Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[Goatogether]

Sweetening the pans is taking sap from raw sap or ROed sugar content to the higher sugar contents at the various gradients around the evaporator. Today we did our first boil but did not draw off any syrup, so just "sweetened the pans".

Ahhhhh, yes, I see now. Right O!! Thanks Drewlamb!

[blissville maples]

Another boil yesterday, sap tailed off the majority of the day. Need to lose some frost before bumper runs cam start, overall I feel it will be a good season with good sugar hold out, unlike last year.

Ran probably 3500 gallons thru yesterday, made 65 gallons of amber, lighter again yet than previous 2 boils.

Nice freeze up this week, Looking forward to a day off, been14 hr days for 2 weeks!! Good chance to fine tune a few things and maybe add a dry line I was debating.

[DrTimPerkins]

Collected about 7,250 gal of sap over the weekend (about 1.3 gpt) before it froze up again yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately not real sweet, 1.45 Brix, but will likely come up when things get rocking. An "early" season run...slow accumulation. Trees need to thaw out a bit more and have a good recharge cycle and snow needs to melt back from the tree base some.

Looking like no sap weather until early-mid next week.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Tim do you leave your vacuum on throughout an extended cold spell? Any detriment by not leaving it on?

[DrTimPerkins]

Tim do you leave your vacuum on throughout an extended cold spell? Any detriment by not leaving it on?

The only time they are turned off is if we get a real cold snap and want to do some maintenance. Otherwise they are on the entire season, and the VFD slows the pumps down a lot when everything is frozen up. If you do turn them off, make sure everything is frozen up first. Note that not all pumps can be operated this way.

[tcross]

i run an old dairy pump... it's a BB4. i shut it off when nothing is expected to run, but always wait to shut it off when things are certainly done running. i'm curious... i don't think it'd handle it well if it was left on the entire season.... and on 220 volts it pulls a lot of electricity. but i'm assuming that my type of pump is the kind dr Tim is saying it shouldn't be operated 24/7.

[VTfarmboy]

picked .50gpt last evening, testing just under 2% nice solid early run, making nice med amber

[DrTimPerkins]

There are plenty of folks who know more than I do about this, but dairy pumps typically are made to run only 12-15" Hg. Keeping them cool is an issue, especially if you're trying to get as much vacuum from them as you can. When the sap lines freeze, there is very little CFM moving through the pumps, which can cause them to overheat.

[tapdrinker]

made my first batch yesterday knowing the cold was going to freeze my sap collection bins. Very good syrup.
What do you do if your plastic bins are completely frozen????

[blissville maples]

Not too much can do if weren't able to drain, they will thaw, look for cracked valves as they do. Most the time they hold up fine.

Yep agree with that, I've used dairy pump, you can get them to run 16-18 depending on model. Im more familiar with the delaval vp series. These models when overheat will usually start to experience vanes that stick and you'll start to hear it clanging, different than a pressure difference across the pump from a severe leak. Although I've never seen a vane break from this it is possible.
I suppose a vaccum regulator would help. I've ran mine for days at a time, just have to regulate vaccum. As long as it has oil it's fine.