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I might be hallucinating but I think last year someone had cloudy syrup. Filters are easy to get. https://www.homehardware.ca/en/12-pack-8-syrup-prefilters-for-cone/p/5210525 Do not use coffee filters. They are too fine and clog easily.
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Mar 30, 2019 11:15
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Did winter actually start somewhere? It's been so hot this year that I'm doubtful this year's round of seeds actually got cold stratification.
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Jan 26, 2020 21:40
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Question for people who run an RO unit and a filter press. How much -if any- of your setup from one machine is usable with the other? Like if you were starting over from the ground up, is there anything you would tweak so it could run double duty?
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Mar 29, 2020 19:02
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Dude you've got snow on the ground and light coloured syrup. It is clearly still early in the season for you.
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Mar 29, 2020 19:18
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Do you ever go down a wikipedia rabbit hole and find yourself unable to refrain from asking too many stupid questions on the internet? Look at this thing:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler#Misting_systems posted:Evaporative coolers lower the temperature of air using the principle of evaporative cooling, unlike typical air conditioning systems which use vapor-compression refrigeration or absorption refrigeration. Evaporative cooling is the conversion of liquid water into vapor using the thermal energy in the air, resulting in a lower air temperature. The energy needed to evaporate the water is taken from the air in the form of sensible heat, which affects the temperature of the air, and converted into latent heat, the energy present in the water vapor component of the air, whilst the air remains at a constant enthalpy value. This conversion of sensible heat to latent heat is known as an isenthalpic process because it occurs at a constant enthalpy value. Evaporative cooling therefore causes a drop in the temperature of air proportional to the sensible heat drop and an increase in humidity proportional to the latent heat gain. Do you ever wonder if there isn't an alternate universe in which sugar shacks resemble giant shower stalls and concentrate sap by cooling it?
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Mar 30, 2020 01:35
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Did you put butter in or...? That couldn't just work by leaving it in your finishing pan, could it? Is that what you did? Dude.
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Apr 8, 2020 19:15
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I'm double posting because I have an idea and I want to know if anyone else has this idea. https://www.farmandfleet.com/blog/filtering-maple-syrup/#:~:text=Use%20a%20candy%20thermometer%2C%20if,need%20to%20be%20re%2Dfiltered. [quote]if the syrup cools below 180°F, it will be too thick to be filtered and will need to be reheated. Maple syrup that has been heated above 200°F will release more sugar sand and will need to be re-filtered. https://www.amazon.ca/KleenWater-Temperature-Filters-Inhibitor-Maximum/dp/B00M8AA1BI High Temperature Water Filter Cartridge - maximum temperature 180 degrees Fahrenheit At $225 CAD this https://www.amazon.ca/KleenWater-Mounting-Bracket-Cartridges-Inhibitor/dp/B00LPNWYHI is an expensive filter. But the smallest CDL vaccum filter is $679.00 https://webstore.cdlinc.ca/en/9-vacuum-filter-press-accessories. The price is comparable to single filter gravity filtration tank. https://webstore.cdlinc.ca/en/mini-filter-tank-5-gal-imp Has anyone else noticed this? I wish there were a Project Farm but just for maple syrup.
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Jun 13, 2020 17:14
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I know it's not the season but I'm knee deep in a DIY moneypit and found that CDL now sells a micro RO unit. https://webstore.cdlinc.ca/en/hobby-reverse-osmosis-2membrane-micro-ro You can build something comparable from parts on amazon, but some of the guides on youtube recommend a brass needle valve, which is not explicitly guaranteed lead-free. The CDL unit probably uses only potable water rated plumbing fittings. It's not too late to start your own DIY project before fun season starts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BOO2L1RD2s Just be careful of brass. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass#Lead_content posted:To enhance the machinability of brass, lead is often added in concentrations of around 2%. Since lead has a lower melting point than the other constituents of the brass, it tends to migrate towards the grain boundaries in the form of globules as it cools from casting. The pattern the globules form on the surface of the brass increases the available lead surface area which in turn affects the degree of leaching. In addition, cutting operations can smear the lead globules over the surface. These effects can lead to significant lead leaching from brasses of comparatively low lead content.[12]
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Nov 1, 2020 07:25
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I haven't. But I started using tubes for the first time last year and, I have a question for you tube people. How do you clean your tubes? I found black mold.
