Maple sugaring 2021

[Corley5]

I cut the top out of IBC totes with a Sawzall so I can get inside with a stiff bristle brush to scrub them.  Hot water only.  No detergents of any kind.  Alcohol would be my disinfectant of choice if I felt it was needed.  Cheap vodka would do fine.  It's what some wineries use.  A steam cleaner is on my short list. 

[celliott]

Well it wasn't a 1/2 day repair. About 2 hours. 3 figuring gathering tools and supplies and getting to and from.
It did not go as hard as I expected. Not saying it wasn't difficult, but I was thinking we would be battling this one.
I photo documented this saga pretty good.

Here's the problem. The 5 pipes pictured transfer about 90,000 taps to our pump station.










Attach two come alongs to the cable with 3/8" cable wraps. Come along attaches to 4" pipe with a truck strap in a timber hitch. The pipe was about 5 feet apart. We could not hope to pull it that far now. I pulled as hard as I dared and got maybe 6" from each side.










Now we have to build a platform for the butt fusion machine. It needs to be level, hard to come by in the woods. Stuff a pallet between the other pipes and a 2x for a post on the other side, perfect.




The fusion weld held together just fine. I think it is a combination of factors. A high tension side tie broke and the pipe smacked against a tree. This was also the first 4" pipe we put up, and I think we over tensioned it, pulled it too tight. This stuff has a crazy amount of expansion and contraction with temperature swings.




Butt fusion machine. Have to get pipes as close to level as possible first. Then a knife head facing machine goes in, trues up both pipes. Check alignment. Then a hot plate goes on to get it melted. Take out and smoosh it together.







Locked in, letting the short stick cool down




Cracked pipe, can see the weld inside and out.




Pipe is together.
The last fusion was a bugger. The butt fusion machine wouldn't pull or push the slack to face and heat the pipe. So I had to manually let off both come alongs to get the facer in. Tighten them both back up to draw it together. Let off again. Rinse and repeat for the hot plate. That was a process.




And this is back to how it should look.







Sure glad it's fixed. Hope we don't have recurring issues with this. We're probably going to cut in pieces in the other lines to loosen them up some as well. Just in case. May have to take some back out when it warms up and the pipe shifts around again, might have put too much in. That was all we could do to get it back together that far though. 4-5' piece went in.

We're 71,500 tapped now. Leak checking tomorrow. That's why this was important, can't check vacuum with a leak that big lol

[mike_belben]

Yeah thats just nuts.  Completely mind blowing.

[mike_belben]

Think im starting to get the hang of running 5/16 and still getting it straight and pitched without support structure.  Using construction string for stress relief at each end.  Mini torch working good for getting fittings pushed in bare handed.


















I collected 3 qts today and tried it in pans on a woodfire but i still suck at boiling and somehow burned it.  Brought the nearup inside to finish on the stove, checking with THREE thermometers.  This digital probe, a turkey poker and an ir gun.  






Temp sat at 207/208 forever in a rolling boil then climbed rapidly but never exceeded 219 on any device yet somehow a lot of it carmelized.  Only a few drops passed through a coffee filter. 


 The last moments i held the pan off the grate over a low flame but i think the damage was done by then.  I dont know if the woodfire was too hot or the propane finish or both?  Not sure where i messed up.  Tasted a bit like a werthers candy but with an obviously smoky-er and slightly burnt flavor.  I still ate it, dont worry!

[Ed_K]

 The temp to finish will depend on your relative humidity. You may have syrup at 217 or 218 if the rh is high. If the syrup starts to over flow put some butter in, no more than what would coat a fork. Now I'm not sure of the rh? I'll have to check when i go to the sugar house this morn.

[thecfarm]

Mike, we would bring the sap up to "about" 212° outside.  Than we would bring it inside on the kitchen stove to finish off. Much easier to read the thermometer without all that steam rolling around outside. This was done on a very small scale. I don't think we ever finished off a quart at a time. Most times half of that.

