|
That's weird that you get sand with the prefilter + cloth filter, that always results in perfectly clear stuff for me. You aren't wringing it or anything are you? Heating it back up above 180 to jar it? Apparently the sugar sand is a laxative but I don't know how strong. Don't ever filter when it's cool, heat it up to 180 on the stove at least. I had a really nice batch that I poured off around 217 through the filter, it was a dream. Took it from 6L to 4L in about an hour on the propane and just bottled it because the filter was dirty but there was barely any extra sugar sand formed. I admit I do really like a perfectly clear jar of syrup. I tried the settle and scoop method and found it took at least a week for the bulk of it to settle.
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2018 02:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 13:14 |
|
|
Found a dead cedar, turned it into another 8.5L of astonishingly light syrup especially for this time of year, 41L total. Really easy boil, the freezing let me dump a ton of ice in the bush. Filtered very easily at 215, another hour on the propane. Got a bit of sediment because I didn't feel like refiltering but pretty minimal.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2018 04:18
|
|
|
I've never heard of anyone tapping a softwood before. That's crazy. I tapped back in February and am beginning to wonder if my holes aren't closing up. There's been a couple days below freezing and now it's supposed to go up to 5°C. If I don't get a run today it might be time to drill some new tree holes. Was this a white cedar or a red cedar?
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2018 12:01
|
|
|
DreadLlama posted:I've never heard of anyone tapping a softwood before. That's crazy. Crazy, I've never had a hole close up prematurely but we're been on the colder side here. The cedar is white, I cut it up for firewood because I've run out of dry split poplar.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2018 13:08
|
|
|
hoping I get a run today.... supposed to be ~38F by 4pm.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2018 16:59
|
|
|
very small run today, a few gallons max, but the temp never really went over 35. Tomorrow is supposed to be close to 40. If I don't get a decent run tomorrow is it worth attempting to retap in different places / tap a few more trees, or is that a pretty good sign that the season is ending?
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2018 01:58
|
|
|
Tim Raines IRL posted:very small run today, a few gallons max, but the temp never really went over 35. Tomorrow is supposed to be close to 40. Pretty much the same here. A few trees were cranking but most were just barely dripping. I'm going to finish one more big batch and call it a season I think, next 3 days look good for sap.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2018 02:56
|
|
|
I completely forgot to update last week, but I finished boiling for the year and drat near hosed up all my syrup. I finally had to throw out some sap this year: 30 gallons in total. That'd be a big loss if this were sugar maple sap, but with my trees I'd be lucky to get a quart of syrup out of that, so not a crying shame. I started with 3.5 gallons of sweet I had from previous boils and threw in the remaining 20 gallons of sap I had sitting under trees. Once the liquid got down to about an inch, the foam became really difficult to control. I was keeping a close eye on the liquid level, but what I didn't realize was that the liquid level was artificially high due to all the foaming action. The wife was rushing me to eat dinner so I said "gently caress it" and took my pan off the fire right then. It's a good thing I did because when the foam subsided, I was a little under a half inch of syrup in the pan. The syrup cooled so quickly in the freezing air that I had to add some distilled water and pop it back over the arch just to dilute/warm it up enough to flow into my storage jars. Right now I've got 1.5 gallons of drat-near-syrup sitting at the back of my fridge waiting for me to finish, filter, and bottle.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2018 17:50
|
|
|