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Jan 24, 2021 04:35
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I say go for it. Everyone starts out with one tap. Sometimes they add their second tap in 4 seconds. Sometimes in 4 years. You'll get less syrup for a given volume of sap than if you'd had sugar maple. But you don't have that and have nothing to compare to. So it'll seem like a good amount anyway. edit: And I mean like a third of the way down a 80m length of 3/8 tubing. I don't have any brushes that long and if I have to take the tube down I'm going to install a new one. I see some other people leave their tube up during the off season. How do they clean mainlines? edit edit: Cursory googling indicates that concentrated hydrogen peroxide is the answer. I should have rinsed my tube with hydrogen peroxide last spring. DreadLlama fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Jan 26, 2021 |
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Jan 26, 2021 06:37
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:Use a vacuum to suck a string all the way through, then pull a brush behind, then follow with sanitizer. Oh my god that's genius. Thank you sir.
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Jan 27, 2021 20:32
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJLchfHOOj0 It's got a 5 micron filter and a 1 micron filter and two 75gallon-per-day membranes in series. It's got dual flowmeters, it's solar powered, the waste product is drinking water, and the knot holes are filled in with phosphorescent powder so it glows in the dark. 
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Feb 18, 2021 04:45
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That is a shiny tank! Good luck. My weather has been warm nights with warm days and cold nights with cold days. The only sap I have like is 3 gallons from February frozen solid in the shade while I wait for enough for a full batch. A 24oz mason jar of syrup needs just about 6 gallons of sap and I'm trying to do only full jars this year. Sadly the only thing I've gotten to test my fancy RO thing on is just well water. Different subject: Has anyone got a source for tree seeds online? https://www.treeshrubseeds.com/specieslist?id=1018&ID2=1 My normal guy is out of stock. I want to buy like 5lbs of maple seed.
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Mar 4, 2021 00:57
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Get a container of oat milk and pour it in a pot. Dump the same weight of oats into the pot. If the oat milk weighed 250g, put 250g of oats in the pot. If it weighed 1kg, put 1kg of oats in. Then put in 1/4 the weight of either ingredient (1/8 the total mass) of maple syrup. However much volume of maple syrup you put in, put in the same volume of cocoa powder. So if you needed 500ml of maple syrup, put in 500ml of cocoa powder. Equal masses of oats, 1/4 that much maple syrup, as much cocoa powder as maple syrup. Boil until it looks like oatmeal and then put it in the fridge. You can put it in the freezer but it goes rock solid when I do it so I recommend putting it in the fridge. The dairy lobby will sue you for selling it as ice cream, but it's vegan ice cream. 
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Mar 13, 2021 03:25
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I got a run. In fact I have at least 6 gallons so I'm doing a batch. First of the season! Question for you guys with RO units. Do you leave them running overnight when it goes below freezing? Surely nobody heats theirs. I'd hate to burst a pipe. 
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Mar 14, 2021 22:46
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Wow. That is an incredible setup. Has your family been doing that for a few generations? Edit: PSA: Did you know that Shurflo pumps have a phillips head screw at the end of the pump head that you can adjust to increase the shut off pressure from 45psi all the way up to 75? You can! But doing so in no way increases your pumps ability to cool itself. Not one bit. DreadLlama fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Mar 23, 2021 |
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Mar 22, 2021 21:04
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Double posting because jar.
