The Official 2023 Maple Syrup Thread

Still evaporating Eric?

 

Yes… glacier pace. I’m about halfway there.

 

If I don’t fill the pot up too high it evaporates faster, but I don’t dare keep the level low overnight or when I go to work. Overnight when I topped off the pot, I only lost about an inch of liquid. So, it’s a slow process. Judging by the color and flavor, I’m making headway though.

 

Passive syrup making…..I like the concept!

 

Definitely darker than the first pic

 

I wonder if I had an RO system if I could process this measly 10 gallons of sap in a single day on my stove? I think I need an RO system anyway

 

Question from a noob, am a looking for the boil to be as hot as possible?

 

Answer from another noob: a good rolling boil will get the water evaporated fast. A low boil works, albeit slowly.

 

Shallow pans will boil better , but you need to be careful . You are limited to your boil rate by your pan surface area . When you see those pics of fire shooting out of the stack that’s nothing but wasted heat .

 

No stack here.

 

Not wanting to drag this out for another day (or more) I ended up bringing the pot outside and leaving it on my propane burner for a couple hours. I then filtered the liquid through coffee filters and a fine steel mesh strainer. Then I washed out the pot, and put it on the regular kitchen stove for the final boil. One thing I noticed about cooking it on the wood stove is the amount of airborne debris that settles in the pot. The steaming process seems to attract all sorts of fine particles. Kind of gross, but the final product is filtered somewhat so not too big a deal. This started out as 10 gallons of sap, so fingers crossed that I end up with a quart of good syrup.

 

Week 2's two gallons (and my not so helpful helper) to go along with Week 1's 4.5 gallons. 400 gallons boiled so far on only 50 taps. Probably only have one more boil in me for this year. RO bucket is gonna be the big purchase for next year.
Week 1 on the left, Week 2 on the right

 

Another small success I don’t mind doing small batches whatsoever. It’s a lot of fun.

 

Nice! I don’t know why your syrup has that red tint to it, but that looks gorgeous. I’ll bet it tastes even better too.

 

I agree, although not everything is coming out of the air - some of it comes out of the syrup, too.

 

Samples of my two finish batches. Cold weather a few more days, and then another chance.

 

Yum, drizzled some on snow for the kids. They are bouncing off the walls!

 

My 6 taps have produced exactly 12 gallons in the last couple days! Saturday I have time to do another boil, but the weather is predicted to be anything but ideal

 

How long will it take to boil that?

 

About 4 hours outside keeping the fire stoked pretty well, then at least a half hour on the kitchen stove inside to finish it.