I'm getting slightly more rapid dripping today, but still barely a run. Weather has not really cooperated, it was supposed to be warmer now. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer yet, by first thing in the morning, and also super sunny. I am hoping to get one more decent run here, but I also note that some of my trees have the beginnings of buds on the end, so it may be that I'm just done. I guess I'll know more tomorrow. I think my production this year has been ~1.5gallon of leaded that I passed on to a relative who gives no fucks (and made it that way for decades), and then I've got 3 gallons sitting canned up in the pantry, and I'm going to estimate at least another half gallon down in the pan. Not terrible for a first try with 50 taps, seems like I hit about 50% of the maximum potential for a really good year (and also note that I had to ditch 50 gallons of sap that went sketch). If we DON'T get another good run, then I'm really kicking myself for not being more aggressive about boiling that stuff before it spoiled, but, lessons learned. My plan for next year is to go to 100 taps, and also have the place who built this pan for me, build me another one that is 4x3' with 3 partitions and reversible, like the old leaded pan I had. Based on what they charged for the 2x3 1-partition pan, I am expecting that to probably cost me a grand, and I will likely have to sell of some of my precious magic cards to bankroll it. I think I can expand by 50 taps a year without changing much for the next 2-3 years; after that then I'll be looking at going progressively deeper into my woods, which likely means setting up another main line and reservoir back there, and having some kind of ATV setup to haul stuff down to the shack. One thing at a time. Cabbages and Kings fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Apr 10, 2018 |
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2018 19:14
|
|
|
Tim Raines IRL posted:Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer yet, by first thing in the morning, and also super sunny. I am hoping to get one more decent run here, but I also note that some of my trees have the beginnings of buds on the end, so it may be that I'm just done. I wish I had a picture of the buds on my silver maples when I was still gathering sap, but think "big, fat blackberry". Silvers start budding WAY early, like the end of January; but it doesn't seem to affect the sap flavor much earlier. I'm always done for the year before my trees are anyway.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2018 21:17
|
|
|
Shame Boner posted:I wish I had a picture of the buds on my silver maples when I was still gathering sap, but think "big, fat blackberry". Silvers start budding WAY early, like the end of January; but it doesn't seem to affect the sap flavor much earlier. I'm always done for the year before my trees are anyway. Fingers crossed; I'd like to keep going until I'm out of wood down there, which would get me a couple more gallons, but we'll see if nature cooperates.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2018 15:53
|
|
|
It's slowed down a lot but it looks like I still got around 10 gallons today. As long as I've got wood down there and I'm getting a quart of syrup a day, I'm probably not going to be able to convince myself to stop. Do any of you other maple people have lines run, and if so, do you have any tips for end-of-season (assuming you leave them up all year)? I'm reading that cleaning with bleach attracts squirrels for some  reason, and that a good strategy is to use a pump to push hot water back up through the lines and then seal them.If I can scrounge money together to get another 3x4' pan built this summer, I will probably scale up to 100 taps next year. I'm real happy with the pan OKHardware built me, so I will start by getting a quote from them for exactly what I want. It's not nearly as "restaurant grade aesthetics" as some of the stuff I see advertised, but it's super functional and the price was great.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2018 22:39
|
|
|
Tim Raines IRL posted:It's slowed down a lot but it looks like I still got around 10 gallons today. As long as I've got wood down there and I'm getting a quart of syrup a day, I'm probably not going to be able to convince myself to stop. It's worth keeping an eye on mapletrader.com classifieds or kijiji or facebook maple equipment groups, you can pick up used stuff for a pretty good price in the off season. Decent run here today but you can tell it's coming to an end. The yard trees which normally produce a lot are mostly done but the bush trees are pumping. My storage was full so I boiled off about 40 gallons today, will just get it to sweet, pour off and finish next week. I'm totally out of wood, was scrounging dead trees again today. 40mm of rain and 30cm of snow coming in the next 5 days, gently caress this spring has been terrible.
