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I have read sap will spoil within a day or two of being collected; I assume this isn't true once it's been boiled? I've got a simple lead-free pan on order (http://okhardwarestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=41&products_id=1471) that I should have in a week. I guess the first batch is gonna be done in the lead pan, and I'll probably dump the results unless the lead test is literally undetectable, because after mulling this over, with a kid in the house it just seems idiotic to bring needless toxic metals in, even if they're in quantities we're being exposed to already. I went with that one because it's cheap and exactly half the footprint of the one I have so fits on the existing arch no problem. Next year I'll either get a custom one, or just add another one of these.
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Feb 23, 2018 20:59
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Tim Raines IRL posted:During the first boil I noted that even though I had coals well distributed equally under the surface of the evaporator, the temperature in the corner where the valve is didn't go over 200 even as the center partitions were boiling pretty hard. I'm quite sure the pan is level, and sap is flowing nicely between the different partitions; should I just trust that this will work, and as the sap at the valve side thickens it will eventually climb over 212 and approach 218? The procedure I learned is to draw off when a maple sap hydrometer tells you it's ready, but can use a properly-calibrated thermometer as well. The way you calibrate the thermometer is to first use a pan of boiling water to set the boiling point, then re-calibrate to the +7 point (or 219° on a standard thermometer) once you draw-off syrup that reads *at* the hot test line on a maple syrup hydrometer. Note that the hot test line is at 211°F on the hydrometer since that's the most common resultant temperature in the cup after drawing directly from the evaporator. This detail had me very confused at first. I've never been clear just how much to draw off, but I've heard that you stop once you notice the thermometer drop. Smoky Lake's auto-draw-off device starts at 219 and stops at 217. Tim Raines IRL posted:I might look at rigging up something simpler with stainless for this year and just do things one batch at a time, looking at getting a stainless partitioned tray for next year. Is it reasonable to do 50 taps with hotel trays? My arch is 3x4', so I could arrange a few trays on there with fire bricks on top of grill metal. Thrasher posted:My modifications include some float valves for auto pump shutoff when the sap barrel runs out or the concentrate barrel is full.. also only need one pressure gauge vs 4 in the source plans. Tim Raines IRL posted:I have read sap will spoil within a day or two of being collected; I assume this isn't true once it's been boiled? Boiling doesn't sterilize sap for long after it's left to cool. If you're leaving it in the pan between boils, note that the higher concentration of sugar will only speed up the spoiling process as wild yeast and bacteria find their way into it. That said, I've successfully left concentrated sap in the pan for 5 days with no ill effects other than it started clouding up, but smelled/tasted fine and made great syrup. Big Nubbins fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Feb 23, 2018 |
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Feb 23, 2018 21:44
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Shame Boner posted:Thanks! I'm really impressed by this project and this looks like a great way to offset the "boil debt" I take on as I add more taps. I'd really like add 30 taps (totaling 39) to my operation but had no way to clock the 55 hours of boil time (@5gph) if we have a great week and sustain 1gallon per day per tap. This looks to be a huge savings compared to evaporator modifications, and one that could quickly pay for its self on the cost of saved wood alone whereas with evaporator modz, I can only really offset those by selling my syrup. Cool. I found it really cut down on my boil time and wood consumption of course.. but the setup was convenient in