collected 13ish gallons of sap from Jan 27 through Feb 1, ran it through the RO and removed 5 gallons of water.
On Saturday Feb 3 I pulled the evaporator out of storage and rebuilt the inside. I blocked off the back half of the barrel with a Cinder block and then covered the entire inside with fire brick. I also swapped out my galvi smoke stack for a solid steel stack I bought from sportsmans guide. its now screwed in and cemented and is rock solid. I also added a ball valve to my warming pan so I can control the addition of warmed sap to the pan so I don't slow down the boil.
The combo of the concentrated sap, improvements to the firebox, stack, blower placement, and warming pan valve meant that I boiled all 8 gallons of concentrate in around 3 hours. other than tending the fire, topping up the warming pan a couple times, and skimming foam, the process was super easy.
This week should be a blockbuster for sap collection, and I just got asked to tap five Sugar Maples at a hunting buddy's house.
this is not my barrel, but similar to what I did for set up showing the step up. the idea is efficient burn. the good burn is up front near the door, and the hot gasses rise and travel under the pan to get to the chimney. I got such a great boil going I turned off and unplugged my blower 1 hour in, just using the door as a air intake. Burned way less wood than I would have last year.
I tapped 9 trees today. They are all dripping at a pretty good clip. I was surprised. I’ll tap 3 more tomorrow. I’m hoping to get 40-50 gallons of sap to make some syrup. The last two years I struggled.
My Frankenfilter - a DIY vacuum filter using two old (free) stock pots, an online filter and a shop vac
My Frankenfilter - a DIY vacuum filter using two old (free) stock pots, an online filter and a shop vac
Results of the first boil of 2024 are in...as are the results of my 'frankenfilter' lol
Took my "nearup" from Sunday and finished it on the stove while I finished up my diy vacuum filter. Even though it was a small batch (13 gal of sap, RO'd down to 8 gallons of concentrate boiled down to about a gallon (rough estimate I don't have graduation lines on my pot.) Ended up with about a quart.
Have to say that vacuum filter with one Orion filter worked awesome. We'll have to see what precipitates out as this cools but it tastes and looks fantastic.
I’ve done this for the last two years and have done “just decent”. What is a good amount of sap you should be getting each day? I have 10 trees tapped. I’m in south/central CT and I think the maples are silver or swamp maples.
Red/swamp maples are hugely variable from one tree to the next, has been my observation. Bad = zero, great = 10-15 gallons (for the year). Silver I have no idea. Can’t beat a good sugar maple. I used to tap 5 sugar maples and about 50 red maples. The 5 sugars would out-produce the 50 reds.
Jeb, thank you. I didn’t know any of that info. All I have around my house is wetlands with those silver maples. In the past - Some days they drip a lot. Some days I get almost nothing. No rhyme or reason. I’m still very new to this. I’ll try to tap 4-5 more trees and see if I can’t up my sap collection.
I’ve had them out for 2 days and collected about 4 gallons so far.
how much each tree produces and when depends on a whole host of variables, like Altitude above sea level, species, canopy density (yard trees tend to produce more than forest trees - probably because they get exposed to more sunlight/warm up quicker), atmospheric and barometric pressure, Temperature, etc. My Norway maples always out produce my Reds. so far I've collected and processed around 13 gallons, and I just collected another 20 gallons yesterday (22gallon barrel filled nearly to the top after skimming all the ice out) ...33 gallons in a week and a half isn't bad for 8 trees/13 spiles.
I started running the 20 gallons through the RO yesterday and separated a gallon or two of water...will continue running tonight and probably start boiling again tomorrow.
yea...all the old timers keep yelling at me on the Backyard Maple Syrup Maker FB group that I tapped too early, and that I'm going to miss the best part of the season. But I literally had buds fully opened on my Red Maples by the second week of March last year.
Three of my trees went crazy today and over flowed my buckets. The others were so-so. Crazy trying to figure the stuff out. Almost ready to boil tomorrow.
