Maple Syrup 2011

It's an addiction!

Here's last year's syrup thread. http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...63-Maple-syrup!

This year I'm stepping it up a notch.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...p/100_3914.jpg

Slideshow! should get updated as I add more photos.

http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m...view=slideshow

Test firing the new evaporator!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a83Yv2m6HKQ

Tapping my first trees of the year!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kb3mngkjS4

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...p/100_3923.jpg

I put 12 taps in today, will be putting in more tomorrow. two cords of wood on the way and with any luck will be boiling by Friday.

I do it all on a very small scale for self use and mostly for birch beer, syrup and sweeteners for home use. I am actually going to lessons on it all this coming weekend to see what I am doing right and wrong. The lessons are free and available here:


Cleveland Metroparks
Our "History of Maple Sugaring" program starts today, weekends - Saturday, February 26 through Sunday, March 13 at Maple Grove Picnic Area in Rocky River Reservation, south of the nature center. 11am to 4:30pm. Free guided hikes thru the Sugarbush to show various sap-collecting methods, plus the Sugarhouse w/ sap boiling down to fresh maple syrup! Details, call 440-734-6660. Check the video of Tree Tapping Day,
too.

http://www.clemetparks.com/events/Maple%20Sugaring.asp

The cleveland metro parks has been a godsend for me for all the free programs they have to teach self reliant living. I also teach rustic furniture making there to scout troops so they can have a fund making program that does not involve popcorn or cookies.

Glad to see the traditional skills stayin alive. Good work rwc! It's definately one I've been wanting to learn.
I was talking with a fellow the other day about an evaporator pan, say, 12 feet long, with bars that go side to side with a little gap at opposite ends (not sure I'm describing it very well) and as the sap made it from one end slowly to the other, it'd be syrup to go in jars. I believe he was talking about cane tho.

I believe Landmark Park has some stuff on that as well, and I'll be sure to learn more if I can remember to ask.

Looks like your set-up turned out excellent. I had trouble envisioning it in the previous thread - probably due mostly to my lack of experience in the process. As you get more and more into it, I can see you building a "sugar shack" around your evaporator.

Well, another excellent job. You're doing great not only in your skills but in the quality of the posts. More rep on your way!

This is a great thread! I've always wanted to tap birch for syrup and plan on giving it a try this spring, so any information out there for this newbie is very welcome.

I know birch sap is 100:1 so it will be a lot different than maple. But even if I just get a little, or perhaps just make a thinner liquid for wine, mead, maybe for canning berries or just drinking will be super.

So who knows where to get the spels for tapping? All the places online are every expensive for just a few, so might have to try my hand at making something homemade. Any idea's? Or links to a site that may sell the "real deal" that won't cost me an arm and a leg?

Thanks, Grandma Lori

I just use gutter spike spacers (the extruded ones, not the stamped and rolled with open seam ones) for the spels. Cut one end at a 45 degree angle (lightly deburr and sharpen the cut angle) and cut a V notch on the top side at the other end for the bucket handle. When you pound it in the hole you make FIRST by drilling (brace), use a cut down gutter spike (large nail) in the front of the home made spel and tap that in rather than tap on the spacer (spel) so it does not deform. They work great, they do not rust because they are aluminum and super cheap ... mine were 11 cents a piece in a box of 100.

I only tap the birch to make home made birch beer, it takes both sap and root to make it right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by your_comforting_company

...I was talking with a fellow the other day about an evaporator pan, say, 12 feet long, with bars that go side to side with a little gap at opposite ends (not sure I'm describing it very well) and as the sap made it from one end slowly to the other, it'd be syrup to go in jars....

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That's a divided pan, they use them for maple too, but they can be expensive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crashdive123

... I had trouble envisioning it in the previous thread... As you get more and more into it, I can see you building a "sugar shack" around your evaporator.

