The Official 2024 Maple Season Thread

Mine are 95% reds. Never noticed any bad aftertaste or the like (quite the opposite). Some people claim to prefer red maples to sugars.
But like stated, everyone has their own opinions.. Most everyone thinks their syrup is 'the best'(and they should!).
I'm sure most (me included) wouldn't be able to tell the difference if the sap was handled and evaporated the same.

 

Some people also say that Reds have lower sugar content . I have seen the opposite of that in my woods.
I think there's so many variables involved....but things get blamed on the "tree" .
I think some of those variables are soil type...the size and shape of the tree's crown....sap handling ( when collected..how often collected..what kind of containers collected in ).
If people use true food grade items through the process...including pumps..and transfer hoses etc.
How long everything is boiled makes a difference on flavor profile as well I think.
Makes you think..when you really..really taste maple syrup !

 

As I sit here..im thinking of other variables . Like a tree that doesn't produce well...or gives interesting colored sap.
Did a person tap into dead wood. Did a person drill too deep...not drill deep enough....did a squirrel relieve itself in the sap !
Did a person pick the right size tree.
Did someone leave the sap uncollected for a few warmer days before collected ?

When I was learning this process ...I made the mistake of running the sap through the RO....then let it sit overnight..since it was going to be well into the 20's.
Needless to say..I learned..that if your gonna wait till the next day...don't ro the sap until your gonna boil.
As we boiled.....it smelled like a mix of burning grass and dirt.
Guess what...it tasted the same way lol ! Apparently bacteria works faster with concentrated sugars .
We completely stopped. Got rid of everything..cleaned everything before we started over.
I know of people that would not have gone to all those lengths.
I've got a saying I like to use.

You can fool the average person because they wouldn't know good syrup from "off" syrup.

But you can't fool those of us that make it !

I'm just rambling now lol.

Heck..what and how much defoamer you use..can impart a different taste into syrup !

 

Lots of truth in this post. Especially the last paragraph. I think this is where syrup gets most of its different tastes .

 

I'm still gonna ramble!
Our evaporator is wood fired..and isn't the fastest rig in the world. So it sits in there and boils for a long time. I've often thought that the longer the boil..the more flavors show up.

I have tasted syrup off of what I call a processing rig. With sap being ro'd at 12 percent. It's always light syrup..and doesn't taste very "mapley" to me. It was only being boiled for 5 minutes lol. But they sell every last drop !

 

After some pains this morning..got the rearranged RO up n running. I've upgraded over the years to where I'm at now. Its all RO Bucket. Now it's a 5 membrane setup . Now I have split it into 3 boards..so the weight and awkwardness isn't so bad on my old body lol. These flow meters are so much better at dialing in than the old needle valve. I'd be lost without the RO ! Went from 2.5% to 6% one pass. Gonna tweak it a tad to do a little better

 

Sap Concentrate /driveway cam

 

Up and going. First year with an auto draw off. Very excited and nervous.

 

First year with new wood cart. Loving this thing ! The little things can make a big difference @

 

Boiled all of it down today. Was getting close to having the pans ready to make the first draw off..and had to shut down
Will make for a quick and productive start on the next fire.
Started with 100 gallons of raw sap.
There wasn't much to boil thanks to the RO. It's nice knowing I've got 2 gallons of syrup in my pan..just waiting to get out lol

 

The stone maple leaf my very talented father cut for us ! I always feel guilty walking on it .

 

Same problem here; next week looks better though. Fingers crossed

 

Gathered 560g. of sap last week. Sweetened the pan last night and got a couple draws before I called it quits.

 

Beautiful!!!

 

Had first boil of the season yesterday. Ended up with about 32 oz of finished product. Pretty frigid this weekend but looks like we should be hitting 40 throughout the week next week. Nice little start to the season!

 

We had a good day. Ended up with 13 gallons. A couple big draws at the end of the boil topped off the bottler.

 

I'd say that was a great day !!!
I see we have the same Smoky Lake bottler / filter. Love that thing!

 

It does a great job. We started using a r o this year and the gravity filter just don’t keep up. I’m still happy with how everything went yesterday but if I ran the forced draft the syrup wouldn’t get through the filters fast enough. On the other hand I didn’t burn as much wood as I normally would have if running the forced draft. The end of season numbers will tell the story. Hoping we get a few more weeks in!

 

I totally understand! The RO and forced draft have done the same to us here too. It's great ! But we had to reduce taps this year so everything could keep up better..including me lol.
I'm at the point of everything has to get bigger..if I go for more taps . Evaporator..ro...probably go to a filter press etc.
We have the smaller sized filter bottler. Way faster and clearer syrup than how I started out with.
I see they make a vacuum attachment for the bigger one. Not sure how much better it would make it.
Good luck....and looks great !