Boiling sap
#6158850
02/15/18 03:22 PM
02/15/18 03:22 PM
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Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 2,530 Fingerlakes New York
robert.d12
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Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 2,530
Fingerlakes New York
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Anyone have a picture of their setup for boiling sap?
The beauty of the second amendment is it wont be needed until they try to take it. -Thomas Jefferson
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Re: Boiling sap
[Re: robert.d12]
#6159023
02/15/18 07:33 PM
02/15/18 07:33 PM
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Joined: Aug 2016
Posts: 207 Alaska Mat-Su Valley
Plum Billy
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Posts: 207
Alaska Mat-Su Valley
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I want to do some good Birch syrup this year. It is harder to make syrup from Birch than maple, and it is more diluted. Sap won't run for another month at least though.
Life is hard; but it is harder if you are stupid.
John Wayne
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Re: Boiling sap
[Re: robert.d12]
#6159418
02/16/18 09:02 AM
02/16/18 09:02 AM
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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 402 Ouachita Mtns, Arkansas
Arkiefur
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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 402
Ouachita Mtns, Arkansas
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Do you guys finish it at the same heat range that you use to boil it down? I tried using the syrup hydrometer and my syrup finishes out as thick as molasses and very dark. Then I started cooking down a few minutes past foaming stage. Right thickness, but dark also. Am I burning it in the finishing stages?
If atheists don't believe in God, why do they get upset when people pray to him?
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Re: Boiling sap
[Re: AmmoRat]
#6159666
02/16/18 02:10 PM
02/16/18 02:10 PM
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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 402 Ouachita Mtns, Arkansas
Arkiefur
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Ouachita Mtns, Arkansas
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Your syrup being to thick w/use of your hydrometer, could of been because the syrup temp was too high for what your hydrometer is set up for. If its too thick its fairly easy to thin it out. As for a darkness of your syrup, it could be the type of trees. I'm not familiar with Arkansas trees (didn't even know you all had a maple sap season that far south). I never really worried about how light or how dark my syrup was. Its all about the taste, filtering and bottling at the right temp for safety. Nothing worse than giving someone a bottle of your syrup and they crack the lid open to find mold.
I run a separate pan to finish and bottle my syrup. I'm just a hobby syrup maker carrying on an old family tradition. I have around 100 - 125 taps out and a 2 x 6 continuous flow evap. With a full time job, this is all I can handle by myself. I boil on weekends and maybe an evening or two if sap is really running hard. I will get the sap boiled down to a point and stockpile for a short time in 5 gallon buckets with lids. Storing in buckets for a short period of time allows for all the sediment to settle to the bottom and I will pull from the top. just toss the bottom sediment.
Time to finish into syrup I run a big SS pot (about 10 gallons) with a bottom valve. I do the finishing on a cast iron top woodburner stove to keep flames off the bottom of the pan, get the syrup to the right brix and to get my syrup up to 185 degrees for bottling. I'm the only one that I know of in my area that tries to make maple syrup. Have watched this site's syrup making threads and decided why not try it! This is my 3rd year. I only have 12 trees that I can tap unless I talk to a few neighbors. The lower trunks of the trees are black. Been told they are sugar maple. The hydrometer I have is a syrup hydrometer from one of the companies up north. I'll boil down about 15 gallons to 1 gallon, then cool and refrigerate until I get a couple gallons of concentrate, then finish and bottle. I put several clean pint canning jars on a flat pan and put in the oven and bring up to 250 degrees. After filtering, I reheat to 220 degrees and ladle into the jars, put on lid and ring, cover with a heavy towel and let cool and seal.
If atheists don't believe in God, why do they get upset when people pray to him?
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Re: Boiling sap
[Re: robert.d12]
#6159721
02/16/18 03:33 PM
02/16/18 03:33 PM
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krispcritter
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krispcritter
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What was your sugar content of the sap. The longer the sap is in contact with heat the darker it will be. Especially in a flat pan doing small batches. Last year I had some sap that was 2.7 the highest sugar I've ever had and made the lightest syrup with a divided pan. My lower sugar sap made my normal darker stuff with sugar running around 1.8 to 2.3. Was my first year on a continuous flow dived pan. Previous rig was 55 gal drum with roasting pans.
You have to adust your hydro reading to the temp of the syrup. I can't figure out how to post links but Cornell university has a hydro temp chat. MapleTrader.Com is a great forum for sugarin guys and gals. Its much like this forum. Lots of great info and people willing to help anyway they can.
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Re: Boiling sap
[Re: robert.d12]
#6164410
02/20/18 08:35 PM
02/20/18 08:35 PM
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Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 605 Central PA, God's Country
PAlltheway
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Central PA, God's Country
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Here in central PA we start tapping in mid to late January. We do all red maples in our sugar bush. About 35 taps in. Mostly buckets on spiles, but more and more we are using the plastic spiles and blue hose running to whatever plastic bottles we have lying around. Collect every other day and when we get to 20-30 gallons of sap, we start boiling. After trying so many other methods, a few years ago I bought a 28x40 stainless evaporator pan with a spigot at one corner and handles at each end. Put that level over two propane burners set high (jet engine roar sound), and keep the sap between an inch and two inches deep at any time. The steam pours off, in huge clouds. Requires me to really stay on it, though, can't take my eye off of it for more than 15 minutes or else it will start to scorch. Two stainless pots with sap are kept balanced on a corner at each end of the pan. This heats up the sap in the pots so it can be added without dramatically lowering the boil temperature. I keep running back and forth from the big tank in the back of the truck with a 5-gallon bucket to the shed where the boil is happening. Then when it gets low, it is brought inside in those stainless pots and gently simmered on the gas stovetop. Deciding when to stop boiling is a question of various family members doing taste-tests. Mom has the final say. Sometimes it looks really dark and is turning syrupy in the pot, and that is an obvious indication that it is done. But then this year the tree sap is running dark, really high in sugar, and the finished syrup is really light and super sweet without being real syrupy thick. Usually these red maples take 52-54 gallons of sap to get one gallon of dark syrup, but this year the sugar content is so high that we are running about 45 gallons of sap to the one gallon of syrup. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of the big producers are going to reverse osmosis, and their syrup just does not have a strong flavor. There is something about the heat and cooking down that creates that strong maple flavor, which is the only reason we put so much effort into this. Our syrup is so danged good I can't imagine using anyone else's.
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Re: Boiling sap
[Re: robert.d12]
#6165063
02/21/18 11:34 AM
02/21/18 11:34 AM
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Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 605 Central PA, God's Country
PAlltheway
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Central PA, God's Country
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Boiling sap in the woodshed, using two propane burners and a stainless steel evaporator pan. I have also set it up over a wood fire with cinder block, but I like the constant heat of the propane. It is expensive compared to wood, but we don't make maple syrup to save money, we make it because we enjoy it a lot and ours tastes so much better than anything that can be bought. Also, we do filter the sap with a cotton tee shirt, but we do not filter the syrup itself. We end up with solids, and they taste really good, too. When we hit the bottom of a bottle, we pour in some milk, shake it up, and swill it down with gusto. Big treat. Good stuff.
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Re: Boiling sap
[Re: robert.d12]
#6165191
02/21/18 01:43 PM
02/21/18 01:43 PM
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Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 102 Rebersburg PA
coontraper
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Rebersburg PA
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Sorry don't have any pics but that is what we will be doing to night.
by switching back to trump you can save 15% more on your gas station trips
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