that I could collect all my sap that day, then run the RO during the night and the next day I would have all the concentrate. Repeat again for that day's sap etc... I kept that shed area just heated enough so the membranes wouldn't freeze at night and the float switches would shut off the pump when there was no more sap to process. When the boil day came I had a good volume of concentrate ready to go. Now that I tally it all up it was probably a bit more than $600.. but it didn’t break the bank. (plus some online prices have changed I guess). Here was my order list: Amazon: - 20ft of 3/8 Inch Blue Tubing https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00NMNQJ3E/ref=pe_386430_30332290_TE_3p_dp_1 - uxcell® JD2912 24V DC 80A 4 Pin SPDT Power Electromagnetic Relay 9mm Pin Width Black https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01N0AQE1L/ref=pe_386430_30332290_TE_3p_dp_3 - White Plastic 10cm Hole Diameter Canister Filter Housing Wrench https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00TX2Y9EO/ref=pe_386430_30332290_TE_3p_dp_2 - 2x TmallTech Simple Clip Clamp 2.0" Bracket Reverse Osmosis RO Membrane Housing (Pack of 3) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00VRV6NW0/ref=pe_386430_30332290_TE_3p_dp_1 - Malida 1/4 Inch Tube, Blue Length 30 Meters 100feet ,Tubing Hose Pipe for RO Water Filter System https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01CAQCYEQ/ref=pe_386430_126088100_TE_item - 2 x TmallTech 1/4" Quick Connect Check Valve for RO Pure Water Reverse Osmosis System https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B018Z5KD7G/ref=pe_386430_126088100_TE_item - BQLZR Tube Quick Connection 1/4" Pipe Type T Connector RO Water Reverse Osmosis Pack Of 10 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00QUNDZ9O/ref=pe_386430_126088100_TE_item - 2 x BQLZR Equal Straight OD Tube Ball Valve Quick Connect Fitting 1/4" RO Water System Pack of 5 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00LAP0AX6/ref=pe_386430_126088100_TE_item - Malida Tube Quick Connector Fittings Ball Valve Start Elbow 3/4 Inch Female Thread To 3/8 Inch OD Water purifiers filters Reverse Osmosis Sytems Fittings Set Of 2 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01LXZHP5I/ref=pe_386430_126088100_TE_item (for some reason this link brings up a 1/2” to 1/4 which is too small?) - Generic Pneumatic Push in Quick Touch to Connect Fitting 3/8" OD Tube x 3/8" Male NPT 90 Deg Swivel Elbow Coupler (Pack of 5) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01E6GLMJQ/ref=pe_386430_126088100_TE_item - uxcell® 5 Pieces Water Level Monitor Sensor Right Angle Float Switches ZPC1 White https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00FHCFEZW/ref=pe_386430_126088100_TE_item - Pentek 150550 3/4-Inch 10-Inch 3G Blue Filter Housing with Bracket and Pressure Relief https://www.amazon.ca/Pentek-10-Inch-3G-Housing-Pressure/dp/B002WDOBQW/ref=sr_1_8 - I cant find the exact order for my filters but probably something like this 50pk of 5 micron 10” filters (will supply you for many years): https://www.amazon.ca/iSpring-5M-50PK-5-micron-2-5-Inch-Cartridges/dp/B0041HSOSI AquaSafe Canada: 1 x 100 PSI Booster Pump For Tankless Systems BP100PSINoTank https://www.aquasafecanada.com/products/100-psi-booster-pump-for-tankless-systems.html 1 x EZ Flush Flow Restrictor EZFlush https://www.aquasafecanada.com/products/ez-flush-flow-restrictor.html 1 x PSI Meter PSImtr https://www.aquasafecanada.com/products/psi-meter.html 4 x Reverse Osmosis Membrane - 100 GPD ROMembrane https://www.aquasafecanada.com/products/reverse-osmosis-membrane-100-gpd.html 4 x RO Membrane Housing ROMH-100 https://www.aquasafecanada.com/products/ro-membrane-housing.html (plus the 3 barrels, garden hose spigots, etc) I had bought extra items which added to the cost.. and possibly there may be more efficient ways to do the barrel spigot setup etc..
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Feb 23, 2018 23:10
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 That's such an awesome setup! This may be a really dumb question, but: does RO'd syrup taste (significantly) different from "regular"? (Have giant commercial companies been doing this all along instead of boiling?)
