Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[GeneralStark]

Boiled about 2400 gal. of 1.4 sap yesterday and made about 30 gal of DR. Had to boil with a bit deeper level in the syrup pans than usual due to all the niter but made it through without any scorching issues. Syrup is definitely filtering harder which is no surprise with all the yeast. Cleaned out the tank and the over 1 gpt that came in since yesterday am is looking clear.

No freeze here overnight but flow did slow way down. The 8" of snow that fell several days ago and the colder temps really seem to have temporarily reset things but the signs of spring are really showing up. The snow is all gone, daffodils are coming up, birds are showing up and the red maple buds are looking a bit swollen. Another freeze tonight should help.

I still have enough wood for several more boils so I'll keep going until it doesn't make sense any longer. We lost all our day care but fortunately my other job is flexible and I can work from home and my wife can work from home with a flexible schedule.

I hope you get another 2-3 weeks Spud.

[DrTimPerkins]

Nice run since yesterday afternoon. 10,233 gal sap from 5,100 taps. Averaging 1.75 Brix (1.8 in the Main Bush and 1.7 in the other). Another 425 gal of 35 Brix concentrate in the bulk tank. When boiled that'll put us at 0.498 gal syrup/tap for the season. Still got a few thousand more gal to run through the RO tomorrow, so that'll get us over the 0.5 gal/tap hump very easily. Sap should run until about 10-11pm tonite, then freeze up a bit, which should set us up for a big run over the weekend. About 25,000 gal more sap would get us to our next goal...our average season (0.59 gal/tap). That's still possible, but no solid freezes in the forecast through next Friday (except tonite), and not much snow in the woods https://phenocam.sr.unh.edu/data/latest/proctor.jpg so we shall see. The rain on Sun-Mon will keep things cool somewhat. Season still has some good potential.

Update: And just in the time it took to write this they changed to forecast to a few degrees colder, so it now appears that it might drop into the upper 20s next Thurs and Friday. That would be very nice.

[palmer4th]

have there been many blind taste tests with syrup made from such high %'s?

[DrTimPerkins]

have there been many blind taste tests with syrup made from such high %'s?

Research paper can be found at: https://mapleresearch.org/pub/m1217highbrix/

Matches what we've found previously with concentration up to 25 Brix.

My personal opinion...tastes great. Had some we made last year on my pancakes for breakfast today. Told my wife I thought it was some of the best syrup we'd made. It is definitely light (we don't typically make much dark syrup), but that is from a combination of things...including high RO concentration. If we wanted it darker we could simply run it really deep in the evaporator.

[VTfarmboy]

boiled out today as i am out off dry wood, full crop here .25 gpt (gravity 3/16) ave this year was 33:1. made the best tasting very dark we have ever made. Good luck to all those still going, the frogs are singing tonight!

[VTfarmboy]

i meant 43:1

[Mead Maple]

Im pulling an all nighter. Sap test at 1.8-1.9%. Couldnt believe it came back up that much. Plan to boil right through the night and ill keep myself busy and awake reading about everyones ROs....

Seem to be making dark currently


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[spud]

I hope your night went well for you Mead. Looks like I got 1700 in the tank this morning. We had a power blip last night so I checked on the pump at 3 am. Everything was running as it should. Sap should start running at about 9:30-10 this morning. Monday night will be our next freeze. We all should get a bunch of sap this weekend.

Spud

[Mead Maple]

Kids let me get a 3 hour nap before they let me know how late I slept in haha. Went well, cooled off quickly last night. Made about 7 gallons of what looks like dark robust. Everyone enjoy the weekend!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TapTapTap]

No hired help around with the virus stuff. My wife and i did it all by ourselves and learned a few lessons. We lost some potential production but didn't break anything! Lots of niter and heavy filter loads. Dark Robust for sure. Looking forward to the next boil so we can start to dial it in.