Central Ontario Tapping

[ridgerunner394]

I confess i am surprised at what this week has provided! I did not expect to see much of anything going by the poor performance of last weekend when I was only seeing 2.5gal of sap Sunday and 1.5 gal on Monday.
I did not make the trip to the bush Tuesday as the weather here was no hell and Wed. I was out of town all day.... when I got back I saw the posts here and was very anxious to see what this morning would show.

Well I have 25 taps, 24 of which were full to the brim and overflowing - frozen with icicles hanging off the bottom of the pails as they hung on the trees !! So, after a number of trips up and down the mountain (thanks to the freezing rain and snow overnight) I pulled out over 50 gal of sap - guess i will be boiling again this weekend :{)

[NTBugtraq]

I confess i am surprised at what this week has provided! I did not expect to see much of anything going by the poor performance of last weekend when I was only seeing 2.5gal of sap Sunday and 1.5 gal on Monday.
I did not make the trip to the bush Tuesday as the weather here was no hell and Wed. I was out of town all day.... when I got back I saw the posts here and was very anxious to see what this morning would show.

Well I have 25 taps, 24 of which were full to the brim and overflowing - frozen with icicles hanging off the bottom of the pails as they hung on the trees !! So, after a number of trips up and down the mountain (thanks to the freezing rain and snow overnight) I pulled out over 50 gal of sap - guess i will be boiling again this weekend :{)

I'm glad you got most of it...

[ridgerunner394]

Yes thanks NTBugtraq I hate to see it overflow but somehow that seems better than the alternative - dry pails :{)

[Run Forest Run!]

Whew! All caught up on my sap and syrup. Took all day, but it's done!! Made 6L of syrup today and now I'm hoping that Good Friday is going to live up to its name. As far as the eye can see from up here on the hill everyone else is in a hydro blackout. Saw transformers exploding in the valley as I finished off my last batch on the stove. Caught a lucky break there.

[Ghs57]

Good work Ontario.

I'm done here in NY (Hudson Valley) except for the clean up, but following your progress. I guess I don't want the season to end.

[NTBugtraq]

Just bottled my first batch after cleaning out my pans and tossing 15L of syrup, and I am pleased to say that I now have a beautiful Medium bright orange grade of delicious syrup. Historically, my syrup has always been what I called a "Medium Amber", half-way between Medium and Amber. Now its definitely Medium, and boy does it look so different. I notice no difference in flavor from my historic syrup, just a difference in color.

I have run into another problem...getting the correct Brix. Last year I bought a temperature compensating digital refractometer, and this year I was having so many problems comparing calibrated thermometers with the refractometer that I decided to buy a handheld refractometer to calibrate the digital...

The problem I am having is that if I check any refractometer within 5 minutes (or so) of taking the sample, I get wonky results. After 5 minutes (inside the house), the results more accurately reflect the thermometer's readings.

So here is my question; What do you do during that waiting time (the 5 minutes I'm referring to)...do you keep boiling, stop boiling, what?? My syrup is in my finishing pan at the point I am trying to determine brix, so I can turn down the propane and more or less maintain a temperature. Today, I took a sample at +10F over boiling point and by the time the sample gave me an accurate reading the pan was at +11F. I ended up bottling at 69.3 Brix...not desirable.

Alternatively, does anyone know how much water (or sap) I could add to how much syrup to lower it by 1 Brix?

[NTBugtraq]

My sap started running again today at noon, hasn't run for 2 days.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

There is a chart is available for download at the attached link showing how much water/ sap to add to syrup that is too thick. It is in the hydrometer compensation document. http://www.omspa.ca/resources/downloads/#

[Galena]

There is a chart is available for download at the attached link showing how much water/ sap to add to syrup that is too thick. It is in the hydrometer compensation document. http://www.omspa.ca/resources/downloads/#

Thanks for the info! Sadly I can't download it, as I'm running Windows 7 and you need Windows 8 :-/

[NTBugtraq]

There is a chart is available for download at the attached link showing how much water/ sap to add to syrup that is too thick. It is in the hydrometer compensation document. http://www.omspa.ca/resources/downloads/#

Thanks for that, its really appreciated.