2015 Syrup Season Concluded

I'd call this year a success. I think we made around 3.5 gallons of syrup in total. The evaporator helped a ton, making the process of boiling so much quicker. Last year we would have to evaporate basically all day every day, which still wasn't keeping up with the intake, but this year we were able to evaporate about 8 hours one day a week and deplete our entire stock pile from the week. The only thing was by the end I did use the stove top primarily everyday for 3 days because the sap was on the brink of spoiling coming out of the trees and I didn't trust it to make it all week before getting to it. So about the last 40 gallons were done on the stove top. Going back to last years process really made me appreciate what we had going this year.

It was a good season but as usual I'm glad it's over. Not that collecting the sap got hard or tedious, but more that with the nice weather I'm excited to start working on other projects around the house now. I'm sure we'll have some minor adjustments for next season, probably add 15 taps to total 40, but all in all I think we have a pretty good system to stick to.

Cleanin' time                                                   Stored away until next season                     

I kept a tally of our collections - 219 gallons of sap

Interesting to see the color change as the season progresses - first batch (left) last batch (right)

It's Really Working

Another successful weekend of evaporating. We started with 79 gallons of sap (really were able to utilize the preheater this time!) and made about one and a half gallons of syrup! I tried some different ways filtering but they still didn't end up doing much as far as filtering out the sugar sand. Basically the coffee filter worked but it took too long to get through for the rate that we needed to get it out of the pan. I'm thinking of getting a 5 gallon bucket that has a spout on the bottom where I can put completely finished syrup and just let that slowly drip through a filter into a pot and jar it from there. That'll probably be for next season but always thinking of ways to improve and taking notes. The sugar sand honestly isn't bad it just doesn't look as pretty. As you can see in the last picture this batch of syrup is really dark. Probably because we ended up boiling and reboiling the sap in the pan. We don't mind because it tastes more robust and nutty which both David and I like. Not sure how much longer this season will last but we'll keep collecting and boiling til the trees feel like quitting.

Total Sap Collected - 120 gallons

We got the pan to a strong enough boil to really let the preheated sap flow quickly

My mountain man

She be blazin'!!

So hot

I love pictures of flames

              First attempt to filter                                  Screw the filter, open it up and let it flow

Another attempt at filtering

First Batch of 2015

We decided to make syrup on Friday, later learning we should confirm clear skies before starting. Either way, rain and shine, we were able to get about half a gallon of sap by Saturday afternoon. We boiled on the evaporator about 4 hours (not counting a rain delay where our fire died down while we were building our cover), then continued on the stove (the one we used last year) another couple hours the next day. We started with about 40 gallons, so either we had a lot of rain in the mix or our trees have an extremely low sugar content (usually it's 40:1, gallons of sap to gallons of syrup). Since we got about half a gallon of syrup our ratio was more 80:1.

What we're realizing is that our evaporator may be a little larger than we anticipated since we don't have the sap quantity to really get the most out of it. This is the case because the sap evaporates in the large pan as low as it can get without burning, and then it still needs boiled another couple hours in pots. In my opinion it would be best to start with at least 100 gallons of sap to be using it to it's full potential. Funny considering last year our set up wasn't large enough, and now we've swung all the way to the other side where it's too large! Figures.

Overall though it went really well. David calculated that we were able to boil 7-8 gallons an hour, and we completely used up our stored sap which we were never able to do last year. It feels good to be starting the collection from scratch and not worrying about the older stuff going bad the longer it sits.

Total Sap Collected - 41 gallons

Little bit of cleaning before production starts

The vent I was talking about in an earlier post. Come to realize it still wasn't enough so the door was left propped open majority of the time.

That valve is to add sap from the preheat to the large pan, as well as a valve to drain the entire pan. The preheat pan allows you to add warmer sap to the large 'get-er-done' pan without lowering the boiling point too drastically.

This view you can see the channels for the sap/syrup to flow. Again, we didn't really have enough sap for it to flow as it's intended. Still worked though!

Handy dandy tractor :o)

The rain brought out the hillbilly side in us... that is if you didn't already think this evaporator was hillbilly enough

Finishing the syrup on last year's stove. Easily monitored through our mudroom window (yes my lazy ass planned it that way!)

Gotta watch out for the froth! Comes about 215 degrees and then again at the very end (that's how I burned our cooktop last year :o/)

Filling the bottles is a more of a two man job, hence no pictures for that process. Essentially used a funnel to fill the bottles (need hot bottles when you're filling it with hot syrup so they don't crack), put the caps on and stored them upside down until they cooled. I'll try and get more pictures next time of these final stages.

