definitely needs to be a cylinder and ideally oversized so it's compressed going into the pipe. One key I've found is to thoroughly soak the pig in water so it slides through the pipe - I had...
If your stack temp is 1000F you're losing a LOT of BTU's up the stack. I've never done the math but a couple mm of soot will significantly inhibit heat transfer into the pan. We've been working to...
Our syrup pan comes off every day to be cleaned and remove nitre. While it's off and after we take the ash out of the fire box, we climb into the fire box and push a flue brush attached to a 10 foot...