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I had trouble envisioning it too, changed my plans a hundred times, but once I got the tank in front of me I worked it out in a couple hours. The sugar shack is on the way, a canopy tent, lol. It should be enough to keep the rain off though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alaska Grandma

... I've always wanted to tap birch for syrup and plan on giving it a try this spring, so any information out there for this newbie is very welcome...So who knows where to get the spels for tapping?...Thanks, Grandma Lori

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I get my tree saver spiles from SugarBush Supplies Company here in Mason, MI. They have a website, just google it. The spiles are .44 cents I believe, I bought 30 and it was less than 15 dollars. You may be able to hang a bucket on them if it's small, but I run tubing. The tubing is 50 bucks for 500 feet, or you can buy buy the foot. The old fashioned spiles are expensive.

I know some folks are tapping birch already, in southern England? I beleieve. Tapping is mostly a late winter event. Once true spring its it's pretty much over, might not be for the birches though. We don't have enough birch around here to tap. I hear it's minty!??

Bascoms and MapleGuys are two more fairly well respected websites for ordering maple supplies. I wanted to stay local if at all possible with the $$.

very nice set up. It's been years since I've tapped trees and made syrup. Now thanks to you I've been bitten by the bug again LOL. I'll be scrambling to make it happen. I have some tree saver taps coming and have a pan just about made at work. this weekend I'll tap some trees and see what happens.

The maple bug! LOL!

I finished up my storage tanks today, tapped 14 more maples, checked the other 12, stacked 2 face cords of wood, lugged 40 gallons of water back and forth to test the tanks for leaks and now I'm pooped. Not much in the way of sap yet, but the trees were running good today. Tomorrow it's splitting wood, and 4 more taps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ7Xv41zfv4

The tank could be used for other purposes besides maple.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...p/100_3934.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...p/100_3936.jpg

Dang. That's a pretty slick set-up you've made.

Thanks, although, my neighbor quickly pointed out that the long extended shutoff will not allow me to close my car door. Duh! I hadn't considered that. The funnel will come off, but the shutoff is sealed with teflon tape and if i remove it all the sap will come out. LOL! So, now I need to get a hose that will fit the shutoff. I'm getting two so that one can feed the evaporator directly from the big tank and the other will come out of the car to fill buckets.

If I could get my car up above the height of the picnic table I could get a long hose and gravity feed from the car tank right into the one on the table. I could strap the tank to the roof of the car to get it up, but it might look a bit odd going down the road, not to mention top heavy. :)

LOL. It's those little things that get us every time!! Believe me, I'm laughing with you!
Will the one with the shorter shut-off fit in the car?

Yes it will! It's in the car now and i bought 2 3/4" barbed fittings and some hose to run from the shutoffs. Everything is working good now and I can feed the steam pans directly from the big tank now.

Also, I enlarged my firebox, made it deeper and brought the bricks up higher on the sides in hopes of getting a better boil with my rear pans. I can fit longer pieces of wood now, 24" plus and the flames should channel toward the pans better too.

I covered the tank on the picnic table up with snow to keep the stored sap cool and put the last 4 taps in today, just need sap to boil. I even got one of those canopy tents so I can boil in the rain...or snow...or freezing rain and snow, lol.

ya know, I think you have more snow there than we have up here at the tip of the mitt. who da thunk it.

We still have close to a foot, even after the melting. In February we got over 2 feet of snow, most of that was in a 2 week period, IIRC. But, rains's a comin'.

Built a new Sugar shack, :), and gathered my first sap of the season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKstTgzH9Hk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr8Uo8L4w_4

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...p/100_3947.jpg

Good stuff. I couldn't tell from the picture or the first video it the center pole on your tarp was sticking through a gromet or eyelet. If not, and since it was kind of breezy, you may want to put a pad (folded up rag or t-shirt) between the pole and the tarp to keep it from tearing through.

Ya, it has a grommet, the pole has a plastic insert that fits through it, and on the other side, the top, you put a rubber grommet to hold it in and keep it from rising up I suppose. It's been raining here overnight and she's still holding. We're supposed to hit 50 tonight so the sap should be flowing real good today, I hope.