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Feb 24, 2018 04:13
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Teketeketeketeke posted:
I can’t tell the difference on mine really. I’m also curious if like the longer time boiling would perhaps caramelize sugars more? If that’s possible etc I would expect that all the big guys use RO’s to reduce the time on the evaporators. They have some crazy industrial sized ones for large production volumes. Also this for example: https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/sci-tech/sap-science-researchers-say-this-machine-is-a-game-changer-for-syrup-production-1.3301712
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Feb 24, 2018 04:59
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Teketeketeketeke posted:
I should know this, being from Canada, but actually I'm not sure.
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Feb 24, 2018 10:38
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RO concentrates sugar but does not caramelize. If you had a big enough RO machine to go all the way to 66 brix I think you'd still want a finishing pan.
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Feb 24, 2018 19:28
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DreadLlama posted:RO concentrates sugar but does not caramelize. If you had a big enough RO machine to go all the way to 66 brix I think you'd still want a finishing pan. Ah, that totally makes sense - reduce time to get rid of the lame-rear end water, then finish with delicious heat.
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Feb 25, 2018 05:39
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Progress didn't go as quickly as I hoped this weekend. A couple more hours of bricking, cutting the chimney hole, small curing fire, test boil, and we're ready to go. I took a bit of extra time to put the ash pan hole in the bottom because I burn a lot of poplar which generates a ton of fine ash and I hate slowing the boil to clean it out.
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Feb 26, 2018 15:15
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Working from the detached private office today.
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Feb 27, 2018 18:42
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"Sorry, I can't come in today. I think I've come down with the stomach flu" With daytime temps lately ranging 45 - 60, I had some sap sitting in buckets for 5 days at this point, and was getting a little worried. I don't know about the rest of you, but it's been a lovely, lovely sap running season so far with only 2 good days, a so-so third, and then nothing. If we don't start getting some nights dipping into the 20s and 30s soon, we're done here. So I took my paltry 29 gallons and did a quick boil day so I make sure I had something to show for the season. I love a clean pan, don't you?  Boil starting to pick up. It takes a good hour to heat-soak the fire box and really get things boiling. At this point, I was going through sap like gangbusters and struggled to maintain an inch of sap in the pan. Add too much cold, fresh sap and it can kill your boil. Too little and you can kill your pan if you let it run dry.  You can clearly see the sugar density gradient formed in the divided pan here, right-to-left.  The reservoir runs dry as the sun sets on another boil day. The pan is sitting on coals at this point and I'm watching it like a hawk, waiting for the liquid to get down to 1/2" so I can take the pan off and drain the "near-syrup".  It took me about 4.5 hours to bring 29 gallons to 1.5, so I did a little better than 6 gallon / hour on this little arch, which I'm really happy about (I must be doing something right). I have the near-syrup sitting in my fridge waiting for the final boil inside on the stove and really hope to be adding more to this before the end of the season, since this batch will probably cook down to only a little more than quart of syrup. Tim Raines IRL posted:Working from the detached private office today.
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Feb 28, 2018 17:35
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Shame Boner posted:"Sorry, I can't come in today. I think I've come down with the stomach flu" I've had one really good sap day here. I emptied the fuller ones this morning expecting a gush, it went up to 8 and sunny and got maybe an inch or two all day. I put out another 10 taps in really good trees that are a bit further walk, up to 60-70ish now and I've only got about 50 gallons collected and maybe another 15 out there. Can't complain, we usually are just thinking about tapping around now. Double tap  Curing fire  We'll see how long this grate holds up 
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Mar 1, 2018 02:25
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Shame Boner posted:I'm very jealous of anyone with a sugar house. this property is super awesome and I feel very lucky to be here; I am also very grateful we elected for the "hard" wood-burning lifestyle up on the mountain in a 1k person town, rather than something easier and less exciting. I will get back to you on that when I have another 5 winters under my belt, but I see myself more growing into this lifestyle than away from it.
