Smoky Lake Water Jacketed Bottler for us here in Bedford.
Smoky Lake Water Jacketed Bottler for us here in Bedford.
2016-2018, 50 taps on hobby vacuum, boiling outdoors on the Mason 2x3.
49 taps 2015, mix of hobby vacuum and gravity, boiling outdoors on the Mason 2x3.
42+4 taps 2014, still on a WF Mason 2x3 Hobby Evaporator
43 taps 2013 on a WF Mason 2x3 Hobby Evaporator
10 taps 2012
Follow along on our sugaring adventures at our website:
http://littlecreekmaplefarm.com
2022 4x40" RO, Welch 1397 Vac Pump, 3 Guzzler Pumps, Lapierre Releaser, 1100 taps
2021 Twin Baby Boys, Close to 650 taps
2020 Upgraded RO to 2 post and 7GBS Pump. 265 taps
2019 Smoky Lake 2x6 raised flue, Autodraw system, Maple Jet Filter Press, a beautiful new bride to be my sugaring partner :-)
2017 Expanded Sugar Shack, new 2x6 with float box, NEXTgen Maple RO, 250+ taps, still on sap sacks
2016 Sugar Shack, 2x6 evaporator, 160 taps, all on Sap Sacks
2014 110 taps
2013 35 taps
John Allin
14x18 Hemlock Timber Frame Sugar House 2009
Leader 2x6 w/Patriot Raised Flue Pan 2009
Leader Steam Hood 2014 - Clear Filter Press 2015
Leader Revolution Pan and SS Pre-Heater 2016
CDL Hobby RO & Air Tech L25 Hi Vac Pump 2019
06' Gator HPX to collect wood & sap
14' Ski-Doo Tundra for winter work in the woods
Great Family 3 grown kids+spouses and 7 grand kids who like the woods
7th Gen Born in Canada - Raised in Chardon Ohio - Maple Capital of the World..<grin>.
Yep that's the beast! I've got a set of Algier pans on it. A 2x4 raised flue pan and 2x2 syrup pan. I built a bubbler for both pans and it has a steam hood and pre-heater on the flue pan.
Some action photos.
IMG_20180221_194645788[1].jpgIMG_20180301_191014383[1].jpgIMG_20180220_185334704[1].jpg
Russ
"Red Roof Maples" Where the term "boiling soda" was first introduced to the maple world!
1930 Ford Model AA Doodlebug tractor
A couple of Honda 4 wheelers
Four chainsaws and no chickens!
We added a Wes Fab short bank filter press to replace the flat filters we had used for 15 years. Took a night or 2 to dial in but she is up and running. Very happy with the addition
Leader 3x8 Patriot raised flue
800 taps on vacuum
100 buckets around the yard
A lot of help to make it fun
Well, we are just getting started for our first year. We have 3 trees tapped at our house(silver maples) and 3 trees up to our camp property(sugar). Seven taps total. Last weekend we built a block arch and I ordered a pan from Silver Creek Maple Equipment. The pan is 18x34. Looking forward to boiling some sap this weekend. The camp property will hopefully become our permanent residence(still trying to convince the wife), where we will build a small Sugar House. The land will work out nice as there is a steep down hill run to the proposed shack site. Potential for a large number of taps on this property.
Looks good Russ! We got our AOF all installed and dialed in. Works great. Getting an average of 60gph with no ROEvaporator.jpg
Last edited by whity; 03-06-2018 at 01:56 PM.
Steve
2017
2x8 Mason drop tube evaporator
420 Taps
3 surflo pumps on 5/16
79 gallons of syrup made
2016
New kitchen addition to sap house
400 taps
52 gallons syrup made
We started on a retrofit of our sugarhouse late last summer. We weren't able to finish up due to a new grant we received that required us to drop everything and get it set up for the fall/winter/spring seasons.
