Maple Syrup season 2015

[Rod Caster]

I might see some action this week. Will be keeping a close eye on things. I imagine it's normal for me to be one or two weeks behind Shane's location.

[SmokestackLightnin]

I put in 30 taps on Saturday, should be a good first run this week.

[Rod Caster]

I put in 30 taps on Saturday, should be a good first run this week.

Are you double-taping any trees? (let's keep this clean)

 

I was considering getting some tubing off a friend who has extra stuff, and doing a two or three tap system for some of my bigger/better trees, into a bigger pale.

 

I had a bit of liquid in one of my buckets today, tasted like melt-water, was likely melt-water haha.

[Sinker]

I double tap most of my trees, but im only tapping the biggest ones for doubles. I tend to tap 8 smaller ones along my driveway that produce earlier than the big ones, but the big doubles produce a lot more once it really starts flowing.

 

I wish I could post pics here from my phone!

 

S.

[BillM]

What's the ratio of sap out of the tree to syrup in the bottle? I am extremely jealous of some of you!

[gaspumper]

40 gal sap = 1 gal syrup.

[SmokestackLightnin]

Yes, some trees are double tapped. I will likely put in 10 more taps before the weekend.

 

It's running slowly today, only 5 gallons of sap collected today.

[Sinker]

I got 25L today from 25 taps. It ran kinda slow. A goodd sunny day and it will be game on!

 

Usual ratio is 40:1, but if you have good trees with big crowns in full sun you can do better. Some trees produce more sugar than others.

 

I set up my storage station and shoveled off my boiling station, so bring it on, im good to go.

 

S.

[lakerguy]

Yep,it's running. I checked buckets tonight. Gonna gather in the morning. Boil on the wknd.

Hopefully our first maple whiskey shots are poured Saturday night

[Sinker]

Yep,it's running. I checked buckets tonight. Gonna gather in the morning. Boil on the wknd.

Hopefully our first maple whiskey shots are poured Saturday night

Now you're talkin! The most expensive part of the boil is always the whiskey!

 

S.

[lakerguy]

What's the ratio of sap out of the tree to syrup in the bottle? I am extremely jealous of some of you![/quot

 

Mostly 40:1. Our road side maples are a bit higher in sugar than our bush trees. The crowns are way bigger on the rd ones vs bush which seems to make a huge diff.

 

Someday I would like to purchase a hydrometer for measuring sap sugar%

[Sinker]

How do you measure sugar content in your finished syrup now, without a hydrometer? Temperature?

 

I use a hydrometer. They are cheap and effective!

 

S.

[Sinker]

Collected 60L tonight

 

S.

[Rod Caster]

Out of my 12 trees, only the smallest one produced anything. Seems the northern run hasn't started yet.

[lakerguy]

How do you measure sugar content in your finished syrup now, without a hydrometer? Temperature?

I use a hydrometer. They are cheap and effective!

S.

Mine is only a syrup hydrometer.

[Sinker]

Out of my 12 trees, only the smallest one produced anything. Seems the northern run hasn't started yet.

I always tap 8 smaller trees out of my 25, because the smaller ones run before the big ones thaw out. I always get really nice light syrup from them, and keep that sap separate when I boil too.

 

I have about 90L to boil tonight. Should have a couple litres to go with breaky tomorrow morning

 

S.

[Rod Caster]

Last week: Tapping

 

 

 

[Sinker]

I have 120L to boil tonight after work. Its gonna be a late night, but I should get a few litres of syrup Last night's boil didn't happen.

 

S.

[lakerguy]

 

 

 

Couple pics of my rig. I think it's evaperating about 8gal/hr. if i crank the valves open fully she boils pretty good maybe up to 10 gph. I have a fire box too for it but when I'm working in the shop,the propane gets used. I built the lp unit by just bolting together 3 Martin turkey fryer burners that I picked up at Home Depot in the middle of winter a few yrs ago for 20 bucks each on a clearance sale. I made a little manifold for the supply. I have it plumbed into my under ground line coming off our lp supply for our chicken barns. I used to have the unit wrapped in ceramic blanket but it would starve for air and not burn as efficiently. That's why it looks so old,it's been hot a few times lol. I run it in a well vented building. When its cold out I just put the unit outside on the cement and let it boil away. We mostly just make batches. The pan can be continuous flow, but I don't lie standing beside it drawing off a cup every twenty minutes. When I have almost syrup I transfer it to a smaller 18"x18" sq finishing pan where I can control the boil a bit better and finish it right.

Edited March 14, 2015 by lakerguy

[Sinker]

Nice set up! Mine is boiling away now. Put 100L in my pan at 3:40. Started boiling in about 45 mins. We'll see what time I get done at. Should get aroundd 2.5L of syrup by midnight.

 

 

S.

[SmokestackLightnin]

We interrupt sap season to bring you a small fishing report. Went to the cottage Saturday to close out walleye season and see if we entice a trout or two as well. Well last night was a fantastic night on the ice and it was capped off by a beautiful sunset. The fishing was great all weekend and we wound up keeping only 6, all males, biggest one was 3lbs.

 

The sap flowed well while we were gone and now we have 350 litres collected, boiling starts tomorrow.

 

 

[Sinker]

Beautiful!

[Rod Caster]

Nice report!

 

Two of my trees started flowing yesterday...maybe 1-2L in total... all the big trees are keeping tight

[Sinker]

I finished 3 litres last night and have another 140L boiling now. Its been a bit of a process this year so far, but after today I should get caught up. 280L through the pan by end of the day today .

 

S.

[Rod Caster]

Ya man! You getting any help?