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Mar 1, 2018 19:41
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Felt good to get the arch going this weekend, made 10L of syrup. Not sure how many gallons but somewhere between 80 and 100. Need more sap for next time, made 25 drop tubes last night. I got a gradient going but only got syrup I could pour off after boiling all my sap and the whole pan was only 1/2" deep. Opening the valve didn't have enough pressure so I mixed it all around, finished the whole pan, lifted it off and boiled it from 12L to 10L on propane. It was the lightest color early-season stuff I've ever made, very vanilla/buttery. I'm not sure what the best depth to keep it is but I need at least 2.5" to keep the thermometer accurate. I definitely boils well at 1/2" though. I don't think the preheater pan is doing much, nothing in it seemed to warm up much. I feel like a head tank with a line going in would achieve the same thing for less. It would be a lot better with a float valve to keep the pan level constant.    Tim Raines IRL posted:this property is super awesome and I feel very lucky to be here; I am also very grateful we elected for the "hard" wood-burning lifestyle up on the mountain in a 1k person town, rather than something easier and less exciting. I will get back to you on that when I have another 5 winters under my belt, but I see myself more growing into this lifestyle than away from it. Hill people life is pretty good man, I'm just getting to 5 years in the woods and couldn't go back.
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Mar 5, 2018 14:29
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Postess with the Mostest posted:Hill people life is pretty good man, I'm just getting to 5 years in the woods and couldn't go back. well that's good to hear! I ended up boiling the sap I had down to about 1" in this pan, then bringing it inside and finishing it all here, so that I can start from scratch with the new pan. We're at a couple gallons plus, but the fate of this stuff is unknown until I get lead test results in ~20 days.  Here's the new pan; at 2x3' it's exactly half the footprint of the one I've got, so my boiling time just doubled, but no lead worries and I'm not too stressed about it because I can mostly do my day job while I am boiling.  $350 delivered from OKHardware in WI; took 8 days from clicking order to receive, so they get my thumbs up.
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Mar 5, 2018 16:37
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You don't have a set of vernier calipers, do you? I am very curious to know the thickness of the steel in the walls of your new pan.
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Mar 6, 2018 04:14
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DreadLlama posted:You don't have a set of vernier calipers, do you? I am very curious to know the thickness of the steel in the walls of your new pan. I don't, but the maker sells it as "Made of 16 gauge Stainless Steel: Measures-.057"/1.45mm thick", so I assume they're using 16ga sheet steel and know what they're talking about. Looking around online I see people using 16-20ga, so it seems like this is on the thicker side of what people think is reasonable. Sounds like you know more about sheet steel than I do, what are your thoughts?
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Mar 6, 2018 19:46
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My prices are Canadian but:  Since my evaporator failed its lead test I've been in the same boat as you - looking for a new pan. I think that you got a good price; $100 for skilled labour + delivery. I'm still in the "bargaining" stage of grief myself and am trying to work myself up for a project involving flue pans:   The idea is you increase the surface area exposed to heat and therefore your evaporation rate increases. And the only increase in material costs is at the bottom of the pan. The downside is you need a sheet metal brake put the bends in the sheet to make the flues.
