Western New York

[Urban Sugarmaker]

169 taps in and all gravity. Only about 110 gallons of 1.5-1.7% sugar. Vacuum and/or 3/16 is in my future. I'm going to fire up tomorrow morning and boil it.

[Dinorocks]

I tapped 60 trees on 2/13/18...traditional buckets/taps. Bucket bottoms were barely covered on 2/14/18...didn’t collect. Collected late this afternoon (2/15/18) and yielded 53 gallons of sap. I have 2 55-gallon food-grade barrels to fill. I’m planning to boil Saturday...hope to have enough sap (including what I collect during the boil) to get 3 gallons of syrup. I’ll report back later.

Good luck!
Dino

Ps...this is my third year....evolved from milk jugs and miscellaneous pots, boiling in the woods, to 60 traditional buckets and taps with a 2x4 ft stailess steel pan and firebrick lined fire pit. Most of my sugar maples are tapped so now it’s just trying to be more efficient! Learning lots from this site...thanks!

No sap yesterday (2/16/18) and with the temps in the teens last night and a high of 34 today, may need to push my first boil off to Monday at the earliest.

[backyardsugarer]

480 gallons of sap, thanks to vacuum. Gravity did very little on Friday. Froze solid all day Saturday. Should get a morderate run Sunday and slam on Monday. 11 gallons of ultra light syrup.

Urban, not telling you what to do but there is no substitute for vacuum. 3/16" will never give you near the results of vac in my opinion.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Urban, not telling you what to do but there is no substitute for vacuum. 3/16" will never give you near the results of vac in my opinion.

Funny you mention that because I was having that discussion yesterday. The mechanical vac seems like it would provide more sap because it's on as soon as sap starts to flow and remains on. I know 3/16" works but I question whether it yields the same as mechanical vac.

[wnybassman]

The mechanical vac seems like it would provide more sap because it's on as soon as sap starts to flow and remains on.

Well yes and no. Enough sap freezes in the lines so when things thaw and it starts to flow, vacuum occurs very quickly. You can almost stand there and watch it rise. Yesterday was pretty much the end of the run and I noticed vac was still holding at 25" or better and very little was drizzling out the end. Seems like without sap flowing out of the tree the sap just kinda hangs in the line somewhat holding that vac until it freezes. When it freezes it drops right to 0 quickly. Without a doubt mechanical vacuum produces more though, but at a greater expense.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Well yes and no. Enough sap freezes in the lines so when things thaw and it starts to flow, vacuum occurs very quickly. You can almost stand there and watch it rise. Yesterday was pretty much the end of the run and I noticed vac was still holding at 25" or better and very little was drizzling out the end. Seems like without sap flowing out of the tree the sap just kinda hangs in the line somewhat holding that vac until it freezes. When it freezes it drops right to 0 quickly. Without a doubt mechanical vacuum produces more though, but at a greater expense.

Yeah I would have it but where I can use it the most the landowner is not hot on it. Where I'm at is perfect for a lunchbox releaser setup. Nearly double my sap for under $300.

[SugarHi]

Got in thirty taps yesterday an today. Almost ready!!

[East Elders]

This is our first year. 20 taps/buckets in with 10 to go on box elders because that's all we have around our place. We've only had about 4 gallons of sap but it should pick up soon.

[Richmaple1]

My first year, boiled down 10.5 gallons, got about 2.5 cups of VERY light colored syrup that tastes so interesting! Never had ultra light syrup like that. The percentage was 1.5%.

Does the Sugar percentage usually increase as the season progresses?

It took me 10 hours for 10 gallons on my 2 pan homemade CMU evaporator. Does that sound standard to you guys?

Seems like it will be a really great week, but worried about spoiling.
If I get several gallons by wednesday, will it keep til Saturday for boiling?

[Marlin]

Does the Sugar percentage usually increase as the season progresses?

My sugar content seems to go up and down from run to run, but I've found that my early runs usually have lower sugar content than mid-season. Then it drops off towards the end of the season.

It took me 10 hours for 10 gallons on my 2 pan homemade CMU evaporator. Does that sound standard to you guys?

Does that use the hotel (or steam table) pans? With a single hotel-pan, you can supposedly can boil off 2 gal per hour if everything is optimal. I think that the water boils off more slowly as the sugar gets more concentrated, but I could be wrong about that. (But it's certainly true of my reverse osmosis system, which runs really fast at first and steadily slows down until I give up and boil it.)

Seems like it will be a really great week, but worried about spoiling.
If I get several gallons by wednesday, will it keep til Saturday for boiling?

Forecast predicts it will get really warm -- I would try to chill it if possible. Do you have any snow left? I've been hoarding snow for a month or two by shoveling the snow on my deck into a big pile and covering it with a tarp. Burying the jugs in snow helps both ways -- keeps it from freezing when cold and keeps it cool during warm spells. I've been known to wheelbarrow snow from the piles by the road and driveway when things get desperate, but it's really dirty snow.