[PoginyHill]

My family's backyard process ended inside on an electric stove. With a medium boil we called it done when the foam started to rise in the pan. Needed to be watched constantly to finish it off. If not removed at that point, the foam would overflow and make a sweet, smoky mess. We never used thermometers.

[mike_belben]

Okay, so that last minute was definitely the issue then.. I had quite a bit of foam but still like 3 degrees below the magic 219 number that all the blogosphere articles call for.  I will boil longer outside and pull the next batch off the finish burner at the first hint of foam.  


Thanks for the help guys.   Ive got 17 taps right now and only a few trees flowing so i need to get this sorted before it really picks up and i make larger scale trainwrecks.

[doc henderson]

the Werther's is the slight burnt "caramel" caramelized sugar flavor.  in the end I did it on the NG stove.  I would swirl the pan and get a bunch of bubbles, and keep checking the viscosity.  the first batch went in the bottle, but it seemed watery, so I boiled it some more.  good taste.  I think if you do not have a soapy bitter aftertaste, then you have better maple sap than me here.  as you swirl the pan you will see a texture and almost "opalescent" look.  time to stop.  you can always put it back on the stove.  the second batch started at 5 gallons and 1.25 brix.  when boiled down, it was 1 inch in the bottom of a 3 quart never washed with soap stainless steep pan, it boiled down to a 1/4 inch and was done.



 

8 oz. bottle.  this is walnut.  the first batch was 1.33 gallons of sap.  it started at 2% brix, and made 3 oz. but I later re-boiled it to half that volume.



 

this is the sample that was later re-boiled.  as you recall, my maple had a bad after taste, I now think related to the budding of out maples due to a mild winter.

[mike_belben]

Doc if you fill it back up to the original level with jim beam i bet you wont taste the suds or buds!


Sure looks pretty. Thx for the pointers. 

[Corley5]

Boiling Point Calculator (thermoworks.com)

  Is what we use to get close to finished syrup.  We dial it in with the Smoky Lake and a hydrometer to set our Marcland Auto Draw.  Boiling points change with barometric pressure.  They can fluctuate a lot during the course of a boil.  We've started drawing finished syrup at 217 and finished the boil at 222.  Last season was fairly stable and 220 was a common draw point.  It's not always 219.
  Keep your foaming down.  Foaming with a shallow depth lets air get to the bottom of the pan and scorching can occur.   Butter, a spritz of Pam cooking spray, commercial defoamer, safflower oil all work.  Some hang a strip of bacon in the pan.   
  Personal use syrup you can use any of these.  If you're going to market it you get into food allergies.  Organic safflower oil satisfies organic requirements and there are new commercial defoamers that meet the same standards. 

[doc henderson]

none of my thermometers reflect the temp of boiling water even. I dropped my meator probe into boiling sap, and a red flashing alert with a ships alarm came over my phone telling me to remove at once or risk damage to my probe.  for small batches, the hydrometer will not work as it has to float freely, and correct for temp.  at the end of the small batch, i had the pan rocked up to a 45° angle over a low flame and just watched how thick it was.

[Corley5]

An experienced old time sugar maker can tell when syrup is syrup by how it "sheets" dripping off a flat utensil.  A skill learned before there were hydrometers and other such things. 

[woodroe]

I like the sheeting method for backyard sugarin, close enough.

[Walnut Beast]

How did the old timers do it with all the tech stuff 😂

[Walnut Beast]

How did the old timers do it with all the tech stuff 😂

Without 

[celliott]

How did the old timers do it with all the tech stuff 😂

Without

They did a whole lot less and worked a heck of a lot harder for it.
Actually at the turn of the century we were producing more syrup than. we do now. Farm labor was cheap and plentiful and sugar was a commodity not a luxury. 
However we now produce quite a bit more per tap, and do more per tap.
It's really become a very high tech business!

