Maple Sugar 2023

[DbltreeBelgians]

@beenthere, I posted one pic in reply 40.  I'll try to get some others when I get a chance.
@celliott, I can reverse the pan. I think if I do that maybe I should add another thermometer and draw off valve so I don't have to remove the ones I have installed on the pan now. That would be a pain in the rear to do that every time I want to reverse flow. Thank you for the Milkstone/dairy acid tip. Greatly appreciated. Yes it's all stainless. I soaked the pan over night and it all came off good.
@Stephen1 I got the RO bucket kit and just mounted everything on a piece of plywood. I'm just a small time hobby syrup maker so I can't justify big money RO set ups. This system works very good. I was very impressed for the little operation I have. Saved a great amount of time and wood boiling sap. Not sure why I waited so long to get a RO system.

Brent

[GAB]

Brent:
Do you know what the sugar content of the sap going in was and how much did you concentrate it, ie. the sugar content out?
GAB

[Chuck White]

We have all of our line taps in, there are a little under 1400, and then we'll hang about 50 buckets on yard trees!

[Stephen1]

I have been looking at all the different systems out there, we are small also and to pay for some of these systems from CDL and such is out of our ball park. 
The ROBucket system seems real simple and inexpensive. I like simple. 
Brent what size RObucket did you get? How many taps do you have?

[beenthere]

Looked up the RO bucket system. Interesting. 

Inventors demonstrate the 0 RO Bucket for hobby syrup producers - YouTube

[Stephen1]

I just had a phone call with Carl from RO bucket, simple is the way he describes it, he has a proprietary membrane that he has developed over the last 6 years. He takes your sap from %2 Brix to %4 Brix in one pass. 
He can push 40 gallons of sap an hour through his system taking out 20 gallons of water leaving 20 gallons of sap at %4 Brix. 
His membranes cost $60 versus $250 I was getting quoted for some of the other systems from the big shops, like CDL and a local "Water Store" that sells filtration equipment.

[doc henderson]

cool!

[chep]

Had a couple good runs here. It's early but I got so excited I put out 217 buckets. Earliest I've ever tapped. Looks like 2 or 3 more nice runs then it will freeze up for a while. Let it floweth forth. Made a few gallons of nice syrup today. Hopefully the start of many more

 r>

[thecfarm]

I drove by a place and the steam was rolling out of the vents.
Early for us.

[Stephen1]

chep what is that hanging over your front pan?

[GRANITEstateMP]

steaming some veggies :D

[thecfarm]

 

[DbltreeBelgians]

Brent:
Do you know what the sugar content of the sap going in was and how much did you concentrate it, ie. the sugar content out?
GAB

No sir I don't know what it was. I went to test it with the hydrometer before starting the RO process and realized my Smoky Lakes hydrometer starts at 45 BRIX. So much for that wise idea.


 
Finished off my first batch last night. Got 5 qts, 13 pints, and 1 half pint plus just enough left over to pour over a bowl of vanilla ice cream 
If my math is correct that's ½ pint short of 3 gallons. Most I've ever done and just getting started.


 
@Stephen1 I got the RB5 kit and upgraded to the 60gph pump for future upgrades. Trying to learn and keep up with it while boiling was a bit of a challenge at first but once I got things figured out it sure saved a lot of time and wood in the long run. I'm very pleased with the results. 
Oh and I have a whopping 20 taps out. I bought 50 more taps and ran out of buckets so 20 was where I stopped. Plus I was running late for training at the firehouse so I called it good. Leaning towards running 5/16" line and a central collection point next year. Carrying 2 full 5 gal buckets at a time through the woods gets old real fast. My shoulders and my knees don't like it.

Brent 

[Chuck White]

Brent, I see you use a Murphy Cup, How do you like it?

My brother picked one up last year and used it with good results, or at least that's what he said.

I don't get into those thing of the trade, my job is monitoring the input side of the evaporator!

Those jars of syrup look good!

[GAB]

Brent:
Do you know what the sugar content of the sap going in was and how much did you concentrate it, ie. the sugar content out?
GAB

No sir I don't know what it was. I went to test it with the hydrometer before starting the RO process and realized my Smoky Lakes hydrometer starts at 45 BRIX. So much for that wise idea.
Carrying 2 full 5 gal buckets at a time through the woods gets old real fast. My shoulders and my knees don't like it.

Brent

Brent:
I'm not sure but I think you are describing a syrup hydrometer and not a sap hydrometer.  They are different.
Concerning your statement: Carrying 2 full 5 gal buckets at a time through the woods gets old real fast. My shoulders and my knees don't like it.  You ought to try it with 3 feet of snow on the ground and not being too tall.  It makes the evening chores long, (that last cow can't come soon enough) and you do not need any sleeping aids at night.
GAB

[Plankton]

Been tapped out in western mass here for 2 weeks got some gang buster runs last few days nows its freezing up giving us a little break and resetting the trees. Got a few other local sugar makers tapped out as well in between stuff been a busy last month.

Were at 30% crop of last year and have only boiled 3 times looking to be great season!

