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Thread: Making birch syrup

  1. #21
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    Feb 2012
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    Salt Point, NY
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    This heatwave is awful. I'm going to have to pull all the buckets off the drop tubes tomorrow and pressure wash them and may not put them back until Sunday night or Monday AM when we have a run of highs around 50 with near-freezing overnights.

    I'm finding some with bio slime in the bottoms and a couple even with green mold spots. Even after only 5 hours since last collection, they are just not smelling good - you can feel the warm moist air when you open them and they smell worse every time I go out.

    I just hope that the trees can make some decent sap next week - worried that with this heat, the entire birch season passed by before it started!

  2. #22
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    Cleaned all of the buckets - in just 6 days, they all had slime on the bottoms. I put 4 back out today to see how the quality of the sap is before I do any more. It's also much cooler for the next few days with nights close to freezing - about 20 degrees cooler than our first week with the birch running.

    I made a pint out of some of the first concentrate that I had refrigerated and it's not as good as last year. There is a somewhat bitter lingering side taste that just shouldn't be there so I am probably going to throw out the rest of my concentrate from last week. What I don't yet know is whether that was because it took me too long to process given the 70-80 degree weather, if the buckets just grew way too much crud too fast, or if this extreme heat is just resulting in poor quality sap right out of the tree.

    I'm going to try collecting the sap out of 4 freshly cleaned test buckets this evening, process it down to a half gallon or less on the RO and get them boiled within 12 hours. This is the absolute best case I will be able to do with more taps, so if it still tastes off, I will hold off putting out any more buckets until after the freeze Monday night, and then check again. If it doesn't get any better after the freeze, it may tell us that a week run of temperatures 25 degrees above normal just killed this birch season altogether.

    MillbrookMaple - let me know what you're finding at your place - are you on buckets for the birch as well?

  3. #23
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    Apr 2009
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    Margaretville, NY
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    We ran the RO yesterday and it did lighten the syrup. I took about 150 gallons and concentrated it to about 12 gallons. I think if I had done that the first day I would have had even lighter syrup. I was able to boil it all the way to 58 on the evaporator and then cleaned out the evaporator and took it to 60 and canned it for future syrup. Once I have 5-10 gallons I will take all the batches to around the upper 60s and then filter press all of it and bottle. Our forcast now has us at 11 degrees tomorrow night so I think the birch sap will keep much better and probably stop for most of the week. I didn't collect today since my forcast is for 28 tonight and I would like to RO two days worth if I can. I just checked the buckets and the sap seemed fine so I'm taking a chance. We have about 100 taps and are getting around 100 gallons every 24 hours. I was hoping for a little more sap but I guess I get what I get. Some trees give around 4-5 gallons a day and others just barely a quart. I have about 25 of the taps on 5/16 tubing coming from the mountain which is getting very nice natural vacuum and the rest are buckets. Hopefully I will be boiling birch tomorrow night or Tuesday AM and then maple Wed - Sat. Even if the trees (maple) are just starting to bud we are going to boil and send the syrup to Mrs. Butterworst. If I get board I might add another 50 birch taps so that I have more efficiency with the RO and can run it each day.
    Millbrook Maple
    Catskill Mountains
    Saphouse - Somewhere in witness protection area.
    2.5 X 8 Smoky Lake pans on grimm oil fired arch
    RO - Ecochem with 2 codeline vessels and 2 MES vessels.
    2000-3000 Taps depends on the season.
    Always looking for more sap!

  4. #24
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    Salt Point, NY
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    The sap I collected in freshly cleaned test buckets today was much better looking and smelling, so I put the rest of the buckets out. Of course it didn't get past the mid-50s either which was nice. Probably won't get too much more past Monday night, but it's not a particularly deep freeze here - will be interesting to see how fast they restart.

    I also found that my earliest test drop tubes, up for two weeks of insane heat, had a good bit of mold so I replaced them.

    Will finish some of the new stuff tomorrow and see how it tastes.

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by MillbrookMaple View Post
    Once I have 5-10 gallons I will take all the batches to around the upper 60s and then filter press all of it and bottle.
    One thing to be aware of since you're running quite a few taps - NY does not allow birch syrup to have the same exemptions for processing as maple syrup and honey. This means you have to bottle with an Article 20-C commercial food processing license ($400/2 years) if you're planning to sell any. Would be interesting to know how other states are going to treat birch as I see a lot more people talking about it.