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Mar 23, 2021 17:15
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Are these seeds?   edit: they were not. DreadLlama fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Jun 23, 2021 |
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May 23, 2021 18:30
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Oh Oh I've done that! Amazon sells a 100% stainless float valve https://www.amazon.ca/Homyl-Stainless-Ball-Cock-Aquarium-Cistern/dp/B07F9S3QSH It's got 1/2" NPT fittings on it so if your RO system has 1/2" female threads on the output (https://www.amazon.ca/Eastman-48018-Kitchen-Lavatory-Connector/dp/B00838JHPK) you can just plug your RO output directly in. In practice (in my case) the RO output is slower than the rate of boil off so the float valve never actually does anything. But it could! If you want to get really fancy get a flow rate meter for both the rinsate and the permeate. I've read that you want to get the flow rates as equal as possible. In my case I needed the flowmeters that go all the way down to 0.2LPM (https://www.amazon.ca/Homyl-Thread-0-05-0-5GPM-0-2-2LPM-Flowmeter/dp/B07HSYHWW6). I don't know why someone thought a flowmeter for under 2LPM needed to have 1 inch fittings on it but that's what they have. By the way; Anyone have success with electronic flow meters and motorized flow control valves? It seems to me that someone should have figured out a way to make an arduino balance flow rates. Also if you don't know what pump to buy may I suggest an aquatec 8800 series? https://www.cwwltd.com/8850-2j03-b544-aquatec-8800-high-flow-booster-pump-cdp-hfo-3-8jg-110bp-12v-dc-metal-plate/ They make them that run on 12V DC which is really convenient if your electricity situation consists of a solar panel and a car battery.
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Feb 14, 2022 01:45
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It's a great pump. But it has no priming ability - weak suction. It works if the sap bucket is on the bench level with the pump but does not work if the sap bucket is on the ground below the pump. Speaking of pressure controlling logic, the pump is not a demand pump and doesn't have any sensors to tell it to turn off. So you need a https://www.cwwltd.com/psw380-00-aquatec-pressure-switch-80-psi-3-8-jg/ pressure switch. This one is 3/8" push to connect fittings just like the pump. Edit: I should also point out that there's now "hobby reverse osmosis" https://webstore.cdlinc.ca/en/hobby-reverse-osmosis but you have to pay CDL prices for it. DreadLlama fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Feb 14, 2022 |
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Feb 14, 2022 14:50
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Sorry for your loss. I too have turned a turkey fryer pot into a flower pot by overboiling maple syrup in it. Now I use a wireless thermometer with an alarm set at 220°F. If it goes off I come running. Speaking of mistakes; I've discovered that you need to change your RO membranes at least once a year. In fact, according to this manual you're even supposed to clean them. Every day. Also check out this crazy flow diagram for the recirculation model. I want to copy this so bad. 
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Mar 17, 2022 00:55
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Neato! You should post pictures of it when it arrives. Lots of pictures.
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Mar 17, 2022 02:36
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On the subject of buddy sap, I've learned a new word. acerglyn - Maple mead, also called acerglyn, is made by replacing some of the honey with pure maple syrup. I've found two recopies online: 1. http://www.donosborn.com/homebrew/acerglyn.htm 2. https://www.growforagecookferment.com/maple-mead/ They both call for pure maple syrup and water. I wonder what kind of results a person could get by concentrating sap to like 6 or 7 brix and adding brewers yeast instead of starting with syrup and diluting it. Could the enzymes present in buddy sap ferment to alcohol? I feel like this is something that should be possible, but I may just be on the wrong side of the Dunning Kruger graph. I don't know. If I get buddy sap this year I think I'm going to try to ferment it. Absolute worst case scenario is I ruin a bucket, right?
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Mar 17, 2022 15:55
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Are you running co-ax, too? I keep thinking about getting a wireless solar-powered CCTV system but I don't know enough about security and the like to know what to buy.
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Mar 17, 2022 19:48
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Who'd you buy it from that they shipped it? Edit: Also did they mention what's a good flow rate for the concentrate line? I changed all my filters yesterday and my homebuilt thing is clogged again after like an hour. I know I'm doing something wrong I just don't know what. DreadLlama fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Mar 18, 2022 |
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Mar 18, 2022 20:05
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That would be my problem then. I was much closer to 1:1.
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Mar 18, 2022 20:10
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Thank you for confirming that; I'd read superflow green was just lye. I have a pound on order now. Boiling like a chump in the meantime.
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Mar 18, 2022 20:41
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Dude, sweet! Thank you. I love how they include the chemical names for most of the items but when it comes to the lye you have to go to the msds to get past the brand name.