It’s the weather…global warmin. As a kid living in MA trees never got tapped until the end of Feb first of March. Different ball game now. Even up here in NH the old timers are scratching their heads as some start tapping 2nd weekend of Feb. unheard of here. The sap house we run out of has hand written dates by year on the walls back into the 1920’s for star and end dates. It’s crazy.
so...as an 'unscientific study' I screened all the ice out of my buckets when collecting on wednesday. the cold sap temp corrected to 3.4 brix. Some of the ice was just the lop layer of the buckets, some was a thin shell completely coating the inside of the buckets and had to be broken out. I brought the bucket of ice inside and let it melt for 24hr. then measured and it was about 0.8 brix. since I'm a small operation, normally I'd keep it, but since I already had a 22 gallon barrel full I decided to just dump the ice-melt down the drain.
my method of testing, an old brewers hydrometer with Balling, alc %, and Specific Gravity, calibrated at 60*F. I used the Wine Makers Plus app to convert the brix/read temp/calibration temp. As I understand it, brix and balling are the same scale just calibrated at different temps and includes different decimal points so I was close just using the balling reading as brix since the app allowed me to enter the calibration temp.
In other words. a little ice in your buckets just concentrates the sugar in the liquid. toss it and boil the liquid....A lot of ice Like a full liquid filled shell a couple inches thick. keep it, it will likely have more sugars but still not as much as the liquid.
I was told that’s an old Indian trick—throw away the ice because it’s substantially lower sugar, and has the effect of concentrating sugar in the remaining unfrozen portion.
Here’s what I think: tap hole starts to heal up, or something, after a certain amount of time, reducing flow. I think there’s general agreement on that. So by that alone, you’d predict that early tapping would reduce late season flow. But here’s my twist: I think the “healing up” clock stops when everything’s frozen, reducing the later-season penalty for tapping early. Huge (hundred-thousand-tap) operations in Canada start tapping in December, by necessity. Also—we’ve learned the hard way on multiple years that late-season sap can be dicey—tastes bad if you go too long. So as a general rule, we try to start early and end early.
not sure its the freezing temp, Jeb. Most of those huge operations with thousands of taps are using a vacuum system. I think its the constant flow out of the vacuum system that keeps those holes open. they "have to" start tapping in December or they'd never finish tapping before the season ended.
also the general rule was 6 weeks for non-vacuum holes. this is why the oldtimers are saying I tapped too early, 6 weeks from Jan 27 puts me at March 9 and so they are saying I'm going to miss nearly all of march (Their Prime Time). What I'm saying is by that time last year my sap was already starting to go yellowy-brown and the buds were opening. if I miss "buddy" sap, who cares?
The tap heals up in the spring. Don't think it matters if tapped in January vs March. We always toss ice. PITA when you have 1500 buckets out and just means the Temps got to cold anyway.
Pro - I may have missed it, but where do you sell your syrup? I'm assuming you sell. If so, where. If I was in the area I'd buy some, just because it would be cool to have local sap made by a fellow bowsiter!
I volunteer at a sap house in Tuftonboro NH. It's a family that's been doing it 102 yrs now. Old school. We put out 1500 buckets. The younger generation seems to have little interest....a common thread in many things these days. We about 300 gallons of syrup a season on 20 -25 cords of wood
Didn't you post a pic of a big cylindrical metal tank on a wagon last year, Pro?
I boiled down 12 gallons of concentrate in about 3 hours this morning. Collected another 15 gallons of sap and dropped big chunks of frozen sap in the buckets to keep it cold.
Thanks. I got two pints boiled down yesterday. A nice dark amber and super sweet. I assume the trees will pump up production later this week with the prime temps?
I’ll try putting cinder blocks all around my grill. Lol
yea...the propane burner is not the most efficient way to boil. My first few years where my cast iron fire pit and a Ozark Trail campfire grate with some walmart turkey roasters. it worked but not the most efficient. I'm attaching a pic of the inside of my barrel evaporator.
the thing I've discovered is keeping the sap in the pans to no more than 2" actually gives you the most efficient boil (something about the bubbles carrying more water vapor to release into the air, the shallower the sap depth).
I just do it by my own assessment of taste, and viscosity. Also I have a panel of in-house expert tasters who I consult. Conventional way to do it with a hydrometer is far too quantitative and scientific. Need to keep a little voodoo in the system.
you can pretty much tell...I bring in my finish pot put it in the fridge after it cools. then in a day or two when I have time I finish it on the stove....generally once it foams up its there...but I can't turn off that '-tism' side of my brain and still check it with a hydrometer, just for a food safety assurance.
