Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[spud]

I have a friend that runs 38 concentrate. They boil on a flat pan and they can store their concentrate for two weeks in a bulk tank at 38 degrees. It has no ill effect on grade or flavor. This might be the norm in the years to come.

Spud

[DrTimPerkins]

I have a friend that runs 38 concentrate. They boil on a flat pan and they can store their concentrate for two weeks in a bulk tank at 38 degrees. It has no ill effect on grade or flavor.

Dr. Abby did a study last year looking at high brix syrup flavor. Syrups made in that fashion had good flavor. We'll obviously be doing more research along those lines with the new system, but I can tell you having spent about 30 hrs boiling so far, the syrup we are making tastes great.

We don't have a refrigerated bulk tank, but I can see one in our future. You definitely do not want to sit on concentrate at that level for long. Anyone have suggestions on where to look for new or used bulk tanks?

We made over 200 gal yesterday, which puts us at 1,290+ gals for the season. That's 0.26 gal syrup/tap, or 53% of the way to a minimum crop (0.5 gal/tap), and about 45% of the way to our long-term average production of 0.59 gal/tap.

[markcasper]

I have a friend that runs 38 concentrate. They boil on a flat pan and they can store their concentrate for two weeks in a bulk tank at 38 degrees. It has no ill effect on grade or flavor. This might be the norm in the years to come.

Spud

I would think you'd want it down to 32-33, colder the better. I sat on some for 7 days this year at 18% and 34-36 degrees, (some sap was already a week old before concentrating) and it definately was not light amber. I don't know if it made medium even. I have access to a working bulk tank and will be playing around with this.

[GeneralStark]

Sap ran pretty well here Sunday thru yesterday afternoon, with a freeze each night, though Monday was the best with the intense March sun. I boiled yesterday evening and made another 25 gal. of AR. Started at the line with DR and ended at the line with GD. Great flavor. Back into the deep freeze and not sure it's going to warm up enough on Friday to get much sap for open house weekend. Hopefully we can at least boil Sunday.

[madmapler]

. I boiled yesterday evening and made another 25 gal. of AR. Started at the line with DR and ended at the line with GD. Great flavor. .

That's pretty much how it's been with us this season. We have yet to make a gallon of light or a gallon of dark but have come close to both. All 23 drums have been AR. Weird.

[Tucker08]

Just crossed the 70 gallon line last night. We made 93 last year. The new rig is working great. A much nicer experience to my old 2x6. We are in a nice rhythm with drawing off. That was harder on the old rig. The heat of the aof is crazy. Don't have the big drops in temp after a fire. It comes jack very quickly when you close the doors and start the fan. Far exceeds my expectations. We are averaging 90 to 100 gph, which is not pushing it as hard as possible, and our nights are a lot shorter, which makes mamma happy. A win, win.


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[drewlamb]

Dr Tim, you said you had 2000 gallons from before the last freeze. How did you keep it from freezing solid? With a tear in my eye I dumped about 300 gallons yesterday that I felt was too little to deal with but didn't want turning into a block of ice in my tank. I left smaller amounts of sap in a couple tanks but was more worried about a big chunk that would take up a quarter of my tank.

[DrTimPerkins]

Dr Tim, you said you had 2000 gallons from before the last freeze. How did you keep it from freezing solid?

We didn't....it froze solid. The previous time we boiled was pretty late in the day, but it kept running for several hours after we finished. Then the temperatures dropped like a stone. We could have fought to boil it all out the next day in 15 deg F weather, but said "screw it" and gambled that we would get a slow start to the next run and that it would melt the frozen sap. About 2,000 gal is the minimum we need to fire up the RO to get enough permeate to do a wash/rinse. As it turned out, all our primary tanks filled up from this last run overnight (then ran slow all day), and were just starting to spill over into our backup tanks, so a perfect scenario (except for a leaky valve on one tank and a flat tire on our sap trailer). The new HYPERBRIX membranes Lapierre swapped out in our RO for us to test are much faster, so all is good.

[drewlamb]

Gotcha. But just to be clear, since I'm looking for some advice... If I have, for example, a tank that is half or less full, and I know it may freeze solid, would you recommend leaving it for the next run? Was that your situation? Just trying to picture how that 2000 gallons is distributed. All in one tank? And what's the total capacity of the tank?
Thanks!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Dr Tim,

What is the new beast at Proctor that is eating the 32% to 35%??