Maple Syrup 2022

[ramrat]

I've got about 90% of my taps in. Not a crazy number, but looks like I'll be at about 330ish when I'm finished. Up from 270 last year. My new mainline allowed me to reach some taps I couldn't previously. Today is the start of our first stretch of warm weather, so hopefully we'll be swimming in sap by the weekend. I'm finishing up some coffee right now and then @ramrat and his crew are dropping by on their way back to Iowa. I wish we had some sap to cook for their visit, but maybe next year.

Thanks for the tour Ryan! Both my boys slept on the way home.

 

[Ryan Browne]

After Lee and his boys headed home I took my wife and kid to the airport and a couple of my buddies met me back at the farm when I got home. We putzed at it for a couple few hours and got the releaser plumbed and wired, got the sap lines hooked up and the VFD for the vacuum pump wired up. It was pretty incredible getting to flip the breakers and hit start on the VFD. After a little while the damned thing was pulling 29" of vacuum which is pretty much what we all dream of when running vacuum. The sap was just barely dribbling in by late afternoon when we turned it all on. There's a bunch of warm weather in the forecast finally, so hopefully that releaser is running all the time!

 

[kingOFgEEEks]

I finished a bunch of syrup this weekend. Looking like one last good run today, and after I boil that down, I'll pull taps and be done for 2022. I'm hoping for about 5 or 6 gallons of finished syrup on 30 taps, so not bad. 240 gallons of sap collected so far, and if today runs well, I should get another 40-50.

 

[Hinerman]

I would be a buyer if anybody is going to Iowa GTG in April

NEW! - 2022 iowa gtg | Outdoor Power Equipment Forum (opeforum.com)

 

[stihl livin]

I would be a buyer if anybody is going to Iowa GTG in April

NEW! - 2022 iowa gtg | Outdoor Power Equipment Forum (opeforum.com)

Thomas message Ryan Browne as I believe he is going.

 

[Ryan Browne]

I would be a buyer if anybody is going to Iowa GTG in April

NEW! - 2022 iowa gtg | Outdoor Power Equipment Forum (opeforum.com)

Thomas message Ryan Browne as I believe he is going.

It's my intention to be there. If I can't make it, maybe I can send some down with one of these mudducks to my left.

 

[Johnmn]

 

[FederalQ]

It is not shaping up to be a decent maple season here at all. Tonight is the first below freezing temp in 10 days followed by days ahead that will not be above 32dF! Some producers have opted out along with the high fuel costs.

 

[Ryan Browne]

View attachment 331528

Considering that's hooked up to a shurflo pump, you're doing something right John!

 

[Ryan Browne]

Been a while since I posted an update. Had a big push to get my pump house up and running, then the sap was pretty slow for several days. We used that time to clean the cooker and some tanks. Finally had enough to cook last Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we had some visitors including ones who packed in a lasagna. The perfect weather has been evading us, but we've still been getting some sap pretty much daily. I did get the RO installed in its new home in my sugar shack. I only had it for the last 1/3 of the season last year and I only used it for the sap that I got delivered from my neighbors. So having it down there where I cook and using it for all the sap should make a huge difference in time and fuel usage. This is a wide angle picture to get the whole situation in one shot, so looks kinda goofy but you get the idea.

The manifold on the floor is for input, fresh sap, permeate, or from the wash bucket. The middle one is for permeate output, into a permeate tank, the wash bucket, or the drain, and the one on the left is for concentrate flow, into my head tank, concentrate tank, wash bucket, or drain. I'll have to make a chart for valve positions for various cycles.

 

[Johnmn]

Considering that's hooked up to a shurflo pump, you're doing something right John!

Beginners luck? I'm sold on vacuum by the way!

 

[Ryan Browne]

Beginners luck? I'm sold on vacuum by the way!

Whatever it is, keep it up.

Yeah, I don't think I've heard of anyone who went back to buckets, bags, or gravity tubing after running a pump. I know I sure wouldn't!

 

[kingOFgEEEks]

I wrapped up my season last weekend. A little over 7 gallons finished off of 30 taps. Not bad for the season we had this year, since it warmed up hard and fast when it did.

 

[Duane(Pa)]

Pulled my taps out today. Got two pints from 8 gallons of sap I had in the fridge. 10 more gallons then it’ll be over.

 

[cuinrearview]

Pulled my taps out today. Got two pints from 8 gallons of sap I had in the fridge. 10 more gallons then it’ll be over.View attachment 331619

32:1 that's some pretty heavy sap you're getting.

 

[Duane(Pa)]

32:1 that's some pretty heavy sap you're getting.

This is definitely amateur hour, only my second year. Is that because of the trees, or the weather? Seems to always give slightly better than 40:1 which is what I was expecting... Also, right or wrong, my method is to cook it until it tries to jump out of the sauce pan I boil it in. I give it about 5-6 good jumps, then pour into preheated jars.

 

[cuinrearview]

This is definitely amateur hour, only my second year. Is that because of the trees, or the weather? Seems to always give slightly better than 40:1 which is what I was expecting... Also, right or wrong, my method is to cook it until it tries to jump out of the sauce pan I boil it in. I give it about 5-6 good jumps, then pour into preheated jars.

I'm even more amateur. I boiled to 218.5 or whatever the altitude correction was then jar it.

 

[Ryan Browne]

This is definitely amateur hour, only my second year. Is that because of the trees, or the weather? Seems to always give slightly better than 40:1 which is what I was expecting... Also, right or wrong, my method is to cook it until it tries to jump out of the sauce pan I boil it in. I give it about 5-6 good jumps, then pour into preheated jars.

Lots of things can affect sugar content, and it does vary greatly. It typically starts a little higher at the beginning of the season and tapers towards the end. I got some 3.4% delivered this week, which is 25.6:1. At the end of last year I was bringing in some 1.4% which is 62:1. If you're cooking raw sap (without an RO) it sure makes a huge difference in time and fuel consumption.

 

[Johnmn]

I have 3 60 gallon drums full of sap and just checked them and they were either 2.7 or 2.8 brix which should be in the 29-32:1 range

 

[Ryan Browne]

Big day out there today. My wife sent invitations to the families of the kids in my daughter's kindergarten class and 8 families came out today while we were making syrup. We had about 1000 gallons of sap on hand from the last few days. Got real cold here last night (17), so I had to deal with some frozen valves and pipes, but I did eventually get the RO going around noon and started cooking at about 1.

The sap was strong before the RO and we made 37 gallons of syrup by the time we quit at 5:15. Pretty incredible (for us anyway) to get through that much sap in just over 4 hours. And we used about 40-45% of a cord of wood which is also a great ratio.

Gonna freeze even harder tonight, so probably no sap again tomorrow but my trail down there will be frozen solid and I can haul some more stuff down there. Plan is to get the filter press and bottling tank down there and get set to to bottle later in the week. Then we will be mostly done setting up. Mostly...


Here's a picture of my 650 gallon tank as I found it last night. It probably ran a few gallons on the ground before I got there, but not very many. I have a thing for bulk tanks full right to the brim, so I had to get a picture.