[SwampDonkey]

Looking good. No sap here at 5F in the morning and 24F afternoons. :D Yesterday was 26F early and 16F by dark. She'll be 2 weeks off unless it warms a lot, and long range looks cold into next weekend. Warmest day on Monday with a mixed weather storm and the bottom drops out of it after that.

[chep]

A strainer. We use flat filters and like to let the syrup drain out of them back into the front pans before we wash/dispose of them

[DbltreeBelgians]

Brent, I see you use a Murphy Cup, How do you like it?

My brother picked one up last year and used it with good results, or at least that's what he said.

I don't get into those thing of the trade, my job is monitoring the input side of the evaporator!

Those jars of syrup look good!

We'll the jury's still out on that Chuck. I finished off a batch last night and was actually at 220.5°and the hydrometer and Murphy cup didn't match. Said I still needed to boil more. Got to 221° and pretty close. I know the boiling point of water can be different on any given day and I try to calibrate for each boil but 219° should be syrup. Or dang close to it anyhow. I like it a little thicker anyhow so I usually go on the high side.

@GAB yeah I figured that out real fast that my hydrometer isn't for sap. I would like to test my sap for sugar content but I end up just boiling away until it's syrup.
No doubt I have a lot to learn but I'm having a good time doing this and I give it all away to family and friends so that makes it all worth while.
I just got back from collecting sap. 15-18 gallons out of 20 taps in 3 days. Every bucket was ¾ frozen. Things really slowed up. My first round was 24 hrs and I pulled 40 gallons from 20 taps. I thought oh lord what have I got myself into. Haven't seen that since. 2nd best was 30 gallons in 48 hrs.
All is well and I'm having a grin doing this. Especially since I got the RO bucket set-up.
Brent

[chep]

Big fan of the Murphy cup. We finish on the evaporator so it is very helpful tool to making consistent perfect density syrup!

Had to set up a spot for the lil fella in the shack. He is walking now its a pretty dangerous environment for him so try to "contain" him for short periods of time. As long as ya give him a push every now and again he  was pretty happy 

 

[Walnut Beast]

You the man 👍

[Corley5]

We've got a Murphy Cup that we don't use. I don't like it. I prefer to run a hot sample out of the evaporator into a hydrometer cup and drop the hydrometer in.

[OH logger]

We tapped feb 11. Not as much sap
Here as I'd hoped for. Shoulda tapped sooner but busy with log stuff. Low sugar content here and high sugar sand. As far as the sand goes though I think it's big and easy to
Filter out. The first day boiling we started with fresh pans so we only made about 3 gallon and we were drawing off into a cone prefilter in a milk can. Out of just that 3 gallon of syrup we got roughly 4 cups of sugar sand out of it 👎🏿. Others around here are sayin the same thing about low sugar and lots of sand.  We have a filter press so the sand doesn't bother me Too much.  I considered not even runnin a cone filter under the draw off cause we have a filter press but with that much sand I decided to. The press is still new to us and I'm wondering if that volume of sand would give us issues. It's a 4 bank 7" with electric diaphragm pump. What y'all think? 

[celliott]

We tapped feb 11. Not as much sap
Here as I'd hoped for. Shoulda tapped sooner but busy with log stuff. Low sugar content here and high sugar sand. As far as the sand goes though I think it's big and easy to
Filter out. The first day boiling we started with fresh pans so we only made about 3 gallon and we were drawing off into a cone prefilter in a milk can. Out of just that 3 gallon of syrup we got roughly 4 cups of sugar sand out of it 👎🏿. Others around here are sayin the same thing about low sugar and lots of sand.  We have a filter press so the sand doesn't bother me Too much.  I considered not even runnin a cone filter under the draw off cause we have a filter press but with that much sand I decided to. The press is still new to us and I'm wondering if that volume of sand would give us issues. It's a 4 bank 7" with electric diaphragm pump. What y'all think?

You won't get as much syrup through a press when sand is heavy, just the same as you won't get as much through a gravity filter. Go heavier than you think you should with the DE.
With some exceptions, it generally seems that early season, the niter (or sugar sand) is heavy and comes out on the filtration end. Mid season, syrup will filter great but the niter comes out in the pans, harder to boil as much, buildup occurs. End of season it kind of reversed again. The sap PH actually turns and pans have less buildup but filtering becomes more difficult again.
We are up to 106 barrels. Working on vacuum with some marginal temperatures, need a few more warmer days. We got every tank and releaser cleaned and boiled on Wednesday. Making some good amber rich. Sap sugar is a bit low still at 1.4%. We also get heavy mineral buildup in our RO membranes, and are having to do a rinse, soap wash, rinse, acid wash, rinse, 2nd soap, final rinse every time we run a machine. Takes a ton of water and time. So as a result we aren't pushing the concentration level as high, been going to 20-22% vs the typical 30% we like to be at. Sap volume is not overwhelming right now so we have the time to boil longer and make it easier on the RO end.

[Walnut Beast]

Maple Syrup Crystals
If your maple syrup container is starting to look like Superman's Crystal Cave, then the sugar content of the syrup is too high and crystals are slowly forming. The crystals aren't bad, so don't worry. They are actually delicious if you can get them out of the container.    Do any of you guys get them in your syrup .