Per a request in another thread, I am going to start a discussion on All things Maple Syrup related. 

A little back ground: I have been playing with maple syrup production for years. 

Somewhat old school in most of my projects this is no exception.

I am still learning about the art of making maple syrup. 

I will try to answer questions to the best of my knowldge. Some areas I do not have first hand knowledge in and may refer to other folks for that.

Here goes: 

Feb 2021 some pictures as we will just start from today but if the need arrizes I have lots of pictures from the past to talk about too.

Here I am making some moves on the draw off side of the old 3x10 King wood fired evaporator:

Yes we have a few bells and whistles on the old rig. This is a temp read out which controls the automatic draw off system. (opens and closes a vlave base on syrup temp):

I am preparing to add some filter aid to syrup in the stainless container then pump it through the filter press to make it crystal clear:

Shot of the evaporator room 16 x 24:

Friend Steve firing the rig with red oak slabs:

Center sections of the front pan at full boil:

This section is where the finished syrup will be made. Bubbles indicate we are getting closer to finished syrup:

Here I am setting a 2-1/2 gal jug of syrup aside after filtering. These go into the freezer for long term storage:

We make about 150 gallons of syrup in a avg season.

Regards,

 Chris

By coincidence, I made french toast this morning, and I like to adorn mine with pure maple syrup. But since I don't have any sugar bush, know how or inside connection, I'm stuck with Great Value brand.

Reminds me a bit of making tomato sauce. You start out with so much and end up with so little.

 Now, that right there is a man that likes to take care of his feets,,when a much needed rest is needed,,,on them snazzy milk can seats,,,,,

 I've always wondered, Chris,, how did the settlers ever figure that the stuff oozing out of trees would make such great tasting food,,,,??

Bet that burns a lot of wood!

     In the picture of Steve adding wood to the firebox: right hand side there is a rack with what appears to be a bunch of small bottles. What is that for? I am guessing either a history of your maple syrup in bottles or different qualities of syrup. Curious minds need to know.

     You have a nice looking area to make syrup in; organized and spic and span.

     Thanks, Russell.

I have something for you guys to try. I put four teaspoons of pure maple syrup in my coffee every morning. Not only is it delicious, my A1C has dropped from when I was using sugar.

As always, I have a story...

A few years ago, we were camping near Daytona for the 500. Some friends from Maryland were staying with us. 

My (very patient) wife made blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Cheryl, my friends wife, asked my wife for her blueberry pancake recipe. She said they were the best blueberry pancakes she had ever had.

My wife said it is not big secret; Bisquick with frozen blueberries added. We finally realized the "secret ingredient" was pure maple syrup (which they had never had).

When maple season arrived, we took them a gallon of syrup when we went to the spring Richmond race. We got a thank you card from Cheryl, with a note saying "Nancy, now my pancakes are as good as yours!"

Thanks again for posting this Chris ! 'Tis the season !!!

Yes not a big pile after you squeeze it!

We have it if you need it!:)

www.mapleandhoney.com

Regards,

 Chris

Joe, 

I set down a lot, must be getting older or something?

Story goes that a lazy Indian squaw found a vessel full of water below a tomahawk wound in a maple tree. Seems she didnt cook supper for the brave the night before and he buried his hatched in a near by tree. Instead of walking to the creek, she used the water to cook some meat and when done the remaining liquid was very sweet. The rest is history.

Regards,

 Chris

John,

This sugarhouse has only one layer of rough cut hemolck with batons. It does get pretty warm in there when boiling. especially if the outside temp gets near 50. 

Wood consumption: Well we put in what we can every 8 minutes. Repeat!

Regards,

Chris

Russell,

 Good observation on the bottles! Yes they are a history of production from 2002. We didnt get a sample for first year 2001. (Its been 20 years already!)

They are whats called grading bottles. A sample of syrup is taken and visually compared to bottles that are factor made with colors of the three syrup grades or classes. 

Each time we boil we take a sample and set it in the racks.

Here is friends Gary and Jim (firing) and the second rack of samples in the south window:

I try to have a bottle for each time we boil in a season. Lets folks visiting see the progression or change of the color (class).

The sugarhouse was decorated by both Cheryl and I. She has collected many antique syrup pitchers. the rest is a hodgepodge of things. Maple or family related. I had to collect something so began finding kids blocks. 

