My plan

[Sugar Bear]

The “pail” was just going to be a 5 gallon plastic food grade pail with a lid on it. I do have one 16 qt stainless steel pot that I was going to use for some supplemental boiling and finishing. I guess getting a second one would be a better vessel to store it in and when it got full, I know it would be time to finish it. Fridge space is always an issue, but I do have a second fridge in the bunkie (sleeping cabin) that I likely could use.

Thanks

Hot syrup deserves as much respect as possible. Stainless steel carries more respect then plastic. Besides your not going to finish it in the plastic, at least I hope not.

[berkshires]

The logistics of collecting sap, boiling, finishing and bottling does have me thinking about how I am going to manage it, especially when the sap is really running.

Assuming i get about 10.5 US gallons of sap per tree in a season, as an average, and each time I boil, I have 64 US gallons of sap available, I will have 6 boil days for the 36 taps. (assuming boiling 8 gallons an hour for 8 hours)

Keep in mind I have never tapped a tree or boiled an ounce of sap before, so all of my planning could be bunk. I do see now that I should finish and bottle on the same day, although it will be done in two different pots.

I do have an ace in the hole for sap storage. I plow all of the snow in my parking areas into a gulley, that snow hangs around for several weeks after the other snow is gone and it is close to the evaporator. It can be used as my outdoor refrigerator.

Lots to learn.

One question, what would a typical minimum amount of sap to boil?

The problem with all this is that while the above is generally true over the course of a season, the trees don't clock in and clock out like you and I do. They're more manic-depressive in their output. I looked over my stats for the last six years, and every single year, I've had two runs that produced half or more of the sap for the season. Last year on March 23 I collected and boiled 72 gallons from 18 taps. That's 4 gallons per tap. That is not unusual for the best run of the season.

Peak load, not average over the season, is what you should be thinking about in terms of your time commitments and storage commitments.

Regarding minimum sap to boil - I'd say that depends on your GPH, and a lot of other factors. I don't like to fire up the evaporator for less than a two hour boil. But then I have to drive two hours to get to my sugarbush, and I only boil on weekends, so YMMV. Others may like to do short boils every day to keep the sap fresh.

You'll need to figure out what works for you.

Gabe

[Swingpure]

Personally speaking, I like to finish and bottle every batch, or at most every two batches. Otherwise all your syrup is going to be a blend. Which may be fine with you, but I like the variety I get from different batches.

I plan on boiling fairly frequently. I can go at it 7 days a week, so i will not have sap that is more than likely two and at most three days old. Would mixing batches from two or three consecutive days be a bad thing?

Right now I have 36 taps and could be up to 45 or 50 taps in the next couple of weeks.

[Sugar Bear]

I plan on boiling fairly frequently. I can go at it 7 days a week, so i will not have sap that is more than likely two and at most three days old. Would mixing batches from two or three consecutive days be a bad thing?

Right now I have 36 taps and could be up to 45 or 50 taps in the next couple of weeks.

I usually mix together anything in the same run. Meaning after the sap stops running from freeze up or too warm and then starts running again at some point, I won't mix that syrup with the previous run. It is frequently a different grade from the previous run. The later in the season you get the more pronounced that difference can get.

But not always that way.

[Swingpure]

Hot syrup deserves as much respect as possible. Stainless steel carries more respect then plastic. Besides your not going to finish it in the plastic, at least I hope not.

I will put the nearup in stainless steel pots now. I will buy some when I see them go on sale. I will get two pots.

I already have a stainless steel pot for finishing on a portable induction range and next week I am getting a stainless steel kettle for bottling. I will also be getting some shelving brackets to store all of this stuff. It is building up quickly.

[Swingpure]

So just to revise my plan after the sap is down and stored:

Hopefully I can do these steps on the same day, if not, the nearup, or syrup will be stored in a stainless steel pot in a refrigerator until the next step.



I will boil it to close to syrup, then I will pour it, while it is still hot, through a wet flat filter and prefilters into a 19L stainless steel pot.

I will pour that into my stainless steel finishing pot, which may have some hot nearup of it’s own. I will finish it on an induction range. I will test it with a candy thermometer, hydrotherm and a refractometer. My goal is to get it to between 67 and 67.5 Brix.

