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Thread: Collection & boiling schedule

  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by Swingpure View Post
    So if you had the option to either collect the sap in the morning or late afternoon, which is best?
    As with most things, it depends. For example with buckets: If there's a little ice in the morning, it's great to toss it before collecting (fractional crystallization AKA nature's RO). But if there's a lot of ice, it's better to let some of it melt off during the day, rather than needing to put bucket-sized ice cubes onto your evaporator! And with lines, I imagine they'd freeze up at night, and then you'd get a lot more in the afternoon after they thaw.

    Some of this stuff you just need to learn by doing.

    GO
    2016: Homemade arch from old wood stove; 2 steam tray pans; 6 taps; 1.1 gal
    2017: Same setup. 15 taps; 4.5 gal
    2018: Same setup. Limited time. 12 taps and short season; 2.2 gal
    2019: Very limited time. 7 taps and a short season; 1.8 gals
    2020: New Mason 2x3 XL halfway through season; 9 taps 2 gals
    2021: Same 2x3, 18 taps, 4.5 gals
    2022: 23 taps, 5.9 gals
    2023: 23 taps. Added AUF, 13.2 gals
    2024: 17 taps
    All on buckets

  2. #32
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    There's no such thing as a schedule during maple season - you're a slave to the trees. Make a plan and then expect the plan to go off the rails quickly! You can have near perfect conditions and take time off from your day job to boil - and end up with next to nothing in the tanks and running the chainsaw all day to kill time. A week later the overnight forecast says it will be a couple degrees above freezing overnight and when you get up in the morning the tanks are running over! Any time you have enough to justify firing up you should be boiling, especially when it gets later in the season and the sap can spoil. The day you fall behind will almost certainly mean tomorrow is the best run of the year and it takes 2 extra days to get back on top of it.
    4,600 Taps on vacuum
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  3. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by ennismaple View Post
    There's no such thing as a schedule during maple season - you're a slave to the trees. Make a plan and then expect the plan to go off the rails quickly! You can have near perfect conditions and take time off from your day job to boil - and end up with next to nothing in the tanks and running the chainsaw all day to kill time. A week later the overnight forecast says it will be a couple degrees above freezing overnight and when you get up in the morning the tanks are running over! Any time you have enough to justify firing up you should be boiling, especially when it gets later in the season and the sap can spoil. The day you fall behind will almost certainly mean tomorrow is the best run of the year and it takes 2 extra days to get back on top of it.
    This is spot on. Here is the formula sap+available time = boil. Sap never improves, it starts a downhill journey the second it comes out of the tap. the sooner it's processed the better
    125-150 taps
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  4. #34
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    Thanks everyone for the tips.

    Quote Originally Posted by buckeye gold View Post
    This is spot on. Here is the formula sap+available time = boil. Sap never improves, it starts a downhill journey the second it comes out of the tap. the sooner it's processed the better
    I 100% get this. It always makes me wonder what the weekend hobbyists do. Their sap is 5 days old when they get back up. Perhaps they only collect in the early part of the season where it is still quite cold. I will be on it everyday, so as long as there is enough to boil to make sense starting up the evaporator, I will be on it, barring having to clean up from a major snow storm. We get lots of snow here, so my hope is any sap collected over night will be in pails in snowbanks, where the snow is up to a inch or so of the lids.

    As it will be just me most of the time, I think I will designate the first hour of the day to collecting sap, unless I find that the freezing temperatures are a barrier to easy sap removal. Then I could focus solely on boiling and finishing. I would also collect at night if there is time after boiling and finishing.


    Quote Originally Posted by berkshires View Post
    As with most things, it depends. For example with buckets: If there's a little ice in the morning, it's great to toss it before collecting (fractional crystallization AKA nature's RO). But if there's a lot of ice, it's better to let some of it melt off during the day, rather than needing to put bucket-sized ice cubes onto your evaporator!

    GO
    I have watched a few you tube videos where they have grabbed the ice, pulled it out, and tossed it aside, stating that it is all water and like you say, sort of acts like nature’s RO. In the videos usually there is some ice on the sides and a little on the top. Is it when the ice starts to get thick that you do not want to toss it away, because it could contain some sap?

    I understand I will learn when I start doing things and will discover for myself the best routine and also how to adapt when plans change.

    Headed up today to get two more barrels, another 55 gallon one and one 16 gallon one. I will also get the last of the Mason jars I will need. I have a collection of all sorts of different bottles and caps, mostly new. I will also get another stock pot to hold finished syrup, that I will taste the next day to see if it can join with the previous days syrup.

  5. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by Swingpure View Post
    I have watched a few you tube videos where they have grabbed the ice, pulled it out, and tossed it aside, stating that it is all water and like you say, sort of acts like nature’s RO. In the videos usually there is some ice on the sides and a little on the top. Is it when the ice starts to get thick that you do not want to toss it away, because it could contain some sap?
    If you mean - could the thicker ice contain sugar, then yes, that's the general idea. Think about it this way: if there is a tiny skim of ice it is basically pure water, however if the whole bucket freezes, it contains all the sugar. Between the two is a gradient, the harder the bucket freezes, the higher the percent sugar in the frozen part. Complicating matters somewhat is the fact that each additional freeze-thaw cycle makes any given volume of ice more like pure water. I have seen the case when almost all the bucket was ice, and it warmed and chilled for several days, and what is in the bottom of the bucket is so sweet it tastes like it's halfway to syrup.

    But basically dumping a little ice means saving boiling time with basically zero loss in syrup, but dumping ice when it is half the volume in your bucket, you are starting to sacrifice more final syrup.

    Gabe
    2016: Homemade arch from old wood stove; 2 steam tray pans; 6 taps; 1.1 gal
    2017: Same setup. 15 taps; 4.5 gal
    2018: Same setup. Limited time. 12 taps and short season; 2.2 gal
    2019: Very limited time. 7 taps and a short season; 1.8 gals
    2020: New Mason 2x3 XL halfway through season; 9 taps 2 gals
    2021: Same 2x3, 18 taps, 4.5 gals
    2022: 23 taps, 5.9 gals
    2023: 23 taps. Added AUF, 13.2 gals
    2024: 17 taps
    All on buckets

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