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Mar 6, 2018 23:08
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DreadLlama posted:
yeah, that's pretty sweet. Next season I'll either add a second one like I've got, or get something fancier, either a 3-partiton 3x4 like I had, or maybe something with flues. Really depends on budget; I have been hemorrhaging money this year since moving in here. The likely situation is just adding another pan like I've got, and living with that for a few years until maybe I'm up to ~200 taps and the syrup fund covers a new pan (and doesn't get diverted to medical bills or water heater replacement or somesuch). edit: thanks for the materials price comparison; based on what I'd seen on the local market it seemed like a solid deal. It seems like a sturdy and well made little tool, I hope the temperature goes back up so I get more sap soon to put it through its paces. Cabbages and VHS fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Mar 7, 2018 |
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Mar 7, 2018 04:23
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You can't use just a flue pan though right? It'd be tricky to finish on or you'd have to do a ton. The sap is running terribly here this week and the forecast stinks, just 1-2 degrees above freezing, it's so close to being great. Going to put 25 more taps in tomorrow to really harness the sometimes multiple inches of sap per day. I'm starting to feel this is like wind turbines where your installed capacity needs to be 6 times more than what you'll use, "a gallon on average per day" yeah right. Wife found me a 175 gallon tank for free so if it does start pounding, I can store and do a crazy 4 day mega boil or something. I'll be ticked if the temperature suddenly jumps to constantly above zero like it did in (I think) 2012. I had a ton of caterpillars too, apparently those are bad for sap, who knew. quote:An infestation of the tiny tent caterpillar may reduce the amount of maple syrup harvested in Ontario this year, producers say.
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Mar 7, 2018 04:27
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is it safe to assume sap won't spoil if it's literally a block of ice? I have a bit, IDK maybe 10-20 gallons, sitting in the bottom of the reservoir. I was going to do a quick boil last night and let it freeze in the pan but decided to be lazy instead. It looks like it's going to be below freezing until Monday.
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Mar 7, 2018 17:37
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Tim Raines IRL posted:is it safe to assume sap won't spoil if it's literally a block of ice? I have a bit, IDK maybe 10-20 gallons, sitting in the bottom of the reservoir. I was going to do a quick boil last night and let it freeze in the pan but decided to be lazy instead. It looks like it's going to be below freezing until Monday. The sap will be fine but if you have pipes or valves coming off the reservoir it's generally not great to have stuff freeze in those and they can be a pain to thaw out. I kind of like when a chunk freezes in my storage barrel though, it keeps the new sap cold for a long time.
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Mar 7, 2018 18:23
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Postess with the Mostest posted:Hill people life is pretty good man, I'm just getting to 5 years in the woods and couldn't go back. I've wanted to live in the woods for as long as I can remember. I kinda still curse my grandfather for selling the 65 acres property he had in the woods in hilly SE Ohio with a year-round river, good-sized waterfalls, a free gas well (company went bottoms-up), a hand-built [by him] gambrel frame house and barn, and decent (if weird) neighbors for a song. I would've bought that poo poo cash money if I weren't in school back then  . Oh well, at least my wife and I have 75% of the budget for our next house in savings already. Sugar maples are high on the list of must-haves. Til then I can play hillbilly on my 10th acre lot in the suburbs.
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Mar 8, 2018 21:07
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Wait wait wait - you're telling me I can (inefficiently) make maple syrup from a silver maple? Because I have one of those that is about 2 feet in diameter, plus 4 red maples (Norway?) that are maybe 1 foot in diameter. I also already brew my own beer so I have a burner, propane tanks, and an excess supply of stainless steel kettles from upgrades over the years. This totally seems like something I should be doing as a lark next year. Are there any substantial pitfalls or problems from tapping non sugar maples? Or can I dive right in next season, screw around all weekend, and then have pancakes Sunday night with my 1 cup of syrup?
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Mar 10, 2018 02:18
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Not only is that all completely do-able, but it is as-yet early enough in the season that you might start this year. Sap flows when it's below freezing at night and above freezing during the day. If such weather is predicted in your area for at least the next week or so you could definitely tap right now. Raised by Hamsters posted:Are there any substantial pitfalls or problems from tapping non sugar maples? Or can I dive right in next season, screw around all weekend, and then have pancakes Sunday night with my 1 cup of syrup? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_syrup The flavor of birch syrup has a distinctive and mineral-rich caramel-like taste that is not unlike molasses or balsamic condiment or some types of soy, with a hint of spiciness. Different types of birch will produce slightly different flavour profiles; some more copper, others with hints of wildflower honey. Many people remark that while Birch syrup has the same sugar content of maple it is far more savory than sweet. edit: By the way, since you brew, have you googled "Acerglyn"? DreadLlama fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Mar 11, 2018 |
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Mar 11, 2018 01:12
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I had a bit of a run here this afternoon but that's pretty much it since last Sunday. I got a refractometer to measure sugar content of sap last week. I've always been curious about ice, I've usually saved it and let it melt and boiled it down because there's some sugar in it right? I found two pails from different trees that were mostly solid ice, brought them inside and melted them and measured the new melted sap every couple of hours to see how much I need to melt to get most of the sugar out. I'm going to just chuck any ice I see from now on. Unless 60% or more of a container is frozen, it's almost pointless to touch it. The gram sugar isn't exact because brix is g sugar / 100 g solution and I was measuring against volume instead of weighing it oh well it should be close enough.
