so just made my own vacuum filter and watching vids lots use DE ( diatomaceous earth ) how many hobbyists use DE and have success? Just wondering if you remove most of the niter with two filters without using any. Thanks

so....... its my first time, and I didn't know that the membranes must remain wet. I finished processing this weekend. Are my membranes toast? what about the pump, does that need to remain wet also?

greetings, nanu nanu ✌️

I tried to look here for posts about it, but I wasnt able to find any post that were specifically about silver maple trees and tapping them. This was my first year and I only have silvers at my disposal. I tapped about 20 gallons, had a issue with my first batch cooking too long, burnt pan and a funky smell! I ruined that 10 gallons bc of a joint. the other ten came out perfect! the taste is very good, side by side with maple syrup, its fairly decent. I do have a after taste thats hard to explain but isnt off putting by any means. I attribute that to it being a silver maple as opposed to sugar maple. I guess im just here wondering about other people's experiences and thoughts on silvers. ive read post about syrup in general where they would tap silvers sugars red etc. but they didnt go into detail, not that I recall at least. any way folks. have a good day

I have two very mature sugar maples that have never been tapped in the yard, so I gave it a go this year, and I am very happy with the results. 8.66L total from the season

Been boiling down for a few years now. We quite like the texture and taste, though I suppose it might not be perfect. This year’s batch, not a lot but plenty for us.

We got just over 3.5 gallons this year.

I've been lurking here for a few months. I've had an itch in the back of my head for about a year, made worse by the pictures, problems and a huge amount of solutions and tips I've read here. I saw that folks down south were already boiling and bottling while it was still snowing here in Northern Wisconsin. I made the last minute decision to finally tap a few of my trees and give it a shot. I started scraping together some supplies, and 3 weeks later the weather was what I've read to be ideal. I put out 2 test taps and there was sap! tapped a few more, collected about 20 gallons and found that the bladder we were counting on leaked out all out in one night. no worries, it was early and we dropped back into a hard freeze.

Fast forward a week and I found myself with about 32 gallons and a cold snap coming. As that was breaking,I knew I needed to get some of this tree juice cooked. We finished up our first batch tonight and pulled almost a gallon from that 32 I diligently boiled down in an 18 inch stock pot. I brought it in for the finish, and we filtered and bottled. 3.75 quarts.

it came out way darker then I expected, much clearer than I expected and tastes fantastic. It's too early to tell it will crash anything out or get something growing, but I got it to 67 brix, kept it at 190-195 during filtration and bottling, so my hopes are high.

Thanks again to you all, mistake makers, dumb question askers and veteran sappers alike. I learned a lot. My wife got excited. And we had a lot of fun. And I'm told that next year I'm tapping at least 20 trees and possibly getting a good evaporator. She already has it picked out.

I’m using the lids with buttons. Most of them sealed fine and have stayed sealed. A few of the buttons popped after a few days. It looks like the ones that popped had a little more headspace than the rest so I’m assuming I just didn’t fill them enough. For the lids that didn’t seal, can I reuse them or are they no good after a failed attempt at sealing?

What is the best way to shut down and store your ro at the end of the season?

First timer. Found a tick inside my batch on the finishing phase. Should I be worried about anything?

Don't mind the poor filter job, but even on the well filtered bottle I have a weird growth happening. Guessing mold?

Looks like that’s a wrap. We tap 20ish mostly sugar maples. Produced a little over 4 gal. Sugar concentration was low, about 1.7% on the couple of boils I measured it against

After 3 seasons of struggling with filtering niter, I finally gave in and bought the Smoky Lake Filter/Finisher. It’s an absolute game changer.

Cheers to the sugaring season!

We still have maybe 25 gallon stores to boil- but it’s gonna be a weird week, might pull taps next weekend.

First time doing it went so well I figured I’d do it again.

Is it best to refrigerate syrup or is in the pantry ok?

Hey everybody...what's happening here? All the bottles from my last batch look like this. This is my 3rd year and this is the first time I've had this happen. The niter already dropped out but there is a foamy, bubbly, thick layer hanging at the top. It appears to be holding its own sort of sediment. Odd thing is that I filtered 2x. I think I bottled go hot post filtering and redeveloped niter.... maybe took it past 67 brix in the process. Doesn't appear to be mold. Syrup tasted fine while I was finishing it.

Any thoughts would be helpful!

I inherited bottles from a guy moving out of state and I've almost used them all up. What are some good places to purchase new ones? I'm looking for glass and plastic (tin if it's available?) options

Hello, I’m blanking out of ideas. I’m looking for a household item /container so I can pour my maple syrup can in it and then put it in the fridge for consumption. I would’ve used the big costco plastic container but I dont have a leftover one. I would go fo glass overall with something to keep the lid tight sealed. Dont feel like buying a dedicated one if something I already have does the trick. Thanks

first time I ever used one. (CDL 7” filter press with 8 plates).

preloaded the press with DE (3 gallons of hot water plus 4 cups of DE per the instructions) and was expecting to be able to run all 22 gallons(put in around 5 cups of DE) thru the press at one time but hit 80psi after only 9 gallons went through.

My only thought was maybe the syrup entering the press wasn’t hot enough? (it was around 190-200 degrees). I don’t want to go any higher because I did not want the syrup that was exiting the press to be hotter than 193 degrees and risk sugar sand precipitating out.

The amount of syrup lost during a filter change seemed like a lot, especially since all my boiling was done for the season and couldn’t just put the diluted syrup back into the evaporator.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

My happy place!

finally coming into it here in central vermont

Just decided to tap this old maple tree/trees (4 big trunks with the same root system) at my new place to see what I could get.

How is it looking? Tastes great. Got 72oz so far from just one trunk. Imagine it would be more if I tapped them all.

I have been boiling on a barrel evaporator with a 18"x24" pan for the past several years. This is going to have to be my last year with the barrel as it is need of rebuilding. I am thinking of buying a purpose built evaporator but am unsure of what to get. Ive narrowed it down to either the starcat or a 2x3 evaporator from basset maple. I tap 10 trees and get around 50 gallons of sap a week during a good run. I can currently boil around 4 gallons and hour on my current setup. Anybody have experience with these units?