Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[spud]

Ran great all yesterday and all last night. Got 2.2 GPT at 2.1% in the last 24 hours. Slowing down now but should run all today and into tomorrow morning. I feel I'm at 1/3 season right now.

Spud

[tcross]

I got a little over 2 gpt yesterday and last night. looking like it'll run all day today and a good freeze for 5 days or so, which I'm fine with... it'll help me catch up on bottling and cleaning up! the syrup is tasting very buttery so far this year for one reason or another?

[Beyondsuspension]

I let the pump run all night and brought in another 140 gallons of sap, not bad for me. Yesterday's sugar content hit 2.4% best yet this season.

[rhwells2003]

What a good couple days. in the last 48 hours I figured we picked up 3.5gal/tap. We figure we're right around 1/2 a normal crop, and just breaking into march!

[GeneralStark]

Yesterday afternoon I boiled everything that came in since the last boil on Tuesday, about 1300 gal. or so. Also boiled out the flue pan so I can clean it today. Made about 25 gal. AR. Great tasting syrup. Grade dropped with the warmer weather on Wednesday but not by too much. Up to about 135 gal. for the season so far. Looks like next week should be pretty good...

[DrTimPerkins]

Busy week. Made about 200 gal on Wed and another 200 on Thurs before things really shut down with the cold. That puts us at 923 gal so far on 4,900 taps, or 0.19 gal/tap so far, which is about 37.6% of the way to our minimum 0.5 gal/tap goal. Still have some vacuum issues to deal with, but have been too busy setting up and learning the new RO and evaporator to spend much time in the woods. Sugar content has been OK so far, running 2.1-2.4 Brix. Don't much care for the really cold weather, but is sure is nice to actually have a weekend off.

[MJPJ Sugars]

Last year during the crazy run at the end of March, we ended-up with about 150 gallons of sap from our 25 buckets, and set-out to boil it all on our 80's half-pint (2x4). The wife and my 10-year old took the graveyard shift that night, and wore it like a badge of honor! After about 37 hours straight we had our couple gallons of syrup. Welp, the dynamic duo decided they wanted to pull another all-nighter, so yesterday we fired-up Old Smokey at about 3:00PM and started our 80 gallons we had collected this week. At 4:00AM I was awakened by a panicked spouse; she burnt the sap -- toasted the pan. As a complete novice, I'm guessing, trying to piece together what happened so we don't repeat the same, but I can imagine a combination of too much heat with not enough sap in the pan caused the "sludge?" I didn't think we could get too much heat in this old barrel arch (no blower -- most of the heat goes up the chimney on this old rig), but I appear to be mistaken. Pan has some nice scorches! Must be a 16th-inch thick in spots... my elbows are sore just thinking about the needed grease. Appreciate any tips! Thanks!!!


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[madmapler]

the syrup is tasting very buttery so far this year for one reason or another?

I have noticed a butterscotch like flavor this year as well. Definitely different.

[to100]

I did same on my first run, I scrubbed with 'bar keepers friend' and got the easy scourch off . I then I added more sap and boiled and most came off in flakes and filtered out. End up between Fancy and Amber taste good.

[woodfordmark]

"bar keepers friend"?...explain