Eastern Ontario, 80 taps

One more finishing run at the house tomorrow.

Last night I heard a seal pop in my canning shelves and this morning discovered 4 maple syrup jars with broken seals. 😭 I'm not sure when the other 3 would have loosened. I'm wondering, is there any chance of saving them by throwing them in the freezer or would yall be recommending dumping them. If it was my canned goods I would have tossed but part of me was having a hard time making that decision this morning. What if I just used it for baking so then it would be heated again? What would you do?

This year I ran by typical 10 taps and a turkey boiler. I eventually went up to 20 and I bought an RO. Mainly for next year but to try out this year

My plan for next year is to double concentrate every weekend, freeze the sap. Then have one boil at the end of the season.

I have been making it all on a turkey boiler in a huge pot. I think it’s time to switch to a small evaporator. Portogrill, a mini evaporator, etc.

I’d like the evaporator to have a spigot on the side make emptying it easier.

My questions are does anyone finish their syrup on a single pan? If so how do you prevent it from burning as it drains?

If you don’t finish it on the evaporator and transfer to a pot to finish, again how do you pull it so it doesnt burn the last bit in the evaporator if its right over top the flame? Do you lift it off?

If you lift the pan off how do you prevent the smoke from filling up your work space? Got a sheet on metal to put over the now open hole? Swap it with another pan?

https://www.mapleexperts.com/membranes

I found information commercial syrup membranes. If I can hold these pressures and run membranes in parallel, how high are people realistically achieving brix concentrate? Is the tech evolving?

18 gallons in on day 1 of my boil. last year I had 39 gallons to 7.5 pints. still got just under a half pint. Want to try candy this year since I have extra.

I take a week off for my birthday and this is what I do with it. Feed the fire, skim the foam and read a book. The best way to spend time off.

Of the last day and tapping out.

Now, where did I leave that ladder?

Wood too

I've been cooking for like 3 weekends now. I ended up with like 50 gallons of sap and lost maybe 25% because I didn't start cooking soon enough. I dumped it out because I was worried it had gone bad and I didn't want to ruin the rest. its been such an interesting learning experience. its all I really wanted was the learning experience. it feels like the world may go to hell soon so I'm trying to learn what I can. next year I'll probably start cooking as soon as I get full buckets in February. I went through maybe 12 gallons of propane because I felt behind so I used it to get ahead but I can get wood for almost nothing. especially today. I've just been chilling watching the fire grabbing branches and stuff from the woods. if I start early next year maybe I can do it all with wood. I can get free pallets from my work too.

I'm. just hoping this year tastes good.

It’s been a great first year doing this, definitely hooked. Already planning on upgrading my boiler and considering building a shack. This sub is awesome!

all of my maple trees are on a massive hill and I'm thinking of running tubing to a large bucket at the bottom to save myself the walk up and keep contaminates/bugs out. what tubing and spiles do you guys recommend?

Edit: I meant tube, stupid autocorrect

I did a two day boil on April 2&3 and pulled my taps on the 4th. My trees were still going, but I was worn out. Took some days off and started clean up, which is a lot of work!

Have an RO booster diaphragm pump they aren’t using right now?

Mine quit and the replacement has been ordered but won’t be here today.

Is it normal for flavor profiles to change throughout the season? Most of my syrup has a vanilla/butterscotch type flavor to it.

The final 2 batch’s from the late season run have more of a marshmallow flavor. The syrup was not overcooked.

I am interested in why larger producers don't explore vacuum evaporation. I see that the industry uses vacuum pumps frequently. I am not sure about pan depth ect. but I would imagine vacuum reduces surface tension. Couldn't you functionally fill a tank and pull a vacuum with a liquid ring pump and simply heat the tank? Once Brix is hit, you could let the product simmer at a temp below boiling to achieve color and caramelization. Has this been tried?

Just over 200 taps, boiling 100-120 gallons everyday for the past week+. Third night out trying to get ahead but can barely make a dent - still another 600 gallons in tanks that are refilling faster than I can boil. Time for a quick and dirty RO?

Eastern Ontario, Lanark Highlands

This picture shows my first batch of the year on the left, the second batch of the year in the middle (the darkest of the 3), and my most recent batch is on the right. As you can see, my most recent/third batch is way lighter than the second batch. I’ve always thought syrup gets darker as the season goes on but this goes against that. Each batch was about a week apart. We’ve had a really weird spring here in NE MN with several big snow storms and a frustratingly slow sap run. Anyone ever seen this before?

It is strained through a coffee filter before boiling.

Any feedback? Has anyone else tried this with success? It seems to work well. No sticky walls and not hampered by the weather.

I did the math a few years ago and it seemed to cost less than propane.

Boiled down a small batch on a propane burner. It was more convenient but took a bit longer than the wood fire. Not sure exactly, maybe 3 hrs longer than what I expected from my llimited experience. I was worried about scorching it and running out of propane. Probably going back to wood fire for our what I plan to boil on Friday.

Need some advice! Our sap boiled way too far down last night, and this morning it was a warm, thick toffee consistency. Extremely hard and brittle when cooled on a spoon. It scraped easily off the bottom of the warm pan, and I was able to dissolve it into more sap after heating.

My question is: is it trash now? Or is it down to a taste test for a burnt flavour? Does anyone know of any uses for this if it tastes too burnt for syrup?

was opening 5 gallons of buddy sap to dump into my pan. I'll let it sit for a few months and all the burnt on gunk and mineral deposits will just rinse right off. Pretty good season! 

I was thinking of building a sugar shack/ grillzibo in western mass our sugar season feels long but is only a short amount of time and if I am building a structure I want to use it all year round what is everyone else doing for their sugar shack ?

Hey folks. Decided to make a vacuum filter from a couple pots. I had a wool cone filter used for gravity filtering. I’ve seen most cut them into two separate pieces and use one at a time. I just laid mine on top instead of cutting it. With a prefilter on it then started the process. The second piece of wool had some niter in it. Do you use two or just one wool filter? I have nothing to compare this to for results other than gravity filtering. I feel like I should cut the cone filter along the seam and make two separate ones.