The Official 2023 Maple Syrup Thread

Pottery syrup shot glasses and misc tools washed !

 

That sounds great ! I hear you about winter. Not been favorable for high sugar percentage..as of yet any way. It's a gamble whether to tap now..or wait a bit. We always tap around Valentines Day....might be early this year .

 

Last summer is when the trees make their simple sugars for food and reserves . It’s then converted to sucrose and weather permitting we will get a very small percentage of that reserve . Fingers crossed for higher sugar content but with the RO I’ll take whatever the trees give me .

 

That's just one of the factors that determine sugar content..but an important one for sure.

Fingers crossed here as well. Our RO has been a game changer...thats for sure

 

Washed up sap collection totes and little tank today. Got above freezing..so figured it was the right day ! Even sprayed off the tractor real quick.

 

Gonna tap on Sunday . A tad early for us...but worth taking a chance !

 

Almost set up here. Stack topped out and arch bricked. Hoping to finish plumbing tomorrow. Planning on running 3/16 vacuum tubing on Sunday. Getting excited. All Smoky lake.

 

We can only watch down here. Sure love that maple syrup though. Great pictures

 

Nice rig!
Do you have a hood for the pan? I don't see anything through the roof for it.

 

Nope, no hood. I want to watch the boil. I did install smoky lakes concentric exhaust. The 10” coming off of evaporator goes into a 14” pipe. The 10” pipe stops just above the roof line. The 14” continue another 7’. With forced draft that make a vacuum inside the 14” pipe. ( Venturi ) the concentric exhaust is designed to have a hood. Pic shoes what I did. Im not sure how well it will suck steam out but will find out in a couple weeks.

 

Gotcha! Was wondering where all that steam was gonna go.

 

Jealous ! Great setup !!!

 

Thanks

 

My humble first attempt at this
No sense in getting it all perfectly level at this point. Earliest I’ll be boiling sap is next weekend, and starting tomorrow is a big warmup.

 

You did a nice job . I would plan on a hood in the future , your gonna get some condensation dripping down from that metal roof .
The concentric exhaust has been around a long time just never really took off for whatever reason .

 

That's a great way to start ! You are gonna learn alot....enjoy !!

 

I heard a lot about keeping the smoke away from the sap. I was able to round up two more cinder blocks for the chimney so with the extra height, hopefully it drafts well. The wood you see thrown on the ground is some dead sugar maple I cut today. I was going to split it smaller with an axe later. It’s dry for the most part, as the tree has been down for over 2 years but up off the ground. I have a ton of really dry pine to burn too if I need it. The plan is to do most of the boiling outside then finish the syrup on the kitchen stove in the house. I’m sure there will be plenty of learning involved though

 

Sounds like a great plan ! Especially finishing in the house ! I know people that made 10 gallons of syrup last year..solely on a BBQ. Talk about patience !
There's nothing like starting. We were nervous. Made a few mistakes...learned...moved forward.
We started first year with abt 75 taps......now...into our 5th season..200 taps....RO...bottler set up...the list goes on and on. Still planning on growing every year until we feel to old lol.

Take lots of pictures....you will look back fondly !

 

Don’t laugh too hard boys
I need to find more containers to collect the sap before I put more taps in. The red maples are flowing steady right now. Looking at the weather forecast, I’d venture to guess that the next 10 days look decent for sap collection.