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Mar 12, 2018 02:21
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yeah I'm getting nothing, it's in the 20s here (F) and supposed to be in the teens all weekend. I hope we get a couple more weeks of freeze/thaw before it's just 45 all the time.
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Mar 13, 2018 21:52
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I had a bit of a run here the last two afternoons. Collected ~25 gallons of just sap, threw away all ice. 5% sugar, thanks refractometer. Turned that into 4 more liters of Grade A Golden Delicate this morning, 14 total. This weather sucks here too, I'm seeing 8 days of empty buckets https://www.saptapapps.com/flowcast/ e. counted my taps too, I'm at 85 Postess with the Mostest fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Mar 13, 2018 |
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Mar 13, 2018 22:50
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I feel like such a piker running a whole six taps.  + fuel + daily winter walks in the woods got us 3 litres: Things we learned: - Western Big Leaf Maples seem to respond to entire weather systems more than day/night warm/cold cycles. Barometric rather than temperature sensitive? - paper and cotton filters are inadequate. Filtration improved significantly when my wife found some scrap felt in her sewing supplies. - it's too warm here in the winter to store sap outdoors waiting for enough to boil. Pasteurizing / partial boiling followed by refrigeration seems to work, but might be a bad idea for other reasons? - there was quite a bit of variation in colour from batch to batch. Not sure if this is technique or variation in the trees. - a cheap refractometer is very handy (and useful for brewing and honey production). Apparently you can also use it to tell if your fruit is ripe, relieving you from tediously having to taste your fruit. Trees are starting to bud so we pulled the spiles and called it quits last week. I'm not sure if we'll do this again next year. My wife (who was really keen to try this) says the syrup has a bitter taste. I think of it as being more complex, but I also like beer, kombucha, and other fermented things that she doesn't. I definitely prefer WBLM syrup on my pancakes. If we do this again I will look at putting together a cheap RO filter system. I've already got a lot of the pieces kicking around. I want to put a forge together too so I will do that keeping in mind the possibility of using it instead of the barbecue and propane burner to boil sap.
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Mar 14, 2018 05:25
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I've gotten nothing since that great ~120 gallon run a couple weeks ago, but it looks like it's going to be 40 on Friday, with some days of freeze/thaw over the weekend. Also I have somehow consumed 2/3rds of a pint of syrup in the past week.
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Mar 19, 2018 15:56
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Tim Raines IRL posted:I've gotten nothing since that great ~120 gallon run a couple weeks ago, but it looks like it's going to be 40 on Friday, with some days of freeze/thaw over the weekend. I had about half a pint that wasn't going to fit in any jars so I put it in a glass in the fridge and sipped it down over the course of the week. Life is good. Everything here is locked up but I'm hoping the trees open up as soon as it hits zero the next 3 days, it seems like they want to. 