Brian - I’m a rookie. But I put a digital thermometer in to see when it gets to 219 degrees. But I think if you didn’t have a thermometer, you’d know when it was done because it starts to bubble and foam all up when it becomes syrup. I can say that it happens quick. It will hover around 213-214 for a bit and all of a sudden will jump up to foaming all over.
You can also tell when it's close by dipping your ladle into it and watching how it drips off. Syrup is thicker than sap lol. 219 is the target but the weather (high and low pressure) can change things a bit. Low pressure days always seem to take a bit more work.
Ok, I’ll divulge my viscosity method, in excruciating detail. I take up a spoonful of syrup, and rest the spoon on top of a glass, with the spoon handle and the tip of the spoon touching the glass rim. This way, the bottom of the spoon is undisturbed. A drop/drip of syrup will accumulate on the underside of the spoon. I let it come to room temp (a few minutes). Then I kind of tilt the spoon, and assess the thickness of the syrup in the spoon, and the ability of the drop on the underside to stay in place. When that drop on the underside more-or-less stays stationary when the spoon is tilted, it’s pretty much done. Then I taste it, of course. There you have it.
Finished up batch two last night WHILE making turkey soup, lol. pots on both stoves going, lots of stairs climbed. ended up with a quart-ish of liquid gold from about 12 gallons of concentrated sap.
Wow. You guys are professionals. Top notch quality operations.
Here’s a question. The last two years I’ve tried this, my trees leak for about 8-10 days and that’s it. Seems the same is happening this year too. I boiled down my first batch of sap got about 13-14 gallons in a week and I have maybe…. 1-2 more gallons to collect over the last 2 days. 10 trees tapped. Seems they stopped leaking.
Will these trees drip again or do I have to tap new trees to get more sap when the weather kicks in again?
third boil of 2024 completed. I think I ended up boiling a total of 5 hours, about 14 gallons of concentrated sap. have about 2 gallons to finish and bottle tonight. the new feed/siphon system worked great. never really had to touch it one it was set, just had to skim the foam and charge the firebox.
You just have super trees. I haven’t gotten a drop I don’t think in a couple weeks. I’m thinking of tapping all new trees tomorrow as this weather is going to warm up. Awesome job Hick.
You can clear foam quick with a little fat. We have a small piece of salt pork on a hook. If the foam gets high dip that salt pork in and the foam is gone in seconds. Drop or two of butter will do same.
Mid season recap. 3 batches bottled, around a gallon total. The color variation is crazy. Batches 1 & 2 were quick boils at a little over 3 hours each (before finishing on the stove). The third batch was a long slog in super cold temps with a lot more concentrate, boiled 5+ hours before finishing.
The niter (sugar sand) off the vacuum filter was delicious lol
Blood...its generally not advisable to drill new holes in the same tree, unless that tree could have supported multiple taps to being with.
I had collected a measly 14 gallons over the week. it was just too cold. ran it through the RO and got it down to 7 gallons of concentrate and boiled it on Sunday. Feed tank and warming pans worked much better this time. from start of fire to draw off exactly 3 hours and it was pretty near syrup...just need to finish on the stove tonight.
I also went over a buddy's and tapped a couple 18" sugar maples that started flowing immediately. hopefully I can catch the last few weeks of the season there. This week should be good, although only 4 of the next 10 days are forecasted to drop below freezing at night. I fear this might be the end.
Thanks. I didn’t tap the same trees. I tapped all new ones. As soon as I tap a new one…. It drips immediately. I have a lot of silver maples in the swamps around my house. Usually I get 1-2 gallons from a tree and then they stop.
I’m thinking this week will be a flood of sap with the warm temps??
here's hoping for a good run for you Jeb! we have only three days out of the next ten where night time temps are forecast to be below freezing. any sap we get is liable to spoil pretty quick.
