Anyone Here Make Syrup???

I have done it in the past....love the taste....good project to get the kids involved in....don't burn it!!

Two I can think of right away are Sappy and Wishlist but they have not been on the forum for a while. I do know that Wishlist is probably tapping this week. Not sure about Sappy but if not now, he will be very soon. He lives in NH while Wishlist lives in MI.

I did when we lived in south western Pa, it was a family run operation, had about 2500 taps. That's about the only thing I miss about living there. Now I'm too far south not many sugar maples here in this part of Va. There are some maple producers in the north west part of Va. in fact just went to their maple festival this past Sat.

Giving it a shot for the first time. Very small scale. I have 5 taps and gf has 3.

Was going to try to reduce it on the wood stove but was warned against it on the diy forum here. Looks like it's going on the turkey fryer, then last night my neighbor said it's going to take me like three bottles of propane to get it done. Well see.

Taste is the best way to check the syrup. Nothing like that warm smokey sweet flavor of syrup right out of the pan. Cool it off a little be sticking the mug in the snow... Good times.

Someone told me to keep the sap from freezing, it'll spoil it....
This make any sense? It was 45 and flowing two days ago it's 10 now and my jugs have frozen solid sap in them....
Other than emptying them daily I see no way around this? I don't see how it'd be a problem either though.
Thoughts?

Ours always froze. We never had any problems

I don't know about the sap, but the syrup freezes well. I usually keep a jug in the freezer, and when I want some just pour into little pitcher and warm up in mike. Yum. Now I want to have waffles.
When I was a kid, there were two boys who would tap the neighborhood trees and their mother would boil it down on the kitchen stove with a big pan that straddled two burners. Bet their house smelled amazing!

With another cold snap and the sap having shut off for a few more days we decided to boil off the 2.75 gallons we had.
Did it inside on the regular stove since it was only one pot. Cranked up the vent hood, cranked up the wood stove put a fan in one window near the syrup exhausting and cracked open another window.
Worked great, took 3.5 hours and by taste and measure we ended up w 8 oz worth of oh so good stuff.
Next time should have a lot more sap so it'll be turkey fryer outside and a finish boil inside. Bit now we now what to expect, pretty easy and straight forward.
I didn't think it was done by looking at it as it was still very thin but we pulled it off the heat, tasted and measured it, seemed good, so we cooled it and it ended up with the consistency you'd expect.
Should start flowing again on Wednesday. ...

my wife is getting ready to boil for first time. I did like helping tap the trees. I think she plans on having 30-40 gals when she boils. I don't eat pancakes or waffles,,so she gets it all. I tasted some from the neighbors friday, that made my teeth hurt.

I think Scotty Ovrkill makes Big batches of syrup but i havn't seen him posting for awhile.

Got the trees, love maple syrup, been wanting to try this for a few years now but still cannot find the time....

Seasoned Oak said:

I think Scotty Ovrkill makes Big batches of syrup but i havn't seen him posting for awhile.

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I have friends that boil 500-1000 gallons at a time, part of the sugaring association. I thought they were pretty "big", then I read a post here in the DIY section about a guy that doesn't start to boil until they have 5000 gallons! Obviously a big commercial operation, but wow! Average sugar shack I've been in is smaller than a one car garage with a boiling table that's maybe 5' by 8'. Can't imagine what one that boills ten times that amount looks like!

johnpma said:

We boiled some yesterday....awesome family fun We had about 6 gallons of sap and ended up with 1.5L of syrup. We boiled to 216 degrees on the candy thermometer stuff is thin and sweet. We have a total of 25 taps out now and the kids want to make candy next.....

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Love to hear this kind of stuff, the kids learn that work can be fun. When I was involved in the maple industry we got all our supplies from a co. in Vt. can't recall the name, but I'm sure they are still in business, but they sold a small back yard wood fired evaporator. Something to consider if you want to expand your operation a bit.

Warm_in_NH said:

Someone told me to keep the sap from freezing, it'll spoil it....
This make any sense? It was 45 and flowing two days ago it's 10 now and my jugs have frozen solid sap in them....
Other than emptying them daily I see no way around this? I don't see how it'd be a problem either though.
Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Freezing won't hurt it - whoever told you that, well, just doesn't know. It'll help to preserve it if you don't want to boil it for a few days. Warm temps & sun exposure will shorten it's life though - not necessarily make it bad if it (warm exposure) doesn't last real long, but moreso result in a darker looking & stronger tasting product. Which some might actually prefer.

we are getting 5 gal a day from our trees by the creek! Actually over that,,but i have no idea how to know how much ran over the top. About 2-3 gal from trees up the hill.

Second boil in process. 5 gallons of sap collected from 3 taps in two trees over the past couple of days at the CT homestead. Should yield just about 16 Oz of syrup if we take it all the way down. Running low on propane, we'll see if we make it.

Filtering: I know it's a big deal when you're selling it, but for home use, anyone really worry about it. The first batch we let cool (as we had to run errands) before it's final boil and just poured off the syrup/sap and left the sediment in the bottom. I'd say we got 85% of the crud out by doing that. Anyone have any other methods?

Anyone have anything other than a turkey fryer they use? my buddy was telling me that steam trays work better because of the surface area, or a stainless sink dropped into a 55 gallon drum with a wood fire, not sure how you'd seal the drain though. For this year the fryer is fine, but now that I'm hooked, I see this operation growing next year. This is how my buddy started out 5 years ago, he now has 350 trees tapped, a sugar house on wheels (he was sure he'd get tired of it and that way he can sell it) and he just upgraded his pre-heat system for the sap, and put in a gutter system to catch the condensed steam that goes into a bucket with a pump so he has warm water to clean up with, pretty cool. His only problem this year is he borrowed from his cord of wood set aside for boiling to keep his house warm.

This weekend is "Maple weekend" in NH. Anyone part of the "sugaring association" has an open house, usually samples, maple candy, boiling in process, educational talks, MAPLE SYRUP ON SNOW, and other good things, great to do with the kids even if you're not boiling at home.
http://www.nhmapleproducers.com/maple-producer-events/maple-weekend-and-month/

chairs are blocking the wind...

There are about a dozen or so maple sugar producers close to here - Spring festivals now starting up - all you can eat pancakes, sausage, and maple syrup. There are a few folks on the forum here that "warned" about getting hooked on this hobby. I wish I had the time to try it. Looks like a lot of fun, great way to spend some outside time with the family, etc. And tastes awesome...

Made a small run yesterday on a block evaporator,,,just for fun. Boiled off 45 gal.

Razerface, Operations like yours are what initially got me interested in syrup. It honestly looks like more fun than what we do now. The lack of snow in your pic looks nice too, we tapped in 2 feet of snow.

We made 38 gallons of syrup yesterday, from about 2000 gallons of sap. I was making multiple passes through the RO before we boiled, which helped cut oil consumption. It's a nice winter crop for our small farm.

Visited a local small house today - they have a great eatery for pancakes, french toast, etc.

Was surprised to hear they only make 5 to 7 gallons per day! Lots of work for a very small amount of syrup.

Was once promised some syrup 3x over from a forum member....never got it. Can't complain too much, though....never asked for it either.