I spent all afternoon Saturday and into the evening making syrup. Everything went real good and I ended up with a gallon of the good stuff, 8 pints.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...LickThePot.jpg

This is my bottling and filtering station, the kitchen table. Last year I used a mason jar, but these bottles are actually less expensive and easier to pour from. The pot on the right is my filter. I think I paid 20 bucks for the filter, 4 pre-filters, 4 stainless clips to hold the filters, and the nickel plated mesh basket to hold them, that's the long handle sticking out. It was a great investment and did a much better job than the cheesecloth I used last season. These filters can be used over and over for years too.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...eringSetup.jpg

The sugar shack was like a sauna at times, but kept most of the rain and snow off me and out of the sap. It held up to 4" of snow overnight....barely.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...eamAndSnow.jpg

I just kept feeding raw sap into the pans from left to right and it got progressively darker and thicker as I went.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...gesOfSyrup.jpg

This pan is getting somewhat close to being ready for finishing. If it got too far ahead of the other two pans I'd just add more raw sap directly to it.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...lyGoodness.jpg

I don't recall if I mentioned it already, but I use this big plate steel to cover the holes as the pans finish. I only have two pans left to finish in this pic. The sheet is big enough to cover the entire top of the evaporator, so I can fire it up with no pans at all and use it for heat or whatever else I like, a grill maybe.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...nToTwoPans.jpg

I wanted to take more pics, but between the splitting of wood, stoking the fire, skimming the pans, adding sap, transferring sap, preventing boil over, and taking the few pics and vids I did, it was a lot of work and fairly fast paced. But, it was a lot of fun, should be doing it again this weekend.

That's pretty much it. Here's three vids showing the evaporator in action, the finishing of the syrup, and the filtering and bottling.

It took 4 hours to boil 27 gallons of sap, another gallon boiled off after I shut it down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMOazjcdXIw

Then I brought it in on the kitchen stove to finish and filter, a more controlled heat source prevents ruining all your hard work by burning or boiling over the syrup on the fiery woodstove:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxAFNeDQLfk

Once finished I filtered and bottled it. The syrup had cooled to 170 F after filtering so i put it back on the heat to bring it up just under 190F. It has to be over 180 to bottle, but if you reheat it past 190 more sugar sand/ nitre can precipitate out and you will have to re-filter it again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etYEgt2YRkQ

Looks like your well thought out plan worked magnificently. Well done.

Not too bad, I've given away half already, lotsa smilin' faces.

This is the point where I usually do the shameless plug and reminder about the QC department.:innocent:

Hehehehe! Maybe I can donate a pint or two for the next BIF thang, that is if the sap runs, today I only collected 11 gallons, that's 2 days worth of sap, half the buckets were dry. The cold really slows em down.

That would be a great prize if the sap cooperates (hmmmmmm - I seem to recal Sally Jenkins saying the same thing to me in the 7th grade).

Great job brother. Nice work!!

the best part of this whole process was giving the syrup to the folks letting me tap their trees. They were all real surprised I had syrup for them already, smilin' faces.

After I left the one lady called and said she had friends who wanted to learn and also let me tap in return, but i have no more money for taps and am in need of more buckets. Buckets are hard to come by, it's a slow process getting them for free. :) and the stores want 5 bucks + for food grade plastic which makes it not economical.

The worst part of this whole process is all the washing. I was never good at washing dishes let alone bucket after bucket. I'd rather chop wood all day long than wash dishes for an hour. LOL!

An opportunity to teach is always a great thing. Who knows: 20 years from now that whole neighborhood might be a maple orchard.

The one neighborhood has 2 big maples in front of every house, and another two or three in each back yard. I wanna tap em all. :)

Well I got my second batch finished and bottled, 13 1/2 pints.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...hNumberTwo.jpg

I was up all night Friday boiling, finishing, filtering, and bottling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99crmEfRpbs

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...ackAtNight.jpg

But, I managed to get all three pans boiling well, and was getting about 10 gallons an hour evap rate.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...ansBoiling.jpg

Earlier in the day I was collecting sap, it takes me 2 hours to do a 16 mile loop and gather sap from 30 taps using my sled, cooler and buckets.