That’s great! Don’t know for sure, of course, but down there in Massachusetts it might be wise to collect this run, wrap it up, and call it a win. On multiple years down there, we pushed our luck and ruined a whole boil because we collected too long. When the buds start to open up, time to quit collecting. Bad sap at that point. And our experience has been that you only know it’s “bad sap” once the boiling is done and syrup tastes bad—in other words, after a ton of time has been wasted. So in more recent years we try to quit while we’re ahead.
Ran into a buddy at Lowes and he told me he has a bunch of Sugars lining his driveway. so I went over sunday night after my 4th boil. tapped 2 Sugar and one huge Silver. already collected 4 gallons from the sugar and a gallon from the Silver. could be a busy week for me trying to keep the sap cool before I can boil.
How do you keep it from spoiling, Pro? especially with that big tank. I have 19 gallon barrels and I've been filling up tupperware containers with sap and freezing them, then dropping the big ice chunks into the barrels (then refilling and freezing) when the temp gets up over 50*F
My season so far...a little more than a gallon. Was hoping for 2+
My season so far...a little more than a gallon. Was hoping for 2+
Holy crap. I'm inundated. 20± gallons of sap in 3 days. Granted most of it is from new trees I tapped Sunday. The RO is running overtime tonight. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to bring this batch up to camp to boil up there since we were heading up for a long weekend. Wish I had room in the freezer for this.
ugh....I have 8 gallons of concentrate threatening to spoil, and the wife is demanding to go up to the lake for the weekend. what to do? throw the 1.5x2 pan in truck, two 5 gall buckets of concentrate and hopefully a big enough bin of wood. I have a ton of concrete blocks up there so I'm either going to throw together a cinderblock arch for the pan, or use the pan over the Solostove. I think I'm going to try the solostove first, hopefully its not too much of a pain recharge the fire.
I'm also picking up two 30 gallon steel drums. I'm going to build a bigger barrel evaporator for next year and get a bigger pan. like 2x3 maybe even a divided pan so I can draw off near-up as I go instead of boiling a whole batch
Well the Solo Stove along with some concrete blocks, my 24x18x6 inch pan, and my feed system worked perfectly up at the lake. Video in the link.
Boiled 8 plus gallons of concentrated sap down to 1.3 gallons of "nearup" that will be finished on the stove. Will be a little smokier than stuff from the evaporator but I'm sure it'll bee fine.
Today seems like it would have been good, but overall, seems an early end to the season, correct? Next week especially... lots of 50's and even 60 with minimal sub freezing.
I unfortunately got sick last weekend. Stomach bug from hell. No orifice was spared.
I lost out on the entire week as I hadn't eaten anything and had little energy. I ended up giving away 8 gallons of concentrate, and 13 gallons of raw sap so it wouldn't spoil. Just collected yesterday for the first time in a week. Barely 6-7 gallons from the 7 taps I have remaining. This week is likely to be it for me so I'm hoping for a little more to make one last batch.
I've got about 7 gallons of concentrate to boil down tonight as one last batch. that will put me are right around 2 gallons of finished syrup (including what I gave away). about equal to 2023, with 5 additional taps. kind of a sucky year all together.
Changes for 2025?
1) I'm going to build another barrel arch over the summer, and order a new 2x3 pan ....this will be longer so hopefully will at least double my Evaporation rate.
2) add additional membrane(s) to my RO to increase flowrate/decrease time running the RO
3) I'd like to run a couple of tubing lines on gravity to try to increase sap yield
now for the unenviable task of cleaning buckets and drops and storing everything away
I finished up my week at the sap house am I’m back in Florida. When I left Thursday we were at 120 gallons of syrup and ahead of last year at that point. Next week looks good for temps.
We’ve had two pretty rough years here in NH. Last year we tapped 100 and got about 4 gallons syrup, this year we tapped 45 and got only about 2 gallons. All red maples, in the woods. Wrapped it up about a week ago, which I don’t regret because we just got hammered with the snow.
That sucks. I've heard that its been tough for a lot of folks. if people didn't tap early, they missed most of the runs. there was just an article published about the strategic maple syrup reserve being at its lowest point in 16 years, and most syrup produced this season is going straight to sales....so it looks like the reserve isn't getting replenished.
I had 16 total taps in 10 total trees. ended up with 2.5 gallons
