Hop Kiln Road 2016

[Hop Kiln Road]

Had visitors taste three of my syrups over the weekend. A March 3rd 59% Amber Rich, which had an excellent pure maple favor. A March 12th 39% Dark Robust, a point on the heavy side, so noticeably smoother on the tongue and a very pronounced favor but not all maple. And a March 18th production of fermented/metabolized sap, 2 points thin and unfiltered, which had, at best, a very bitter chocolate taste that wouldn't leave your mouth. Quite a blow to your tongue. Not a hint of maple favor that I could detect.

The tasters all came from Bow south to Boston, with one group from NJ.

The results and comments were astounding! Basically, the votes were even among the three samples.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Just over 1.5 gpt yesterday with two of the six orchards dry. 1.7% sugar. Looks like another gpt overnight, maybe a little more. Cleaned the syrup pan and pushed all the crap through and it only went down to 27%. Taste dramatically improved after filtering. Suspect the grade will climb a little. Going to be 20+% above average volumes. But all due to the 3/16ths sections.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Got a little bit yesterday. Good sap, but I don't think much more is on the calendar. Going to start pulling the warm taps and see if I can nurse a couple gallons to raw boil over the weekend and chase the sugar out of the pans. Nice above average season of good quality syrup.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Got .5gpt of 1.8% last night. Either its good sap or no sap which is better than the funky stuff last week. 29F this morning so it might drip right through the weekend.

[Russell Lampron]

I've got 27* here this morning when it wasn't supposed to freeze last night. It was supposed to gradually warm up overnight so I left the vacuum pump on. Looks like I probably just wasted some electricity.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Boiling today and tomorrow. Mostly off the 3/16ths. Foam pretty hard to control.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm boiling too. Not sure if I'm going to run out of wood or sap first. Ended up with over 1000 gallons for today's boil.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Amazing what a little chill can do. Grade and taste jump back up and made 5 gal of amber rich. Scarcely believe the Hanna Checker. Had a dozen visitors. Think I might just get a wee bit more today.

[Russell Lampron]

I was hoping that the freezes that I have been getting here would bring the sugar back up but I was at 80 to 1 yesterday.

[Hop Kiln Road]

This year I tapped my oldest and my newest orchards with 3/16ths and .225 starlines ($.17 ea). Both produced over 21 gpt and are still going, while even the buckets have stopped. No pumps, no releasers, limited mainlines, so less than $10/tap to install. However, all the 5/16ths systems, which are 4 to 8 years old and all with original 5/16th spouts and drops, produced 25% gpt above their averages. Sugar content matched the length of time an orchard had been thinned and fertilized, with the newest orchard (with the best site and trees) 35% below the oldest orchard.