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Mar 18, 2022 21:04
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It's specialized equipment you won't use for anything other than maple syrup, but I recommend buying a big filter sock bag and the prefilters to go in it. And a filter stand: https://www.amazon.ca/Winco-FF-10-Filter-Medium-Chrome/dp/B009Z21LOI https://www.amazon.ca/Filter-Edible-Package-Filters-50-Pack/dp/B087B3GS7K https://www.amazon.ca/Maple-Syrup-Wool-Cone-Quart/dp/B00TSQYMEW You want the prefilters because they get clogged up as they work. So you want to stack them up nested one inside the other. As you pour syrup through the filters they will catch the sugar sand (a.k.a. niter) and let the syrup pass through. So if you have multiple prefilters in your filter bag, you can pull out the top one and dump its syrup into the remaining prefilter layers. The sugar sand sticks to the prefilter so don't worry about dumping it out. The second filter will start out filtering quickly but it also will slow down as it collects more and more niter. You will be pulling it out and dumping its contents into the 3rd prefilter eventually, and so on. So have lots of prefilters on hand. There's a reason they're sold in packs. They're washable, but you will want to use multiple at a time. Anyway, the syrup passes through the filters, so you are going to want something underneath to catch the syrup. I have tried both filtering directly into a jar through a funnel, and filtering into a big pot. The big pot method is a lot better in my opinion. The funnel method involves cramming the filters into a funnel and standing it upright by sticking it in the jar. It balances kind of ok, especially if you have a canning funnel. And it works until the jar gets too top heavy from having a funnel full of syrup on top of it and nothing in the bottom. This will happen as the filters clog. And you can't stabilize it because both your hands are busy holding up a pot of maple syrup. So the jar can tip over and you lose whatever was in it and in the funnel, which is now dirty because it probably fell on the floor. In my opinion you need a big pot catch your syrup. This is what CDL sells: https://webstore.cdlinc.ca/en/mini-filter-tank-5-gal-imp. Its just a tall pot about as big around as the filters are, with a spigot at the bottom to drain syrup out. Since it's not in stock this pretty much the same: https://www.cabelas.ca/product/129582/bass-pro-shops-stock-pot-with-spigot-and-basket-60-quart. The spigot isn't strictly necessary and you could absolutely ladle the syrup out from under the filters. But it is *very* convenient. The most important thing is that the syrup go through the filters. I believe cheesecloth is slightly too coarse and coffee filters are too fine. Speaking of filtering has anyone found that their post-boil filter goes a lot better if they did a pre-boil filter? My RO machine is clogged up right now so I didn't use it on my last batch and I noticed it filtered a lot slower and was cloudier than the previous batch which I'd done with the RO. It's got a 5 micron filter and a 1 micron filter before the membranes so I wonder if putting the sap through them didn't help later on. Edit: Also I forgot the reason I came to post today. I found this on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/204voj/can_you_make_wine_out_of_maple_syrup_yes_should/ quote:I have made several acermeads, as has my uncle, who is a maple farmer. Our best ones have been made with flor sherry yeasts, which complement the funky aromas from the syrup. If you know any maple farmers, they will have many gallons of partially boiled sap left over in the evaporator that is usually discarded. It is too thin for syrup, but perfect for fermenting. Last year after syruping I took home two 7 gallon buckets of 1.110 sap and made them into acermeads. They do taste better if they have a bit of residual sweetness. quote:I had a friend do that with a brown ale, using 100% sap instead of water. There was a barely detectable undertone of maple. Syrup has about a 50:1 ratio to sap, so using 5 gallons of sap would be like adding 12oz of syrup. However, a lot of the syrup flavor comes from caramelization during evaporation, and you will get none of that with sap, so the flavor contribution will be even less. DreadLlama fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Mar 21, 2022 |
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Mar 21, 2022 21:41
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Does anyone keep track of mast years?quote:Every few years, some species of trees and shrubs produce a bumper crop of their fruits or nuts. The collective term for these fruits and nuts is 'mast', so we call this a mast year. Two of our most recognisable trees, oak and beech, fluctuate massively year on year in the amount of acorns and beech nuts they produce. quote:Research indicates maples have mast years every 2-5 years; sugar maple mast years reduce sap production the following year. when a plant will put all resources (even if it may mean death to the plant), into seeds just to get their genes into the next generation. quote:For much of Michigan, the late spring and summer 2020 were relatively dry. Trees often increase flower bud production when they are under stress, so the dry weather in 2020 resulted in increased production of flower buds that emerged in spring 2021 to produce the acorns we’re stepping on this fall. For spruces and firs, it is similar phenomenon; tree stress in 2020 resulted in increased production of cone buds that emerged and developed in 2021. In addition to weather in the previous year, reproduction in trees is also influenced by alternate bearing cycles, where heavy mast years alternate with lighter years. I remember seeing reddit post about how leaves were changing colour early last Summer. I noticed similar changes on my trees. If trees produce large quantities of seed in response to stress, and last Summer was stressful. should we expect lots of seeds this year? Does anyone remember the last year you saw a good deal of maple seeds? Here is an article about seed collecting. The reason I ask is because the seed store I frequent is out of acer saccharum seeds and other stores aren't better. FYI if you have seeds collected they say they'll pay you for them.