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Mar 21, 2018 04:27
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It's been mostly below freezing but shooting up to 34 during the day. I came down and busted up all the frozen sap in my tank; it looks like next week could be good, and if it is I wanted to start clean in case there's anything funky with the ice-sap that's been sitting here. I'm going to bring it to a boil, and then just leave it here until I'm ready to boil again, unless it looks / smells / tastes off, in which case I'll dump it. I already miss my old, twice-as-large, lead infested pan, haha. I might have to sell out of Magic Online or something to get a nicer pan for next year; don't want to add that to the household budget, but I would like another 3x4 3 partition job. Wow, that is frozen indeed. Cabbages and VHS fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Mar 22, 2018 |
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Mar 22, 2018 19:06
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39 today and looks like we're getting a bit of a run, time to go boil a bit!
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Mar 23, 2018 18:27
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So I painstakingly emptied every drop of every bucket so I could boil while my parents were up and send them home with some fresh syrup. Collected about 50 gallons of sap and ice. After 5 hours, it was still pretty much clear in every partition so I hadn't added any defoamer yet. At 5.5 hours, it bubbled up and scorched at the front of partitions 2 and 3, ruining the whole batch, warping the pan downwards a bit and leaving a layer of burnt black sugar. I've got that soaking in vinegar/water now. At least it wasn't a huge batch but a bummer I had to send them home with disgusting two week old stuff. Lessons learned, don't put a cloth filter between the preheater and the pan, it will clog at the worst time. Also, need to babysit that thing after the 4 hour mark to draw off sweet, run it 2"+ instead of 1" or just move front to back to mix until ready to start drawing off. This week looks pretty good for sap though, morale should recover.
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Mar 26, 2018 14:19
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Raised by Hamsters posted:Are there any substantial pitfalls or problems from tapping non sugar maples? Or can I dive right in next season, screw around all weekend, and then have pancakes Sunday night with my 1 cup of syrup? We tap box elders, which are ridiculously common around here. The only real down side is that our yield is much lower i.e., the big advantage of 'sugar maples' is their high sugar content. FWIW, the syrup has more of a carmel flavor rather than the classic maple flavor.
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Mar 27, 2018 14:35
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Sorry to hear about your luck, that's a nasty setback. Can you salvage the pan or it is toast? Once the whole pan surface is boiling, I add one or two drops of de-foamer every time I feed the fire. I tend to let the pan settle around 1" of liquid, so it's good insurance. The season has really turned around in NE Ohio. After my initial 29 gallons and then nothing for a couple weeks, temperatures aligned again. On the best days, I get 18 gallons from my measly 9 taps (6 in silvers, 3 in a Norway). Both of my silver maples budded out back in early February and are still producing good sap. Norway maples leak sap like crazy but it's noticeably lower in sugar than the others. Last Tuesday was a good day to duck out of the office early to take our new kitten to the vet and parley that into a boil day; I've been on a roll doing boils on company time. I was able to get rid of about 40 gallons of sap I had stored including 1.5 gallons of sweet I had before, burning through all of my wood from last year. When the fire died, I was left with 1" of sap in the pan, which translates to having to store a little over 3 gallons of sweet in my fridge (wife loves that) until I can boil again. It's already been a good week for sap and I have over 35 gallons again already. Next year I really need to sort out my storage solution ahead of time, which might mean finding some food safe 55-gallon barrels and maybe a tank for transport. I also have no way to transport firewood currently and goddamn do I need a truck.