You let it cool upside down to seal the tops

Thanks for the vintage bottles Kelly, they're too cute

Helping Hands

Today I had a few helpers to collect about 20 gallons of sap. I'm always grateful when it comes to others lugging sap up our hill. Robin even saved my life when she got rid of a HUMONGOUS spider chillin' in one of the buckets. I had warned her in advance of the beast but she was still surprised by its size. I don't lie when it comes to human eating size spiders, and plan on me being a solid 100 yards away. I might live in the country but I don't think I'll ever get comfortable with that size of spider, not gonna happen! Thanks again for you help Robin, Megan, Tim and Leanne :o)

Total Sap Collected - 37 gallons

Not seen was me cracking the whip

Time to Collect

The temperature is rising, the snow is melting! Finally! We're using a trashcan lined with bags to store the sap we collect during the week and will plan on boiling on the weekend. The past couple of days have reached the 50's but for some reason the sap hasn't been flowing like it did last year at that temperature (we collected 50 gallons in one day). We're hoping it'll pick up but for now not too much sap to show for. We also have added 5 taps since we figure we have the means to boil a lot of sap and still some trees we hadn't tapped. Our tap total is now 24.

Total Sap Collected - 12 gallons

Tarped up during the week while we collect sap

We added a few more taps since we had the trees and ability to evaporate a lot

The route we will frequent often the next few weeks

Burn Baby Burn!

The test boil went really well! Took a bit to get the fire going and stay lit. It would end up going out whenever we would shut the door, so David drilled some holes in the front, right below the door, to see if that would help. It seemed to do the trick so he has plans to improve the air flow with a few more cuts and mounting a saw blade. It'll make more sense when he finishes it and I can post some pictures (it'll be based off of a vent on a grill to give you an idea). With the hot water David was able to scrub the pans and get most of the debris and dirt out. We'll do a little finer cleaning right before our first boil of sap, which we're hoping will be next weekend.

Roasted some weenie's too :o)

That's what we like to see!

She's Upgraded to Outside

David came home early the other day and tinkered around a bit with the evaporator. He was working on his wheel idea and found some from the finish mower for the tractor that we weren't using. One of the advantages holding onto lots of shit is that it comes in handy when doing DIY projects on the cheap! The idea was a good one but once David got the wheels welded on and tried moving it the one on the left side was locking up and not rolling. In the end he scratched the wheel idea and welded brackets on either side of the tank. He strung chain through the brackets which he attached to the bucket of the tractor and transported it that way. We figured once it's in place it doesn't really need to move so wheels weren't actually that necessary in the end.

The random cement pad now has a purpose to house the evaporator since it's relatively level and near the buckets. We'll probably need some form of a cover since it's open to the elements, and especially bird poop, since it's directly under our large maple in front. We'll attempt test boils this weekend to get ready for the flow that looks like it will start beginning of next week!

I like the illusion how it looks smaller now that it's outside

Almost There!

It may have been cold and snowy but work still needs to be done. This weekend was spent attaching valves to drain the sap/syrup, adding dividers to the large pan, and filling the pans with water to check for leaks and welding the leaks closed. Pah! If only it was that easy to weld the leaks closed. I'm sure if David was writing this he would say it was a big f*#@ing pain in the a$$!! Seriously it sucked, but David was persistent and finished late Sunday night. Next tasked will be to clean out the tanks, do a couple of boils and we should be good to go for the most part. Wheels will happen at some point but we don't need them to at least start.

I love how still it is when it snows out here

Valve to extract the mostly finished syrup

Layout for the dividers

Marking the pan for even spacing

Locating leaks when the pan was filled with water and welding them closed. Check out David's new welding helmet! I took the initiative and just got him a nice one. Definitely worth the money to have a nice helmet on a project with this much welding.

This one sucked royally. We filled it but the welds to close the leaks weren't working with water in the pan. Located the leaks using the air compressor to see the bubbles and mark the spots (that is where the water did help). Drain the pan. Weld the holes. Add water again. Check spots, weld again. As I said, big pain in the a$$.

One thing that David and I realized this weekend is how much the pans can hold. The preheater holds ~40 gallons and the large pan ~50. We figure the preheater will be a good storing container for sap collected through the week and then we'll probably just do one boil a week. Learning as we go.