Regards,

 Chris

Yes Awesome story! Real maple is a different product than store brand! Not everyone likes it if they have had the fake stuff all their life. 

Reminds me I need to get out and do this maple thing!

Regards,

 Chris

Yes Canada has a lock on the syrup industry. And the flag! Hugh amounts made in Quebec area. 

I have never tried the hot rock thing. Sounds like a lot more work! They didnt make syrup, they made cake sugar, which means they had to boil it to 255 deg F. Syrup is made around 219F.

Regards,

Chris

WF,

 Agreed! A all pure natural USA and Canada made product! Not made anywhere else in the world!

Great as a sweetener in anything you use sugar in and better for you.

Regards,

 Chris

Here a couple pictures inside the arch. (The structure that supports the pans).

This set of pans and arch are designed for a type of pan called a drop flue. The flues are approx 3/4 inch wide, 9 inches deep and 5 foot long. There are 14 flues. the heat/ fife has to pass through these to get up the chimney. They provide more surface area to the pan and therefor additional boiling efficiency.

Sorry I did not have the ashes cleaned out well when I took this:

The fire is held up on a set of steel grates. I have added a insulated door to this old arch. It also has a air blower under the grates and a air delivery system along the upper edge of the firebox to burn the gasses. Typically refer to as AUF (air under fire) and AOF (Air over fire) systems. Again further features added to improve boiling rate (gallons of sap per hour). (You can see the AOF nozzles protruding through the firebrick in the first picture)

Regards,

Chris

Chris, you misspelled honey!

https://www.mapleandhoney.com/" rel="nofollow - https://www.mapleandhoney.com/

 Yeah, Chris,,,you got a really nice enterprise there and even more so since it is obvious that you love doing it with all your family,,,!!!

  I'm curious,,do those blue gathering lines ever freeze up,,?

 Even tho I've never had any real maple syrup,,,I'm like ole WF,,,I like the darker colored ones,,,, looks more syrup'ier,,,,

 Re one of the pics in the Gallery,,,I remember one year up in Ruidoso, we were on an Elk hunt at bout 8,000 feet and we seen a BIG swarm of bees hanging on to a pine branch next to a two track road we were on. The whole bunch was bout 1 1/2 foot long and almost 1 foot around!!! The outer layer were buzzing their wings something fierce ,,I guess trying to keep warm,,,,even with my bad hearing I could hear em,!!  Always wondered why they left their hive in the winter,,,,???

     Thanks for the explanation about the bottles. Very interesting to see how the color changes during the season. Some years ago we got a gallon of quite dark syrup from an older farmer in northern Vermont while vacationing there. Now that was mapley. Pretty strong but still good. He said the syrup boiled down in a system like yours had better flavor than the syrup made using a reverse osmosis system.

     Have you ever thought about one of the reverse osmosis systems?  What about the expense and what  do you think it does to the flavor of the syrup?

     Keep the pictures coming; very interesting to see what you are doing.

Thanks, Russell.

Joe,

 They typically dont fly till the temp is 50 degrees. If it was real cold then something was wrong??

Very strange? They typically "swarm" when the hive is over crowded.

Regards,

 Chris

Russell,

The darker the syrup the more flavors are in the taste. The light colored syrup class has a delicate taste of maple.

The four classes: of maple syrup. We must grade and label the jugs of syrup.

-Golden Delicate

-Amber Rich

-Dark Robust

-Very dark extra strong

My personal goal is to try to make the lightest syrup possible. There are some sugarmakers that do intentionally make darker syrup by adjusting there process. 

Anyone can make dark syrup! You have to be doing and lot of things right, plus great sap quality from Ma Nature to make light syrup! This season so far the syrup has just been a shade below Golden Delicate. Falling into the Amber rich class. Made 12-1/2 gallons last night bringing the total to 32-1/2 gallons. 

Some pictures from yesterday:

Collected 325 gallons from my trees, 60 gallons form another neighbor, 25 gallons form another neighbor, and 6 gallons for Rhett and Coopers sugarbush in the yard. Tank has about 160 gal in it here.

Just another day in the roadside sugarbush. Here is a drop line about 30 inches long, 5/16 I.D. plastic tubing. 

