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Thread: Tapping trees other than maples

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
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    Ayer's Cliff Quebec
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    You can also do sycamore trees. They have leaves like a maple anyways. I found some to try some day.
    maybe 50 taps for 2011
    Finally ready to boil when I get enough sap
    I just might be crazy.( make that I know I am)
    Trees all tapped except the ones with 5 feet of snow.
    Enough rabbits to keep Elmer busy..

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    Hampshire county WV
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    53

    Default Hickory Any good?

    I tried tapping a few Hickory trees this year but it was to late in the season to get enough to try anything with it. The sap had a sweetness to it. Has anyone tried to go with the sap not just the bark?

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    iowa
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    It sounds like people have thought about tapping other trees but not much has been tried. I was wondering what the syrup tasted like also.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    east kingston, nh
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    4,148

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    hickory bark syrup ...not very good (I made it last fall)and you have to add ALL the sugar I let a few people taste not 1 person liked it. SO I poured it over cracked corn for the deer...they liked it. it might be good for marinades but thats it!!! I like hickory nuts(although alot of work) and the wood excellent for smoking foods that and apple wood my 2 favorites.
    may your sap be at 3%
    Brad

    www.willowcreeksugarhouse.com
    585 or so on Vacuum, about 35 on buckets/sap sacs
    Atlas Copco GVS 25A Rotary Vane vacuum pump
    MES horizontal electric releaser
    2x6 ss phaneuf Drop flue, Leader woodsaver blower, homemade hood
    300gph H2O RO
    husquvarna 562 XP
    Its Here!!! 2024 season is here get busy!!!

  5. #15
    mklarenbeek Guest

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    TF Maple - Regarding Ironwood sap. There are a couple of different trees that are known by the common name of Ironwood. Once you identify your trees with a latin name you might be able to get some information from the following website; http://www.pfaf.org/index.php

    S. Culver - Hickory belongs to the same family as Walnuts and so the sap is both sweet and edible. Regarding the American Gentleman and his 200 year old native recipe utilizing processed sugar I think it more likely that Native Americans boiled the hickory bark in hickory sap.

    Red Maples - I'm currently playing with the Shagbark Hickory Syrup. I have enough bark to make 7 different batches each of which will be boiled down using three different starting sugar levels. So far I've made 2 batches for a total of 6 different samples and so far I'm not impressed either although I can already see improvement. It's nice that there is no time pressure with the bark syrups. When I finish experimenting I'll post my results.

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    iowa
    Posts
    56

    Default alternative tree tapping

    So it sounds like nobody has made a worthwhile syrup from just the sap of the hickory tree. It seems like all are somehow using the bark and sugar to make it which kind of defeats the purpose. Walnut trees seem to have the sugar content in the sap according to the Kansas study. Also birch. What kind of sugar content do you think you would want to have to even consider boiling it down. As a starting point I mean. Thanks for all the input.

  7. #17
    mklarenbeek Guest

    Default Shagbark Hickory Syrup Experiments - Parameters

    Here's what I've done so far. After watching the video, I determined that just covering the bark with water would result in a too high ratio of bark to water. I think the guy is filling the filter holder rather than the urn with bark. I used to work at a hospital coffee shop when I was a kid. Those filter holders were the size of dinner plates and easily 6" deep for urns that were not nearly as large as the one he is using. Changing those coffee filters is the reason I still haven't ever managed to get a cup of coffee close enough to my mouth to actually taste it. The smell was overwhelming. Twenty five years later and I can still get grossed out just thinking about it.

    I dug our company's coming coffee maker out of the closet and filled the basket with 3" pieces of bark. I then weighed the bark on our produce scale and filled my maslin pan to a comfortable level with water. After a little math I came up with the constant ratio for my experiments. 25 cups of water to 1/2 lb of shagbark.

    I will use a large salad spinner to clean the bark.

    I'll try a method of flavour extraction and then divide the resulting liquid into three batches before evaporating down to syrup.

  8. #18
    mklarenbeek Guest

    Default Shagbark Hickory Syrup Experiment #1

    After reading through the posts of others on this site who have tried to make this type of syrup I decided to begin with a method that would limit the amount of tannin released from the bark.

    I brought the pot of water and bark to a boil and then turned the stove off leaving the pot on the cooling burner to steep for ~ 1 hour.

    I let my son fill up the maslin pan and I don't think he measured the water very carefully because I don't think this method should have resulted in the fluid loss I experienced.

    Batch #1 - 4 1/2 cups
    Batch #2 - 7 cups
    Batch #3 - 10 1/2 cups - which was significantly less than the ideal 13 1/2 cups

    The gentleman in the video declared that he was lazy and I decided to take him at his word and begin evaporating "sap" that was higher in sugar content than maple would be.

    Batch #1 - 4 1/2 cups extract sweetened with 3/4 sugar for ~15% brix
    Batch #2 - 7 cups extract sweetened with 3/4 sugar for ~ 10% brix
    Batch #3 - 10 1/2 cups extract sweetened to ~5% brix - I didn't accurately measure the sugar.

    Each batch was then separately boiled to syrup as if it were maple.

    As the resulting syrup amounts were so small 1/2 - 3/4 cup I didn't bother with filtering.

    Results
    - Colour - As expected the higher the initial sugar content the lighter the resulting syrup
    - Taste - I think they are all boring. Just sweetened water with very degrees (all slight) of caramel flavour. I don't detect anything that I would describe as "hickory"

  9. #19
    mklarenbeek Guest

    Default Shagbark Hickory Syrup Experiment #2

    After the first batch proved to be so dull I thought to increase the hickory flavour by bringing the water to a full roiling boil for 20 minutes and then steeping overnight - 10 hours. I did add 3 extra cups of water to help compensate for evaporation

    Batch 1 - 4 1/2 cups sweetened to ~10 1/2% brix
    Batch 2 - 7 cups sweetened to ~7 1/2% brix
    Batch 3 - 9 1/2 cups sweetened to ~ 5% brix

    Results
    - Colour - All batches are uniformly darker than those from experiment #1 but within this experiment the variation in colour is much as was expected.
    - Flavour - I can ...just begin to taste something other than caramelized sugar.

    Next Step - I'm going to get out my pressure canner and put this bark through some serious extraction. I'm actually hoping to get too much hickory flavour so that I can use the rest of my bark to find the right balance. I'll keep you posted.

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    east kingston, nh
    Posts
    4,148

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    when I did mine I did uh have to remember...

    3 pounds bark to 5 gallons water bring to a boil and then let steep for 1 hour and then added a bunch of sugar and corn syrup to help it not crystalize.
    may your sap be at 3%
    Brad

    www.willowcreeksugarhouse.com
    585 or so on Vacuum, about 35 on buckets/sap sacs
    Atlas Copco GVS 25A Rotary Vane vacuum pump
    MES horizontal electric releaser
    2x6 ss phaneuf Drop flue, Leader woodsaver blower, homemade hood
    300gph H2O RO
    husquvarna 562 XP
    Its Here!!! 2024 season is here get busy!!!

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