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Mar 29, 2022 12:49
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It's supposed to be the end of the season but over the past three days I've gotten more sap than I had in the previous three weeks combined. I'm just glad it isn't buddy.
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Apr 4, 2022 20:02
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I'm not done yet.There should be another sap run next weekend. But my DIY reverse osmosis unit isn't working again and I'm trying to troubleshoot it. Does anyone know the modes of failure for a diaphragm pump? Mine seems to be sucking air or something and the pressure never gets above 25psi. It started the last time I cleaned it - two 30 minute flushes of sodium hydroxide. The motor part is fine and it generates a modicum of pressure, but not the 80psi it used to. And there's more air bubbles in my flowmeters than there used to be. What did I do? Edit: I left my RO unit out overnight in the cold and ice formed in the pump, damaging the diaphragm. DreadLlama fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Apr 14, 2022 |
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Apr 11, 2022 03:07
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You know how I post experimental stuff nobody wants to read about? Guess what this post is about. There's a website called https://hydrosolar.ca/ who sell solar thermal stuff. I e-mailed them a question, "What would it take to boil 5 gallons of maple sap per hour?" and this is what they e-mailed back:     Unfortunately instead of being a thermosiphon this design requires a circulation pump so it still needs some electricity. But I suppose it makes sense to elevate the collectors instead of elevating the collectors and then needing a water tower on top of that to save on a pump. But I'd still like to see a design that requires no moving parts save for the fluid. That'd be something you could leave to your kids. DreadLlama fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Apr 26, 2022 |
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Apr 21, 2022 15:07
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Do you still get sap flow in the spring if it doesn't really go below freezing during the winter?
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Jan 9, 2023 23:11
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Really? Sap should be flowing now where I am in that case. Do you lose out on end-of-season sap if you tap early? I think I read somewhere that tap holes last only 6 weeks and then they heal up. If that's not the case I should probably start sooner than later.
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Jan 12, 2023 04:23
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Nice! Setting that thing up would make an excellent YouTube video.
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Jan 21, 2023 04:01
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My season has officially started for the 2nd time. Hopefully it holds unlike that fake spring in February. The RO machine is rinsed of citric acid and now is washing with sodium hydroxide. I don't know how there's crap in it since the citric acid solution is supposed to prevent bacterial growth. But this is going to be the year I get that thing working satisfactorily. Hopefully.
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Mar 22, 2023 21:29
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Do you guys use refractometers? I got a pair for Christmas and holy poo poo they're nice. I can't believe how easy these things are to read vs. the alternatives. (I don't know how accurate it is, but RO water correctly displayed 0%.) You can see the percent sugar of your liquid down to the first decimal point. My raw sap is 3.6%, the output of the reverse osmosis machine is at 5.2%, and the stuff I just started boiling is up around 7.0% exactly. This is way better than having to boil water and counting up 7°F or calculating off barometric pressure. Just put a few drops on the prism and stare at the sun.
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Mar 27, 2023 01:15
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 My sap is boiling at 217°F, which is 2 degrees less than I would think it should be before it's syrup. According to the refractometer, it's 68brix. I guess I could be bottling now.
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Mar 28, 2023 22:21
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150m isn't that high, is it? I blame it more on being overcast. You know the nicest thing about RO isn't the energy savings, but the fact that you can leave it running overnight. In my case the sap tank and the concentrate tank are the same tank:  I don't know how it works but It sucks that you're sick bro. What helps me is a solution of 50% maple syrup 50% coffee.
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Mar 29, 2023 16:13
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