The Official 2023 Maple Syrup Thread

Looking good Eric! Small splits and a HOT fire is the key. Don't be afraid to do a 'test run' with just water in the pans, before you have the real deal in there.

 

We all started somewhere! Nothing to be ashamed of there !

 

Tapped all 200 today..with the help of my wonderful family ! Flowing really good today. Let the games begin !

 

It seems awful early, but I just couldn't wait to tap some trees today. Two of the spiles started dripping immediately. The third one did not. Up to almost 40 tomorrow here in Eastern Iowa. This is more of a test run. If the flow is good, I will do even more.

 

Got a nice start yesterday afternoon. Today..froze up !! All part of the fun ! Mother nature is the boss

 

My 12 YO son should have close to 100 gallons of sap collected by the end of the day. That's a lot for a kid and some 5 gallon buckets.

The last of the parts for the RO setup should be here today...probably start making syrup tomorrow.

 

I have been hearing reports of very low sugar content. If that is the case I may not tap as many trees as I did last year.

 

That means you should tap more to make up for it !

If it wasn't for our ro system...it would be a long boil !

 

Did pretty good today off of 200 taps ! Almost 225 gallons off of one 8 hour run before it froze up !
Now it's running like mad...look out !
Will be boiling tomorrow..will update sugar content then .

 

We are small time compared to some folks, but managed to run about 80 gallons through the RO in 5 hours and netted 27 gallons of concentrate.

 

I love that ro holder! Did you make that ?
Mine is very crude compared lol !

 

Yes. Combined a few designs I stole from the internet and came up with this.

 

Got upgraded ro going this morning. All ro bucket.....upgraded !
Trying out new flow meters to dial it in. Added and extra membrane to make 5 in total...to help
handle the higher percentage concentrate im trying to acheive. The flow meters are a huge help over the the little valve that came with the kit.
Out of tree percentage 3 percent.
Out of ro percentage 7 percent

 

What % are you shooting for coming out of the RO?

I'm strongly considering doing a water-to-water heat exchanger on my boiler for a pre-heater. Getting things to 160-180 before it hits the pan would sure help. All I have to do is add a couple T's and a couple valves to the back of the boiler...a small 10 plate would probably be more than enough. Maybe next year.

 

A preheater would be awesome! We have kicked that around in fixture plans as well. I look forward to seeing what you do !

As far as ro....we typically have 2 percent sugar..so we always just doubled it to 4 percent...and left it at that. We hope for 6 percent now that it's been upgraded ..and able to be fine tuned better.

So today's starting percentage is 3. We are sitting at 7 percent out of ro right this very second. Seems like a good compromise between higher sugar and decent flow rate.

In screwing around with it this morning...we tried 8...then 10 percent on accident lol....but flow slows down to a trickle.....and the membranes would last that long that way for sure. So we are thinking the 7 isn't too greedy. It's all an experiment!

 

I'm pretty sure the pre-heater is going to happen. I could just mount the HE in the back of the boiler and run 3/8" lines to the pot using a small transfer pump.

I don't have a sugar checker (should be here tomorrow) so I'm going to have to take a sample up to my neighbors and have him check it. Depending on what I end up with I might add a valve from the concentrate line back into to the supply line after the particle filter to recirculate some of the concentrate.

The rabbit hole is deep and the slope is slippery.

 

I couldn't agree with your last sentence more !

 

I borrowed a refractometer and the concentrate was at 6%. I'm going to test making another pass through the RO and see if it's worth it.

My neighbor has quite the rig. He's chooching through a firebox of hedge every 15 minutes.

 

Went from 6% to 8% on second pass. Probably call it good there and start cooking.