Tapping for 2021
My first time tapping was this past year. I got a late start, but yielded great results. I’m using a turkey fryer and would like to know if you can add fresh sap to par boiled sap or should you completely separate the batches. Just trying to use less propane. If anyone has suggestions I am welcome to feedback. I have 12 taps on my property and need to make it worth my time and money. Thanks!
You can keep adding sap while boiling or to sweet from a previous boil. The more you do this the darker the syrup will be.
Smoky Lake 2x6 dropflu pans and hoods on homemade arch
Smoky Lake 6 gallon water jacked bottler
Concentric Exhaust
250 Deer Run RO
325 taps
As Super Sapper says, you can add fresh sap to the sweet. It will darken the product. If your fryer is aluminum, I'd suggest transferring it into something different while it is stored. Acid sap/sweet can leach softer metals into the sap/sweet and cause off-flavor. You also want to be sure the sweet doesn't spoil between boils, so keep it as cool as possible, and if the weather is warm, bring it to a boil for a couple of minutes every couple of days.
Last edited by maple flats; 11-26-2020 at 08:57 AM. Reason: fixed typo, changed does to doesn't. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
could you boil and take off near syrup in a 5 gallon pail and add successive take offs on following days until the 5 gallon pail is full and then
store cool until finishing. Then start a new pail and continue...finish all 5 gallon near syrup pails when sap has stopped running?
A lot of producers do it that way. You have to make sure it is kept very cool as you store it. I wouldn't go the whole season before finishing unless kept in a freezer but combining a few to finish would help.
Smoky Lake 2x6 dropflu pans and hoods on homemade arch
Smoky Lake 6 gallon water jacked bottler
Concentric Exhaust
250 Deer Run RO
325 taps
Looking at the forecast it’s so tempting to tap. To do so would be be contrary to the sage advice of Sugar Bear . . .
2019 LNG fired pot, 20 taps on 3/16, 10 buckets, gave it up after 3 gal.
2020 New Mason 2x4 XL; 30 taps on 3/16
Just checked the forecast - you are right!!! I am not ready yet - replacing tubing this year and it's not up yet. First, a few trees have to come down, then the tubing can go up. It wont take long. But the highs and lows look perfect!!!
2017 - 20ish taps on buckets, boiling outside in two baking pans
2018-19 - 70+ taps, 14-buckets, 50+ on tubing, homemade arch from oil tank in my barn
2020 - less taps, short season, but RO kit was fantastic! Gained a maple cat!
2021-24 - expanded into the neighbors yards! 50 taps on buckets and 40 taps on tubing
Very tempting indeed.Originally Posted by Ghost
But ... another rule of thumb I have just recently adopted is to avoid tapping before we have had a good prolonged freeze up. Whether I had 4 million taps or 4 taps that would be the case. For an assortment of reasons. But the obvious one would be that if the above rule of thumb were not logical then maple syrup in the united states would be best known as Tennessee Maple Syrup or Virginia Maple Syrup rather then Vermont Maple Syrup.
In my parts so far this year we may have gone 24 hours without getting above 32 degrees, but I don't think we have gone 48 hours and 4 sure not 72 hours.
But if you have more trees then taps, my rule of thumb changes to whenever you think you can make syrup then make it.
Gods Speed and let us know how it goes.
The Bear
If you think it's easy to make good money in maple syrup .... then your obviously good at stealing somebody's Maple Syrup.
Favorite Tree: Sugar Maple
Most Hated Animal: Sap Sucker
Most Loved Animal: Devon Rex Cat
Favorite Kingpin: Bruce Bascom
40 Sugar Maple Taps ... 23 in CT and 17 in NY .... 29 on gravity tubing and 11 on 5G buckets ... 2019 Totals 508 gallons of sap, 7 boils, 11.4 gallons of syrup.
1 Girlfriend that gives away all my syrup to her friends.
"If you have more trees than taps" - lmao!!! I needed that!
2017 - 20ish taps on buckets, boiling outside in two baking pans
2018-19 - 70+ taps, 14-buckets, 50+ on tubing, homemade arch from oil tank in my barn
2020 - less taps, short season, but RO kit was fantastic! Gained a maple cat!
2021-24 - expanded into the neighbors yards! 50 taps on buckets and 40 taps on tubing
The Bear hath spoken, thyne drill shalt rest until a great freeze settles upon us . . .
2019 LNG fired pot, 20 taps on 3/16, 10 buckets, gave it up after 3 gal.
2020 New Mason 2x4 XL; 30 taps on 3/16
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