Tapping in Douglas

[Run Forest Run!]

Maple Douglas, once you get a rolling boil on your turkey fryer you'll need one hour of time per square foot of surface area of your pot. That should help you figure out how long it's going to take to boil your 7 gallons. Enjoy the day!

[Maple Douglas]

Thanks Karen, good to know.

Looks like I might have to wait to boil during the week, today's plan of boiling is not happening. My buckets of sap are mostly frozen.

[Maplesedge]

it's been a while since I used a turkey fryer, but I think I was boiling off 2 gal/hr. preheated the sap on the stove so I could dump more in without breaking the boil. Had to be careful with small amounts, 10 gal of sap will only yield about a quart of syrup, so when it gets low, maybe a gallon, take it off an finish it on the stove. are you using the candy thermometer method? roughly 219 degrees? Tractor supply has syrup filters.

[Run Forest Run!]

Thanks Karen, good to know.

Looks like I might have to wait to boil during the week, today's plan of boiling is not happening. My buckets of sap are mostly frozen.

Oooo, that's perfect Maple Douglas! I love to see ice in the buckets! Using the search function on this site, check out the many threads on here about dumping ice. If you are careful about not throwing out the hard ice blocks and only dispose of the slushy ones you can greatly decrease the necessary boiling time by increasing the sugar content of your remaining sap. For us real small-timers, ice is a god-send.

If you decide to continue on with propane burners, look into using a rectangular steam tray instead of a round pot to increase your surface area. You could easily double your evaporation rate using the same amount of propane.

[Maple Douglas]

I purchased a spile brush, filters, thermometer, funnel and a scoop from Tractor Supply.

Do I need a hydrometer? The reviews on the tractor supply one were not that great. Tractor supply had a few of those when I was last there also. All of this stuff adds up quite quickly.

No slush Karen, rock solid sap ice. Where do you find rectangular steam trays to fit inside the propane stand? My plan is to use the circular pot the fryer came with.

[eustis22]

you definitely need a syrup hydrometer. A sap hydrometer would help telling how much sugar you have but the syrup one is a Must Have. It is simply the most reliable to tell when you are at syrup.

[Maplesedge]

A syrup hydrometer is great to have, but in his case won't do him much good yet as he's doing really small batches. Tapping reds and silvers, boiling 10 gallons of sap down in a turkey fryer will yield less syrup than if he tapped sugars, so will end up with less than a quart. That's a pretty small pan to finish on the kitchen stove and you'd have to pour it almost all off into the hydrometer cup to check it. So, thermometer will suffice, especially for home use. You can play with your syrup density that way too, see if you like it thicker or thinner. It won't last long feeding kids pancakes.

[eustis22]

it's his first time. you think by next year he;'s not gonna wanna do bigger and more?

[harrison6jd]

if tractor supply doesn't have what you nee, Leeway true value hardware in north Smithfield has few supplies.

I purchased a spile brush, filters, thermometer, funnel and a scoop from Tractor Supply.

Do I need a hydrometer? The reviews on the tractor supply one were not that great. Tractor supply had a few of those when I was last there also. All of this stuff adds up quite quickly.

No slush Karen, rock solid sap ice. Where do you find rectangular steam trays to fit inside the propane stand? My plan is to use the circular pot the fryer came with.

[Maplesedge]

it's his first time. you think by next year he;'s not gonna wanna do bigger and more?

I imagine he will. Once you get into making your own syrup it's only natural to want to make a little more. Next year, he'll have a bigger pan and a hydrometer. But what he really needs is to find some sugars, maybe in family or friends yards, who'll let him tap. Then he'll be off and running. Starting small is good. Learn the gist of it all.

My very first tap was in a neighbor's Norway, just a milk jug. Boiled the first gallon I got on the stove, all excited, until it was a tiny blob that went from syrup to a kind of taffy in the wink of an eye. We ate it anyway. It was fun.