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Mar 27, 2018 14:54
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I was looking at probably 40ish gallons yesterday and then it froze again and now it's 40. I am going to go get a fire going at noon.... edit: yup, I'm gonna be out here all week. Cabbages and VHS fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Mar 27, 2018 |
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Mar 27, 2018 16:13
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Well, I had my first real wastage of the year. I had let things go a couple days, and I was suddenly looking at 50gal of sap that was very slightly cloudy, and had a slightly off taste/smell. It appears to be less lovely than some of what people on various forums say they cooked no problem, but my neighbor convinced me to dump it. I also got the lead test results back from the ~1.5gallons off the old pan. Basically, the stuff that went through a coffee filter was very low lead (37ug/g, state limit is 250ug/g) -- but the unfiltered stuff with lots of sugar crystals in it was 1mg/g, which is 4x the state limit. That probably means I consumed around a half milligram of lead, which isn't super worrying, but I just don't want to gently caress with refiltering all this stuff and still being nonzero -- whereas my mountain man 72 year old cousin just said "send it all my way, lead takes too long to gently caress you over for me to be worried about it at this point", so into a USPS box it goes. Even with all these setbacks / etc, we're looking at having enough unleaded to cover ourselves pretty well and have some to give to immediate family; I am happy with that for a first try! I'll probably look at getting a better pan made over the summer, and try to scale from 50 to 100 taps next year. If we really tapped everything we could without stepping off our own land, I might be looking at close to 1000, but I'm going to build towards that slowly because as I work further away from the shack there are logistical issues; I'd probably need to stick another reservoir up in the woods, and have an ATV and cart for runs back and forth. That would seem extreme, except that an ATV & cart is going to be pretty important for life here in general, so I can piggyback on that.
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Apr 1, 2018 18:29
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Ugh, 50 gal of cloudy is a lot to throw out. I've had to toss a few 15 gallon barrels before and it stings. We finished off 18.5 liters today after a fairly relaxed 2 day boil. Filtering was a nightmare. I was trying to get it as close as possible because my propane/buffet pan finishing system only holds 20 liters and I figured I had 16 liters of syrup. Using the thermometer, it slowly crept from 212 to 217 and then bang it was done. Pulled off the pan on an angle into the filter and it clogged after 4L, another prefilter in the orlon got another 4L through and then then it was clogged. Just prefiltered the rest. Filtering 18L of slightly over finished syrup with 24 hours worth of niter and crap mixed in is brutal, I'll take it off early and just finish it in batches next time. 37 bottles of this, I was surprised how light it turned out despite no draw offs, everything was in the pan right to the end.  Friday was one of the best sap days I've ever seen, every tree was cranking, plenty giving up to 2 gallons. I started with ~45 gallons and hauled in another 70 on Friday and 30 on Saturday, I am sore. Refractometer was telling me some trees were giving 4% sap which rules. There's ~50 gallons of sap in buckets out there, mostly sitting in snow. Good sap tomorrow and Tuesday so hopefully a Wed/Thurs mega boil, going to need to find some dead trees to chop up because my wood is almost spent.
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Apr 2, 2018 01:52
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I finished off 1.5gal a few nights ago, and another 3.5 quarts last night. We're looking at some more freeze/thaw over the next week, so I am just waiting to see if we continue to get runs. I am actually starting to run low on wood down at the shack, and I think if I finish off a couple more gallons then I might call it a year even if it's still flowing. (Or I might start running loads of firewood down there in our SUV, we'll see how motivated I am).Postess with the Mostest posted:Filtering was a nightmare. Then I got a "better" filtering setup, dedicated maple prefilters and cloth filter from Amazon. The thing is, if I run the syrup through the filters when it's still pretty hot, it moves through fast (and does take out a lot of junk), but I still end up with a decent amount of sugarsand settling in the bottom of the jars. I guess my question is, why should I care? I'm not selling this, the new pan doesn't have any lead solder on it so I'm not worried about that, and the prescence of the sand doesn't seem to cause any problems. We've already eaten like ~3 pints (mostly just discarding any remaining sediment at the bottom of the jar). Is this really just an aesthetic concern? I am going to let it cool before filtering the stuff I'm planning on sending to friends out of state, but it seems like a lot of trouble to go to for the bulk of it that we'll just be storing and eating throughout the year. Filtering thoroughly when cool seems like such a time-consuming pain in the rear end, that I have already been thinking about doing something different next year where I just let large batches of finished syrup settle in a large covered pot, and then siphon off the top layer before putting in jars. Cabbages and VHS fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Apr 5, 2018 |
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Apr 5, 2018 15:42
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