  6. #26
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    Mar 2009
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    Quesnel, British Columbia
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    We always filter our sap right out of the tree into our collecting tanks. When the sap is fine it pours through like water, if you have to wait for it to filter out, the sap has changed. Sometimes if you put a clean spile/tube & bucket that will give you a bit longer for that tree.
    Ted T
    BC, Canada
    Kubota 3400 4x4 Tractor
    planning for 250 Birch Trees
    D & G 2x6 Drop Flue Evaporator
    www.moosemeadowsfarm.ca
    Follow Moose Meadows Farm or Canadian Birch Syrup Producers on Facebook

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by BC Birch Tapper View Post
    We always filter our sap right out of the tree into our collecting tanks. When the sap is fine it pours through like water, if you have to wait for it to filter out, the sap has changed. Sometimes if you put a clean spile/tube & bucket that will give you a bit longer for that tree.
    What kind of filter are you using?

    I have been collecting in a 55 gal drum, and then transferring/filtering it through a 1 micron polypropylene filter and UV chamber before going into the RO processing tank. For now, it's going to be smell and a visual check of each bucket while I collect to see if I think there is any evidence of degradation. I did replace a couple tubes today, but didn't replace the spiles.

    Should have a nice bit more come in until the freeze tomorrow night - then perhaps a couple days break! I just hope there is no more bucket washing until the end of the season - that is a major pain!

  8. #28
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    Margaretville, NY
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    Quote Originally Posted by Snowy Pass Maple View Post
    One thing to be aware of since you're running quite a few taps - NY does not allow birch syrup to have the same exemptions for processing as maple syrup and honey. This means you have to bottle with an Article 20-C commercial food processing license ($400/2 years) if you're planning to sell any. Would be interesting to know how other states are going to treat birch as I see a lot more people talking about it.
    We are currently working on getting a board of health approved commercial kitchen setup and opening a shop for selling products we make along with other farm products. We will have a couple of licences for those operations that the birch should fall under at least one, but I'll make sure just in case. As far as the syrup itself we are not sure what we will do with it yet. We will filter and bottle it at the end of the season and decide if it is something we will sell as syrup or if we will use it as an ingredient in something else we create, Sauces, marinades, baked goods, BBQ sauce.... etc
    Millbrook Maple
    Catskill Mountains
    Saphouse - Somewhere in witness protection area.
    2.5 X 8 Smoky Lake pans on grimm oil fired arch
    RO - Ecochem with 2 codeline vessels and 2 MES vessels.
    2000-3000 Taps depends on the season.
    Always looking for more sap!

  9. #29
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    Mar 2009
    Location
    Quesnel, British Columbia
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    It's a polypropolene pre filter that we use for filtering the syrup not sure of the size 1 micron but sounds about right. You may want to consider tapping different trees as the tap holes may have too much bacteria in them. You could retap the same trees, but we only like to tap the trees 1x/year. Birch trees are short lived compared to maple & more sensitive as well.
    Ted T
    BC, Canada
    Kubota 3400 4x4 Tractor
    planning for 250 Birch Trees
    D & G 2x6 Drop Flue Evaporator
    www.moosemeadowsfarm.ca
    Follow Moose Meadows Farm or Canadian Birch Syrup Producers on Facebook

  10. #30
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    Feb 2012
    Location
    Salt Point, NY
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    Interesting to hear you tap every year - has that been successful for many years for you now? I have seen mixed feedback on frequency of tapping. We are tapping nothing smaller than 10" diameter, only one tap per tree, and we are also using 5/16" spouts - are you using the same? I notice many of the birch producers using 7/16" but there is SO much sap out of a 5/16" I can't see a compelling reason to go larger. I also used alcohol to sterilize the drill bit on each hole.

    I picked up 40 gallons of sap this morning and it looked and smelled really nice - the trees are flowing faster than ever. And finally, a nice crisp 40 degree morning! The only two drop tubes that got mold were the oldest test tree tubes that had been out multiple weeks - I had replaced the tubes on those two and the sap looked and smelled good, but I am going to scrutinize those buckets a little more carefully each day. Hopefully the other tubes all hold up another week or two with cooler temperatures now.

    As ridiculous as it sounds, I was even thinking - with short drop tubes, it would not be all that expensive or difficult to just wrap the tubes and spiles in foil or even a slice of reflective insulation wrapped around them to keep them cooler in the sun. Working in warmer temperatures definitely makes you think a lot more about the contamination issues - I have new respect for bacteria after last week :-)

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