This re-usable coffee filter works real good to filter out debris from the sap when filling tanks or buckets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Y4JCgVpiI

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m.../SapFilter.jpg

Considering the time it takes to gather and boil sap, I wanted to know just how high the sugar content was from the trees I was tapping. So, i bought a sap hydrometer for 12 bucks to test the sap. I drew this off after filtering above and it measures in at over 3%, which is real good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhtv1Fl0zrE

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...reePercent.jpg

I learned a new rule today called the rule of 86, simply divide 86 by the % of sap and it will give you a good idea of the sap to syrup ratio. My ratio was roughly 28 1/3 to 1, meaning I need to boil off 28 1/3 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup. I started with roughly 67 gallons of sap, dumped 5 to 10 of it on the ground accidentally, and ended up with just over 1 3/4 gallons of syrup. So, that rule seems to be fairly accurate.

It's a good rule to know, and a good tool to have, because if you're trees are only putting out 1% sap it will take a whopping 86 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup, might not be worth it if there are 3% trees across the street or down the hill.

Once I got the syrup finished and filtered I needed to bottle it. But, it had cooled off below 180 F, the threshold for safe bottling. So, I had to reheat it for bottling. Last time I did this, I ended up with sugar sand from the reheat, that's likely because I had microboils in the reheat pan.

To prevent this I made a makeshift double boiler, and carefully heated the sap ensuring it was above 180, but below 195 F. If the syrup is heated beyond 195 more sugar sand can be released, putting to waste your filtering efforts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y12Q3jeVrAU

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...ubleBoiler.jpg

I just sat my syrup pot on top of some mason jar rings inside the iron skillet, this way even the syrup nearest the heat source won't overheat. The digital thermometer is great, but it won't accurately tell you if the syrup near the heat is overheating.

That's pretty much it, I just hope this freeze/ thaw cycle continues through the month as I still have lots of bottles to fill and plenty of wood to burn.

I love popping into this thread thread now and again. It's incredibly informative and makes me hungry.

More great stuff RWC - or I guess I could say SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!

The only thing I heard was "waffles".

I would have thought there would be more sugar in the sap than that. Which brand of maples are you tapping, or can you be sure when they are dormant like that?
We planted a Silver Maple 10 or 12 years ago and it's getting pretty big. It's supposed to have the lowest sugar content and I doubt if I could get 90 gallons of sap from it. I'm wondering if you could do less condensing and use it more like a sweetwater than a syrup, like for sweetening tea.

Really excellent thread. It does make me consider the materials setup, vs the syrup retrieved. I'm just not sure that our tapping season is long enough, or that our trees have enough content to be worth it. Mostly what you see around here are red, with the exception of a few odd ones. I've only spotted a couple sugar maples and they are far, far apart.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by your_comforting_company

The only thing I heard was "waffles".

I would have thought there would be more sugar in the sap than that. Which brand of maples are you tapping, or can you be sure when they are dormant like that? You can tell. I'm tapping reds and sugars or blacks and average 3% sugar, which is pretty good.
We planted a Silver Maple 10 or 12 years ago and it's getting pretty big. It's supposed to have the lowest sugar content and I doubt if I could get 90 gallons of sap from it. Silvers work, some have high sugar. If it's 10" diameter or bigger, tap it, every tap is worth a quart of syrup or more. All trees vary, some folks get the same sugar from silvers as the do blacks or sugars growing right next to each other, it all just depends on a lot of different factors. I'm wondering if you could do less condensing and use it more like a sweetwater than a syrup, like for sweetening tea. Sure you could, it wouldn't preserve or keep from freezing like syrup, but it would be sweeter the more you condense it. Anywhere from sugar water to hard solid sugar.

Really excellent thread. It does make me consider the materials setup, vs the syrup retrieved. I'm just not sure that our tapping season is long enough, or that our trees have enough content to be worth it. Mostly what you see around here are red, with the exception of a few odd ones. I've only spotted a couple sugar maples and they are far, far apart. I wouldn't worry whether or not you have sugars, around here moslty what is tapped is reds, silvers and even box elders. My only concern would be the lack of a freeze thaw cycle. I guess when it comes down to it, as with most things, there's only one way to find out.

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And again, just because I bought a couple fancy pieces of low cost equipment, it's not needed. A drill or brace and bit to tap, elderberry or sumac spout for a tap, an old milk jug or bucket to gather, a pot and an open fire to boil on, a spoon to check consistency, an old pillow case, sheet, wool sweater, flannel shirt to filter it, and something to can or bottle it in.

