Started tapping end of January and finished first week of February. 2500 taps. Made 1660 Gallons for .664 gallons per tap. Better than average. Mostly Amber. No Golden. No very Dark. First boil on February 12 last boil March 31. Pretty extreme temperature swings during the season, two very heavy sap runs and many normal to small runs. Sap was still running quite hard when it turned buddy flavor and we shut off the vacuum.

The Programmable Logic Controller lost it’s memory and the pressure switch failed on the MES RO. Clayton came right away and reprogrammed the PLC. He said it might be cosmic rays that made the PLC lose it’s memory. We thought it was fixed. It ran for a while then shut off again. Clayton sent Vinny who replaced the pressure switch. It worked perfectly after that. Maybe it only need a pressure switch?

The bottom float switch in the sugar house releaser jammed with gunk coming down the pipes early in the season sending sap up the vacuum line to the barn where the vaccum pump is. The moisture trap stopped it from getting into and ruining the vacuum pump. The sap in the vacuum pipe froze where it goes into the ground under the hay field and took much effort to thaw and drain. We need something to stop that from happening again.

This was the first year using a working bulk milk tank to chill 16% concentrate sap. We concentrate and chill sap one day and boil it the next day along with that day’s sap. Longer boiling times work better for the evaporator and improves grade. The longest we held chilled sap was three days. Might try combining two days of concentrate and boiling on the third day next year.

Only two power outages this year during the season. Both about eight hours long.

New (used 5,500 gallon double wall tank from a brewery) for permeate replaced the 1,500 gallon permeate tank. Now we have plenty of wash water.

Red check valve spouts from Leader were brittle and many of them broke or cracked while tapping. We spent several days finding and replacing the cracked ones that were leaking. We had no problem with the clear check valve spouts from Leader. The CDL signature spouts and Leader non check valve spouts we used on new drop lines were also trouble free.

Built a new releaser with submersible pump in it at the pump house and three phase sap transfer pump Goulds ESV style with the motor on top. The ESV pumps sap 3/4 mile and 140 feet up to the sugar house. We don’t truck sap anymore. Love that! Moved all electrical controls and VFD up near the ceiling. Now when the beaver pond floods the pump house up to 4 feet deep, the electric motors will be not harmed. Normally the beaver pond is six feet below the floor of the pump house. 3” rain storms are more common now.