Changes so far include:
Two 3,000 gal Lapierre sap tanks (previous 3,000 gal H2O tank moved to secondary permeate storage)
1,500 gal Lapierre primary RO permeate tank
1,200 gal Lapierre HOT permeate tank
(the hot permeate tank sits on a custom-welded steel support frame above the secondary permeate tank)
Customized 60 gal Lapierre Barrel Filler to allow for temporary syrup storage/heating
2 x 60 gal Lapierre Drawoff Tank for Pan Sweet Storage during pan cleaning
90 gal Lapierre RO Wash Tank for hot water storage.
6th post for Lapierre HyperBrix RO
Inline Refractometer for RO
H2O Pan Wash Tank/Pump
Hydra Releaser (for testing)
Two D&G 10" Extended Filter Presses with Diaphragm Pumps/Support Stands
Two SS 10' Grizzly Storage Benches
SS 12' Grizzly Workbench
Double Sink
650 gal refrigerated bulk tank (concentrate storage)
Motorized ball valves on concentrate tank and primary permeate tank
Hot and cold permeate distribution plumbing with pumps
Washable walls (about 1/3 done)
Expanded upstairs catwalk area with metal grating floor
40 gal Lapierre jacketed canning unit
1142 Busch Vacuum Pump (Lapierre) with VFD and auto-start stop (normally we don't use temperature based start/stop, but this pump is for a research project running from Oct-Apr, so it needn't be on during the extreme winter months)
The goal is to optimize the throughput, efficiency and appearance of our operation. Everything is workable right now, but some tweaking to do after the season is over.
When that is finished (next summer) we move on to Phase II (summer/fall 2019), a new sugarbush installation (about 1,200 taps), storage/pump facility, and capacity to pump sap from this site, and the shed across the road, directly to the sugarhouse. Currently we truck sap about 1/3 mile up from one shed, and we want to eliminate that. When all is finished, we'll have ~6,000 taps (we had ~1,400 prior to 2004), and all sap will be pumped directly to the sugarhouse.
When all is done, we will likely have some surplus equipment to sell (tanks, filter press, pump).
Last edited by DrTimPerkins; 03-06-2018 at 02:52 PM.
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
Wow! 21 line items....that's very impressive and will likely help the rest of us.
But I still want one of those Mason 2X6's that will boil off 65 gph! Russ fill us in on the details.
John Allin
14x18 Hemlock Timber Frame Sugar House 2009
Leader 2x6 w/Patriot Raised Flue Pan 2009
Leader Steam Hood 2014 - Clear Filter Press 2015
Leader Revolution Pan and SS Pre-Heater 2016
CDL Hobby RO & Air Tech L25 Hi Vac Pump 2019
06' Gator HPX to collect wood & sap
14' Ski-Doo Tundra for winter work in the woods
Great Family 3 grown kids+spouses and 7 grand kids who like the woods
7th Gen Born in Canada - Raised in Chardon Ohio - Maple Capital of the World..<grin>.
It's not a true AUF/AOF arch because the AOF is only blown through the front and not from the sides too. I also only has one blower for both, not a low pressure blower for AUF and high pressure blower for AOF. The pre heater and bubbler help with the evaporation rate too. Boiling 14% concentrate helps too. I don't remember the formula but I think that it went something like this. Discount the first and last hour for heat up and cool down and subtract the amount of syrup that you draw off in an hour. That formula doesn't work for me so I have to estimate. The longest that I have boiled this season has been 2 hours and 20 minutes. I had 1,100 gallons to start with for that boil. I figure the amount of concentrate that I start with and divide it by how many hours that I boiled from start to finish minus the gallons of syrup. Last night I started with 700 gallons of sap, concentrated that down to 105 gallons of concentrate, made 10 gallons of syrup and boiled for 1.5 hours. That included start up and shut down. The sap wasn't very sweet to start with either.
Russ
"Red Roof Maples" Where the term "boiling soda" was first introduced to the maple world!
1930 Ford Model AA Doodlebug tractor
A couple of Honda 4 wheelers
Four chainsaws and no chickens!