Confused

[GeneralStark]

Last week I had 80 gallons of sap and only ended up with a gallon of syrup.

That's actually not that unreasonable if you are having low sugar content in the sap this year like may of us. I had one boil where I made 10 gal. from 1000 gal of sap...

[doocat]

Is that 80 gallons of “raw” sap? If your at 1% sugar a gallon is right. You always loose a little through each process, ro, boil, etc.

[ken49663]

Water reads zero, fist pass through RO is at 4%. I will measure exactly how much 8% sap I end up with. Thanks guys, I appreciate all of your help!!

[30AcreWoods]

Check your initial - pre RO sugar content. Like General Stark said, we are all having low sugar years. But, I've gotten more sap than previous years, so I'm going to net out making more syrup this year. Really happy to have an RO!

[ken49663]

Thanks 30acre, I'm at 2% so I'm doing pretty good for woods maples.

[Jeff E]

If all other elements are ok (measuring correctly both sugar and volume) then your losing syrup somewhere. Might you have a crack in the evaporator that is leaking into the fire box?

[carls47807]

Are you starting with 68 gallons of sap, going to a final volume of 17 gallons after the RO, and making exactly 1 gallon of syrup?

When concentrating to 8%, small errors in measurements make a big difference in your calculations. Even leaving the RO full after concentrating (instead of running it dry) can
waste a pint of syrup.


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[ken49663]

Are you starting with 68 gallons of sap, going to a final volume of 17 gallons after the RO, and making exactly 1 gallon of syrup?

When concentrating to 8%, small errors in measurements make a big difference in your calculations. Even leaving the RO full after concentrating (instead of running it dry) can
waste a pint of syrup.


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That is correct, It was actually about 132 ounces. I'm trying again today and being very careful on knowing exactly how much sap I'm boiling.

[Sugarmaker]

My rough numbers, no magic here: 8% into 86 =10.75 gallons of concentrate to make a gallon of syrup. Are you getting good sugar percentage numbers? Your checking instruments calibrated?? I have seen things like short stem sap hydrometers that are hard to read.
17 gallons into 86 would mean you had more like 5% concentrate? Maybe?? Also your syrup density check at finished syrup? At 219 you may be a little heavy? Water boils here at 210 ish so syrup comes around 217.
Just some ideas from a old man.
Regards,
Chris

[DrTimPerkins]

What are you using to measure sap density? Does the instrument have ATC or are you measuring and correcting for temperature (and if so, how)? Are you calibrating the instrument?

How are you measuring concentrate density? ATC or correcting for temp? How?

Are you measuring permeate sugar? How?

How are you measuring syrup density? Correcting for temperature?

How are you measuring volumes for sap, concentrate and syrup?

What are your neighbors who make syrup saying about sap sugar this year?