Weather effect on this years sap production(Southern IN)

[Ross]

Put in 20 taps on bucket drop lines and 6 on wine bags last Saturday. Have collected 53 gallons as of this morning and added 4 more bags.

This is my first year and I'm having a blast!

[dsaw]

So 2 weeks ago I collected 480 gal of sap, but after RO’ing to about 45 gal, float box stuck while boiling and I had run inside to make the kids some breakfast; burned my pan. Seriously burned it. It had embers in the pan. Cleaned it up (warped as all get out), collected 450 gal sap last weekend. Had a kid event smack in the middle of this weekend, so I just went out after that and dumped about 380 gal of sap. Should have been more, one barrel fell over and squirrels put a few holes in another line. I did get 2 overflow barrels hooked up, so hopefully next weekend will be good.

[TonyL]

We've processed over 1900 gallons so far this season, yielding just over 29 gallons of syrup. The homemade RO we put together has been a real game changer, enabling us to eliminate 75% of the water without lighting a match. I think we may call it quits after this coming weekend, if we get one more good run.

[DougM]

Tony, how is your RO set up, & what's the rate it processes sap?

[TonyL]

Doug, I used Hodorskib’s setup with 5, 150 gpd membranes. I was really worried that it would be too small, but that hasn’t been the case. We’ve been regularly processing 10-12 gallons of sap per hour, with Saturday night’s 160 gallons started at around 6:00 pm, and the sap tank was empty when I got to the sugar house at 8:30 Sunday morning. It left us with 44 gallons to boil, and that’s with sap still flowing into the holding tank when I left Saturday night. We’re boiling on a homemade arch with a 2x3 flat pan, and I while I don’t think our current RO will keep up with the expansion I foresee in our future, it has opened my eyes to the possibilities. After just one season with it, I would hate to go back to boiling raw sap.

[DougM]

Thanks for the info, Tony.
With a system around that size, it seems like it would work, but would probably have to run constantly.
And we'd have to figure out the logistics of processing what we have coming directly to the sugarhouse in tubing, what we collect from the bags and what we collect from our remote location...more stuff to debate while we're boiling

[Andrew Franklin]

I did the 4 membrane 150 setup, and then this year added 4 250 membranes. Going through about 20 gallons of sap per hour and getting about 8-9%, Not lightning fast, but a huge time and wood saver. I only have 80 taps this year, but last weekend I had a little more than 200 gallons of sap which I processed overnight and then brought home and just finished on a turkey fryer. Slower than my Mason 2x4 evaporator for sure, but nice to be home and spend some time with my wife and kids. Realistically anything over 30 gallons of concentrated sap I should do on the evaporator, but this weekend for example I had 75 gallons of sap that I ro'd down in 4 hours and was easily managed on the propane turkey fryer.

[TonyL]

Andrew, what did you end up doing regarding a pump? Did you go with the procon, or is the 8800 pushing through all 8 membranes.. seems pretty unlikely?

[Andrew Franklin]

Andrew, what did you end up doing regarding a pump? Did you go with the procon, or is the 8800 pushing through all 8 membranes.. seems pretty unlikely?

Hi Tony, Sorry...I haven't been on for a while. I am using the 8800...it seems to have no problem holding pressure at 125, and I haven't even turned it up, which I may do.

[Ross]

Are you guys in Southern Indiana still going or is it over down there?