When it is done, and still hot, I will filter it once more (with a wet flat filter) into my stainless steel bottling kettle, which has a ball valve and hose, and a thermometer. I will slowly reheat the syrup on the kitchen stove, while stirring and when it reaches between 185 and 190 degrees, I will fill preheated jars and bottles, cap them and then turn them upside down for five seconds.

Three different stainless steel pots, but I am filtering from one pot to another twice. The finishing pot has a magnetic stainless steel bottom to work on the induction range and the bottling pot has the ball valve, hose and thermometer for ease of bottling.

Actually the biggest unknown for me is getting to and stopping at the near syrup stage. I guess the thermometer is the key tool to determine that.

Thanks

Gary

[Swingpure]

Well I was starting off with 16 taps and buckets and I now have about 53 taps. (This number might change, if there keeps hesvy snow and i might bypass some outliers). I realized the math of collecting all of that sap from each tree was daunting on my own. I decided to go to some lines. At times I was planning on having up to four lines, but have decided to go with two lines. (Visually more appealing to my wife, for the first year of doing this). The two lines will encompass all of the trees which are furthest from a road. The two lines will feed into a 55 gallon barrel each and will will turn 17 taps into 2 collection areas. Hopefully i will get some vacumn with these lines and get a good sap return. That still leaves about 36 trees with buckets, most are easy to access.

I will string out the lines, late October or early November, before the snow flies and there is still some warmth in the air.

I will boil it to close to syrup, then I will pour it, into my 19L stainless steel finishing pot. Any sap remaining in the steam pans will be continued to be heated until the evaporator cools down. The partially boiled sap will go into an 8 gallon stainless steel pot and will be refrigerated overnight and will give me a head’s start next boil.

I will finish it on an induction range. I will test it with a candy thermometer, hydrotherm and a refractometer. My goal is to get it to between 67 and 67.5 Brix.

When it is done, and still hot, I will filter it through my bucket filter into my stainless steel bottling kettle, which has a ball valve and hose, and a thermometer. I will slowly reheat the syrup on the kitchen stove, while stirring and when it reaches between 185 and 190 degrees, I will fill preheated jars and bottles, cap them and then turn them upside down for five seconds.


Gary

[Brian]

don't filter your syrup until it is finished syrup. it is a good way to lose syrup and time. Alot of the old timers let the niter settle to the bottom and poured off the top. If you heat syrup above 190 deg f it will reinterduce niter. once the syrup is finished then filter it.

[Swingpure]

Running practice lines has made me relook at my whole area. My neighbour’s who are now away until late Spring, gave me permission to tap trees on their properties. When I was first thinking about just using buckets, I only looked at trees near my property lines that were handy to get to. Now that I am getting into lines and understanding the power of the vacuum, I relooked at their properties and I could add more trees, and in some cases add more overall height to the run. For all of the runs, I will have a long uninterrupted run from the last tap to the collection barrels, but wish they were a little steeper, but there is still a decent slope on all of them.

I am now closer to 80 taps, 56 on 5 lines, to 3, 55 gallon collection areas. There are 24 buckets, 12 on easy to get to locations on my property and 5 and 7 on two other properties, all large easy to get to trees.

I think I will get two more 55 gallon plastic barrels for extra sap storage. If it ever turned out to be a good year, I will have more than a few days, that produce more sap than I can boil.

I had an actual maple sap drill bit for the 3/16 taps, but after reading some posts will get one as well for the 5/16 taps.

One question: Do people use garden hoses when they pump from a collection area to their storage containers.

[DrTimPerkins]

... but wish they were a little steeper, but there is still a decent slope on all of them.

What do you mean by "decent slope"? Any flat parts...if so, where in the run and how long?

I had an actual maple sap drill bit for the 3/16 taps, but after reading some posts will get one as well for the 5/16 taps.

Did you have actual 3/16" spouts, or 5/16" spouts with 3/16" tubing connectors?

One question: Do people use garden hoses when they pump from a collection area to their storage containers.

No, do NOT use regular garden hose. These contain regrind rubber with lots of nasty things in them. Use clear milk hose (preferably), although some will use RV potable water hose.