[Ed_K]

 I was taught using a syrup scoop "a pan that fits into the compartment closest to the drawoff" to slip it into the syrup close to the bottom but not touching it. Hold it up straight so the lip is horizontal and count to 1003 if it ribbons across to whole lip it's done 8) ;).

[Stephen1]

we use a candy  thermometer that we calibrate every day before we draw off. It has an adjusment screw on the back . Like Corley said we did not have to adjust very much last season as we did not get alot of swings in the weather.IE: low pressure - high pressure..
Also If you are at any elevation your boiling point will be different than at sea level. 
We also use the drip/ string method. when the last bit of syrup forms a string off the ladle you have syrup. It is tried and true method and saves buying more equipment. 
Also the best is just put it on your pancakes , if it tastes good it's syrup

[mike_belben]

I cut 11 length links [2 rungs] off the sides of 11r22.5 bigrig chains and they fit perfect on a 36x12.5x16.5 hummer tire.  These ones have cincher cams all around the outside and are so tight youd struggle to force a screwdriver between the chain and tire. They dont make a sound.  







And for now anyways, this spare beater has made a pretty good sap wagon.  Have used it quite a bit hauling saws and gas cans and tapping gear out into the back woods.  






I have 21 taps in right now, leading to 6 buckets right along the one main trail, or pretty close to it.  Having fun.  If i have enough tubing i can probably tap 7 or 8 more trees and be done for the year.  


It was gray and overcast today, maybe 35ish degrees.  I got about a gallon of sap which is the most for a single day so far.  quite a few trees have not run at all yet, So i guess this means i installed prematurely.  But on the other hand i need these small test boils under my belt before i burn a 50 gallon batch or whatever.

[doc henderson]

well at least you will know when it takes off.  trees in the sun have been doing better for me, prob. that faster.  then I will tap another couple dozen.

[mudfarmer]

Late to the party, been out in the woods. Looking good guys!

A couple more tricks I didn't see mentioned here yet.

@mike_belben Your construction string tensioning looks like it works good. You can also use hollow core braided rope, like a chinese finger trap thing. I think celliot showed some of the commercial wire ones back in this thread somewhere. Thread the tubing into the hollow core for a ways and then push it out the side between the strands, you can put a whole lot of tension on them and the rope won't slip.

The other is if you can/do get a syrup hydrometer you can make a "cup" for it with a chunk of copper tubing and two caps. Solder a cap on the bottom, then split the other cap like a flower petal and solder to the "bottom of the bottom" cap for feet. You can use a small diameter piece of copper tubing hammered flat and soldered to the sides for a handle. If this does not make sense I'll dig up a crude one and take a pic. Think of like a graduated cylinder, straight tube with wide base. If you do this you will want to fill it then dump it and repeat this a few times to get the cup warmed up or it will cool the syrup and mess up your temp correction!

...and the syrup addiction claims some more poor souls ;D

[mike_belben]

This magic moment... 

[Walnut Beast]

Mickey Mouse even looks happy. Looks good. How does it taste

[mike_belben]

Well.. I dont have very refined tastebuds for syrup, but to me it tasted like magic. I havent had real northern maple syrup in a long time and cant really remember it.. But i think this is distinctly different. Maybe i like it better.. I know it never lasts long enough to cool.



Ive been boiling in 2 small pans on an open wood fire in my grill pit thingy.  Lots of ash needing filtered out and beyond tremendous sweetness, i guess theres a little of a maybe almost buttery aftertaste, with a TOUCH of smoky, like how a hotdog over oak has a bit of smoke flavor.. which is fine with me personally. I cook stew on wood fire cuz i like it.  The smoke must settle because the bottom has more of it than the top.



But yeah open boiling sucks.  I will need to build an evaporator rig that doesnt put ash in the sap soon.  


This round i finished in the house in a teflon pot and snuck up on the finish real gentle on very low heat with a constant hand swirl and a close eye on color and thickness like was suggested.  Highest temp i saw was 214 and that was probably a bit long as i got a bit of caramel around the edges. 


I hate winter so burning syrup is a nice distraction