It's a very basic process that only gets as complicated as you, or I, make it. It can be very primitive using heated rocks to boil and birch bark containers to store, or it can be extremely advanced with miles of tubing entangling the woods, loud vacuums and reverse osmosis units to draw and filter sap, and huge gas fired stainless steel behemoths to boil it down. There's lots of fancy gismos to test syrup and sap, but a spoon works nearly as good. Any good sugarer can tell syrup by the way it sheets off a spoon and can tell candy or the like by the look and feel as well. With time it all becomes as natural as riding a bike.

I can't remember if I listed my expenses for this project, but will now:

Evaporator complete 170.00
Wood, 2 face cords delivered 130.00
bottles, hydrometers, filters and the like, another 300.00

600 bucks total, and the only thing I'll need to buy next year is bottles and wood. I'm hoping I can salvage wood as this year goes on, as it's the biggest non-reusable expense.

The above costs are for making about 10 gallons of syrup annually, 40 taps. I coiuld easily expand to 100 taps with a minimal amount of coin, say 50 bucks. I believe a gallon of syrup is currently at 62 dollars, but folks who sell it average 100 a gallon due to selling smaller bottles, candy, creme and other specialty items like maple coated pecans and such. I don't look at this as a money making venture, but with work it could be a good supplement to one's income, or a very profitable business.

If I were looking at it as a business venture it would go something like this:

Startup cost: 600 bucks is 3 1/2 weeks liviing expenses
Time investment: 16 hours a week times a 6 week season = 96 hours, not including selling time, TBD?
Annual costs: less than 100 if the wood is free, 200-300 if not
Return on investment: 1000 - 250 = 750 dollars for 96 hours work, probably not worth it considering gas driving around, money and time spent on booths at farmers markets or the like.

But, hopefully no one expects to turn a profit on a 10 gallon a year operation. As the number of taps increases so does the ROI.

For me, it's a break even deal, a way to get exercise at a time of year when it's needed, and a way to make family and friends happy keeping a tradition alive in Michigan that's been around for hundreds of years, long before the land was settled.

Well, it might be over!

I gathered 64 gallons of sap in one day last Wednesday and had 31 from the day before. Fearing the warm temps in the 60's and low 70's would make the sap spoil, I started my boil Wednesday night at 8pm, finished, filtered, bottled, and cleaned up by 11 am the next day. :dead:

I ended up with 2.2 gallons of pure maple syrup from that one run. The huge warmup with no freezing nights for the past 3 days has shut the sap right down, any sap left in tanks is getting cloudy and spoiling. The ants, bees, flies, and moths are out and getting in buckets, so, I snapped the lids on my 5 gallon buckets tight to keep them out. I'm hoping the freezing night temps predicted will cause the sap to start flowing again, and that it will not be buddy, if so, I may get another good week of sugarin', if not, this is it, it's over.

Season details:

I've made 6.78 gallons of syrup this year from 267 gallons of sap collected over the last 16 days.
I spilled about 10-15 gallons of that sap hauling it out of the woods, overfilling buckets and such.
Average sap yield per tap/ per day is .56 gallons.
Greatest daily sap from a single tap is 5+ gallons, bucket running over.
Least amount is 0, a big goose egg.
Greatest daily sap total is 76 gallons, least is 5 gallons.
I have 30 taps on 15 trees, 1 to 3 taps per tree depending on size.
I've given away and bartered almost 2 gallons of syrup so far, most was given away.
The bartering was for trees, buckets and wood.

Batch # 4

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...rup/Batch4.jpg

Color:

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...ttleBatch4.jpg

* Makes note: adding some Burton Ohio USA Syrup to Winnies Care Package LOL

Sap stopped running here now, last weekeend was the last of the real flow.

Wow, you really got into it this year... good for you, great and rewarding hobby. We just got enough for us this year of maple, sassafrass and birch. Made a total of 7 1/2 jars, but was fun to do.

If it does end soon, you've still had a darn fine season. Well done.

That looks sooo good. Pancakes, icecream, sponge pudding, pancakes, sweet dumplings, porridge. Oh did I mention pancakes? Tree tapping doesn't go on here, but then again, we don't have Maples in any number either. That's why I like this sort of thread.