Old Post Maple is up and running

[TheNamelessPoet]

It’s that time again!
2023 is up and running (literally). I put in about 45-50 taps at my buddy’s house Sunday the 5th. I also put in 4 at my house.

New additions this year:
My new shed I am going to boil in.
I am thinking about setting up some plans for some storage and for while I am boiling. I need a small pump to pump it about 50 feet and up about 10-15 feet. I’m going to keep it completely mobile so I can use it in the shed and also to get it TO the shed.
65-gallon tank:
This one is a 2-fold bonus. Last year when I started at a friend’s house, I had to transport it to my house. So I got a 35 gallon tank. Unfortunately, a few times I had a couple 5gallon buckets also. So, now with a 65, I have a LOT more room on my trailer to bring the sap home. The idea is to RO 1 pass into the 35-gallon tank, then either back into that tank, or into 5-gallon buckets.

I also have decided to start a business and sell it. Maybe if I make enough I’ll go to the farmers market in town and sell it one day. Boy, it is a PITA however keeping all receipts and track of miles.

[TheNamelessPoet]

So, I am terrified of fouling the taste of the sap so I decided I am going to keep the 1st run of about 25ish gallons of sap separate just to be sure that is not an issue.
On to the season!

Last night I got everything working again. I reassembled the RO with the 10 micron filter I found. I have a 5 pack of new filters coming soon right from the RO Bucket site. I had no idea 5 micron filters would be so hard to find. I have already started thinking about adding another membrane to the bucket. I have been thinking about taking it out of the bucket and mounting it to a board just to make it easier to hang up. It will also be easy to add a couple of pressure gauges as well.

Anyway… I had about 23-25 gallons of Sap from Carl’s house over the past 2 days. I RO’d that down to a hair over 10 gallons of concentrate. Good news is that I have probably at least another 5-8 gallons at home from those trees. I had planned on collecting that this morning, but it is mostly ICE, so I left it there because it will help keep it cool. I also filled 5 quart size containers last night that were almost frozen solid this morning. I am going to go back home at lunch and put the ice in the 3 buckets that have concentrated in them. Kind of a PITA to do at lunch but hey, it is what it is, at least I am only 15 minutes from work!
At home, my 4 taps netted just about 5 gallons also. So, the 4ish% did not freeze completely, but I feel like it may have if it was 24 hours. This time I am going to freeze unconcentrated (2% or whatever is coming out of the tree) because I know that freezes and maybe I’ll try 4% again for more than just overnight.
I started learning about micro computers like Raspberry Pi and Arduino’s, many of which have a million sensors. I am trying to learn the programming language for it, before I start any projects for maple, but I THINK I should be able to use a flow meter somehow, for no reason other than “why not?” along with a way to have my concentration (after the RO) go into my warming pan, in the same way that my warming pan slowly runs into my overall pan. I don’t want to make things 100% automated, but why not automate everything I can! Stay tuned because I think as I add stuff to it, I think I am going to start a maple blog there!
Currently the plan is to RO from my 65-gallon tank into the 35-gallon tank (from last year). The second time it runs through the RO I am looking at going from the 35 Gallon to buckets. I think long term, I may put the 35-gallon in my lawn tractor trailer, but I need to set up power to the shed 1st. for the moment, carrying a 5 gallon bucket a couple hundred feet every 35-45 minutes is not the end of the world. I also should have listened and gotten the copula for the shed. I think I am going to make something over the evaporator to kind of steer the steam out the vent at the top on the end of the shed.
I am also trying out the SapTapApp.com App from someone here. This so far (2 days in) seems AWESOME!

[TheNamelessPoet]

OMG… boiling inside is AMAZING! I had a couple hours last night, so I fired up the evaporator and boiled off a few gallons of sap. Right now, I have reduced 25 or so gallons of sap down to 1 gallon that sits around 25-30 brix. I put that in the fridge for the moment, and once I boil down the rest of what I have, (15-20 gallons) some RO’d once some not. Once I have that boiled down, I am going to get it down to around 60-62 brix, so I can finish it off over the weekend. (Looks like it will make between .25 and .33 gallons of syrup.

As of today (2/9) I have about 12ish gallons of about 4%, and another 10 gallons at 2% also. Today I am not going to collect. I am going to just go home and boil everything I have down to 1 gallon so I can put it back in the fridge. Then Saturday I will collect in the AM (and replace the 5 taps I have that are not in maple trees (oops)) and RO it down at least 1 time. Then Sunday, I will collect again while it is RO’ing down the 2nd time. Then while I am boiling that, I can RO what I collected on Sunday and if anything is left from Saturday.
I also need to make this sugar from last year lol. I have a gallon I saved and kept putting it off.

[TheNamelessPoet]

So, had a mini-issue last night. I had JUST gotten everything ready, all set up, turned on the evaporator and had started seeing the boil start. Then I had to leave. PERFECT example of, though it may not be efficient, it is AWESOME using propane. I just turned the burners off, turned off the tank, and left. BOOM, 2 minutes I could leave. With wood I couldn’t leave until the wood is done and things cool down a bit. Plus it would have wasted all that wood from getting it up to temp, and then the loss of the heat as it cooled down.
But, I have the 1 gallon at about 25%, I have about 5 gallons around 10-12% most likely, and 7 gallons right out of the tree. I also have to get whatever else is at both sugar bushes from today ��