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2018 03:14
|
|
|
This looks really fun and I wish I could do it but I live in Texas. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2018 04:04
|
|
|
It's slowing way down, but I got another 10gal of sap yesterday and it still tastes fine. We're back below freezing, so we'll see if there's a quart or two more yet to come. I'm at 3 1/8 gallons of syrup from the new pan. I lost 1.5 to the leaded pan at the beginning of the season, and dumped a gallon worth of sap plus, so that put my potential for the year at just under 6gal (and I'm pretty sure the sweet sitting in the pan now is at least another 2-3 quarts). I'm pretty happy with that as a first attempt with 50 taps; next year I'll be back to 4x3' boiling area one way or another, and go up to 100 taps. [quote=Postess with the Mostest Postess with the Mostest posted:It's worth keeping an eye on mapletrader.com classifieds or kijiji or facebook maple equipment groups, you can pick up used stuff for a pretty good price in the off season. I think I'll probably just do the relatively cheap & easy thing, and get another 2x3' from OKHardware and put them side by side. Not as great or efficient production as a single pan with more partitions, but this pan is fine and two of them would be twice as fine. I will keep an eye on those places first, though. As the snow melts, I suddenly have a bunch of pressing maintenance and brush/wood-clearing and tick proofing concerns; once I get everything shut down I'll be lucky to think of this again before September.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2018 19:16
|
|
|
I'm still getting baby runs. This spring has been bonkers, I woke up today and it was 30 and snowing; now it's 37 and STILL snowing fluffy powder. Looks like nothing but freeze/thaw over the next 3-4 days. I think I'm going to keep things going through the weekend if possible, so that my sister-in-law's kids can see the process when they visit, and then shut it down because I really have other home maintenance stuff I should be focusing on.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2018 18:25
|
|
|
Made another 15L last weekend. Dark and mapley. 56L/14 gallons total not bad, I feel bad complaining after ending up with that much but I will anyways, screw this spring. Changes for next year: - Learn welding, make the evaporator air tight other than the door, get a proper frame for the top - Get a real door - Get the draft area under the back of the pan a lot closer (4-5" this year) need 2" and bricked - Straighten trail through woods for easier atv retrieval - Sugar/wood shed A little over half left  Color difference between 3rd and 2nd batches 
Postess with the Mostest fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Apr 28, 2018 |
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2018 16:56
|
|
|
Postess with the Mostest posted:Made another 15L last weekend. Dark and mapley. 56L/14 gallons total not bad, I feel bad complaining after ending up with that much but I will anyways, screw this spring. I ended up with around 4gallons of unleaded, and had 1.5g or so of lightly lead contaminated syrup that I sent to my elderly cousin who doesn't care (and made syrup on a leaded pan for 20+ years). Lost a gallon to sap spoilage, so my production potential this year I guess was 6.5g; that seems pretty good for a first try with 50 taps. Next year I'll run 100; in the mean time I'm glad to be cleaning all this stuff up because I have a ton of maintenance stuff to do now that it's warm out. My first batch looked like your second or third; my last batch is darrrrk indeed. Cabbages and Kings fucked around with this message at 16:20 on May 2, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2018 16:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 13:14 |
|
|
Some notes about cleaning out 5/16" lines at the end of the season: Some people online talked about using an RV pump and a 30gal reservoir on an ATV to go around and blast the lines out. That seems great but I don't have an ATV yet, and once I do I have no other reason to get a camper pump and a large reservoir. I found another thread where someone used a sprayer backpack like you'd use to spray pesticides, and rigged it up to a piece of 5/16" hose. That sounded fine, so I ordered one for $50 on Amazon, but when it arrived and I started taking it apart to clean it, my general concerns about the probably-not-food-grade nature of the materials, coupled with the amount of grease and machine oil present places in side the reservoir, made me queasy about filling it with water and then blasting that through my lines. I then took an old, somewhat busted hose sprayer handle, and found a funnel in the kitchen whose end diameter is about 5/16". I cut it off with a knife at where the diameter was just larger than the end of the hose sprayer, and did this with some duct tape:  I've just been walking around, popping taps out, sticking them into the end of the yellow nozzle, and blasting water through it (I already had like 250' of hose, which can get me to all the taps I've got for now). Then I will let the lines drain for a couple days; I'm not sure if I'm going to bother taking them down, or just leave them up for next year. I've been told you get about 5 years out of the 5/16s before they get too hosed up with bacteria and debris to flow well, but that squirrels like to chew on them. Then I read that if you clean them with bleach it leaves some salt residue and that's what really attracts squirrels. I'm probably tempted to just leave them up because the work of replacing them if they do get destroyed isn't really any different than the work of taking them down and putting them back up. It's a slight eyesore, but, who really cares. Cabbages and Kings fucked around with this message at 16:45 on May 7, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 7, 2018 16:41
|
|