It is sugaring time

We had about 15 gallons from 34 taps over the weekend. Half of these taps are in the so called "cold forest" and don't usually start running until later in the season. The sugar content was low and it boiled down to about ~2 pints of syrup yesterday.
 
Got another 30 gallons today. Boiling the first 50 now. Nothing better than sitting with a beer staring at the fire and the stars.
 
How do you store the "pre-syrup"? The book I got with my taps says it's critical to keep the sap cool.

Any predictions on how the trees will behave this week? My area is supposed to stay above freezing for 5-6 days.
 
Beeffajitas said:
How do you store the "pre-syrup"? The book I got with my taps says it's critical to keep the sap cool.

Any predictions on how the trees will behave this week? My area is supposed to stay above freezing for 5-6 days.
Click to expand...

I have 30 gallon barrels that I bury in the snow. If you cant do that than put it in the coolest place you can. Northside of house in shade for example. I have put frozen water filled soda bottles in the barrels if I didnt have snow.

Finished our first gallon and a half of syrup tonight. Hope to do the same tomorrow. Whole house smells like maple.
 
I also put mine in a shady spot and bury it with snow or something. I usually use 55g drums or an IBC tote so the large volume of liquid also doesn't warm as fast. As long as you boil once a week or so when it's this warm it "shouldn't" spoil. If you are smart about it anyway... don't put it in black pails and leave them in the sun. Lol.
 
I got about 18 gallons today combine with about 22 gallons so far I should be closing in on my first gallon of syrup once I get it processed down.

Boiled off about 20 gallons still a long way to go.
 
I have got about 35 gals. Still not moving too fast here. Most of the trees are in a valley so the cold air settling probably has something to do with it.
 
I have been getting 30-35 gals a day. Almost all of it from my neighbors sugars. None of my reds are doing much yet but they are in the woods on the northside of a hill.
 
Mine were running good until a couple days ago. It's like someone turned off the tap (literally, lol). Too warm, too long? I see buds forming on ends of branches. Nothing opening up, but I can see the buds getting started. Am I done? If yes, wow- short season!

I'm boiling ~7 gallons tonight. I know, not much but I'm just trying a little for starters. Smells good.
 
Mine were still producing but not enough to really ad up. However, we boiled down about 25 gallons today and made four pints of the dark syrup... have another 20 to go tomorrow and that will finish up what I have for sap unless the weather gets cold again.
 
Weather went crazy in northern NH the last few days. It was in the 60s, not even freezing at night. At this rate the trees will bud and the sap will sour.

The commercial houses with vacuum lines are sucking as hard as they can. The bucket folks are probably screwed.

If we have a hard freeze that resets the trees... I don't know how that will change things.
 
I don't think we are done either but I am sure kicking myself for not putting out the usual 75-100 I usually do... stopped at 45 too many projects this year.
 
We also boiled the last few gallons (~22) today and ended up with a couple of very dark pints. Checked the buckets and opted to toss some of the sap as it didn't look or smell great.
 
We collected about 12 more gallons yesterday, boiled a bunch of it down. I finished the stuff from last week for another quart and a half. I'm at about a gallon of finished syrup so far this year on 20 taps.
 
Got 45 gallons yesterday and they were dripping like mad. That is over a couple of days as we didn't both on Sat and Sun. Going to try to finish another gallon and a half tonight if I can get the kids to man the evaporator. I definitely need a bigger rig next year.
 
I find the most painstaking step of the whole process is the final filtering. I filter the raw sap before I start boiling. As I am getting close to syrup yet still sap I filter the hot sap to remove niter and sugar sand. Those two tasks go pretty easy. The final syrup filtering is what kills me. I do not know if it is my ADD or just tired from a long day but it not my favorite step. My last batch I got lazy. After reaching syrup, I poured the hot syrup directly into bottles. The final product was fairly cloudy. I decided to wait for another day to reheat the syrup and filter it. Well, the next day I check the syrup in the fridge and it was very clear. It definitely had some sediment on the bottom of each jar. By using tall thin jars, I carefully poured off the very clear syrup and left a fairly small amount of syrup with the sediment in the jars.

My question is, is this an acceptable practice? I found that I am only filtering a fraction of the finished product compared to before. Why have I not read about other people doing this? It seems to be such an easier way to finish the syrup by letting time and gravity do its thing. I have a very small operation with only 10 trees tapped.
 
rommel said:
I find the most painstaking step of the whole process is the final filtering. I filter the raw sap before I start boiling. As I am getting close to syrup yet still sap I filter the hot sap to remove niter and sugar sand. Those two tasks go pretty easy. The final syrup filtering is what kills me. I do not know if it is my ADD or just tired from a long day but it not my favorite step. My last batch I got lazy. After reaching syrup, I poured the hot syrup directly into bottles. The final product was fairly cloudy. I decided to wait for another day to reheat the syrup and filter it. Well, the next day I check the syrup in the fridge and it was very clear. It definitely had some sediment on the bottom of each jar. By using tall thin jars, I carefully poured off the very clear syrup and left a fairly small amount of syrup with the sediment in the jars.

My question is, is this an acceptable practice? I found that I am only filtering a fraction of the finished product compared to before. Why have I not read about other people doing this? It seems to be such an easier way to finish the syrup by letting time and gravity do its thing. I have a very small operation with only 10 trees tapped.
Click to expand...

Yes you are settling out the sugar sand and it is fine to do. You will need to reheat the finished syrup to between 185-190 to bottle for proper sterilization. Above 190 can create additional sugar sands. Do you have to have a clear product? I only filter between the evaporator and the finisher. I bottle from the finisher into quart mason jars. It is just for our personal use and as gifts. It usually ends up with a little sediment in the bottom but it doesn't effect the taste at all.
 
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Some pictures for your pleasure.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 

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