This is the spout or spile. A 5/16 dia hole is drilled about 1-3/4 deep, then the spout is set gently with a hammer so not to split the tree. The tubing is forced over the barbs on the black spout, using a special tool.

Red tape on the hose is where I had to do a road side repair of a broken wire, in my remote pump switch.

The remote pump is a 2000 GPH RULE pump. Both pumps been great and bullet proof                                                                                                                                                                                                        !

The pump in the bottom of this unit is a 3700 GPH RULE pump to move sap to the truck tank:

I use both of the truck electrical plug ins for the pumps:

Ben roasting hot dogs for everyone, it doesnt take long!

Temp outside last night was about 20F. Should have a good run on Wednesday.

Regards,

 Chris

Just some details of how we do it!

Every sugarhouse is different.

My homemade canner, has 10 gallon pan on a propane grill base. Heating syrup to 180+ for canning:

Hard to see the Amber syrup in there:

Syrup temp monitored and alarm:

filling quart jugs:

Class stickers and name address and phone stickers to be added:

Regards,

 Chris

I'm thinking the Maple Syrup profits should more than pay for the new 'annex'......hehehe

Jay

 Thanks,

 Looking forward to Johns visit,

 Profits, we have no profits!:)

Some random maple shots from yesterday:

Rhett checking the sap containers for Papa:

In his and his brothers sugarbush:

Making Maple peanut butter:

Neighbor kids checking sugar content of sap:

Getting ready to filter 6-1/2 gallons of Amber Rich syrup:

Filling bulk containers:

The press, a SIRO canister type:

Regards,

 Chris

 Regards,

 Chris

Yea I dont remember that video but it may be out there. I have had a lot of folks in the sugarhouse.

We are prepping for the big Maple Taste and Tour weekend! Lists are made and items are being ticked off as completed. Still lots of moves to do. I will try to get some pictures too.

We typically expect several hundred visitors in a normal year. I dont have any idea what will happen this year with the Covid thing. Some folks will come we will do the right things to keep people safe.

Maple coated peanuts:

We will also have out Chocolate diped maple candies, Maple cotton candy and Maple sugar.

Regards,

 Chris

Mike,

 Sorry may have missed your post.

Yes these road side treed are almost all sugar maples. Higher sugar content, and typically more sap yield too. Silver maples may work fine tap them and check sugar content and see how they make sap.

Good luck with your syrup making! We need pictures of other operations also!

Off to check for sap! Busy day today!

Regards,

 Chris 

Kind of like blowing on a fire or opening the draft more on a wood stove.

 I had forgotten about that video. Taken by Peter Gregg (sp) of the Maple News.

 Not a bad sot of the old King Arch as I was rebuilding it after 20 years of service.

some shots from the last few days:

An old man making syrup:

You've seen one container of sap you have seen them all! 

Was a good run of sap the last two days! almost 900 gallons on Tuesday, almost 800 gallons on Wednesday. Made 47 gallons of syrup.  Boil rate is around 120 GPH.

Regards,

 Chris

 Last nigh the sap was not room temp, took about 20 minutes to get a rolling boil. Normally under a half hour and we have steam coming off the syrup.

Friend Steve checking density:

Sun sets in the roadside sugarbush:

Black Maple leaf floating in the sap:

 

We did just pass the 100 gallon mark for syrup made this year. So that should be about 4300 gallons of sap collected and boiled.

Maple weekend is on us! 

www.pamaple.org

www.mapleandhoney.com

Regards,

 Chris

Canning syrup during the Maple Taste and Tour weekend:

Syrup shots:

Cheryl and Marly:

 

Display area in "maple shop":

Ready for visitors:

Sun setting on the almost empty shelves after 500 visitors come looking for Maple and Honey products:

So in the sugarhouse over the weekend we boiled in 120 gallons of sap Saturday, then collected 260 gallons of sap Saturday night and Steve Y boiled that in on Sunday.

Probably another 300 gallons of sap to collect today. We will use that to move this dark syrup through the evaporator and maybe get back to Amber Rich class of syrup??

Regards,

Chris

I am such a clouts I cannot eat pancakes with becoming a sticky mess. Let alone work with anything that will stain my cloths, I am just a dirt magnet. So I admire those that are not.

 So a very backwards way of saying ,you sure have clean looking work area.

 I can be pretty messy too. Just caught me at a good moment?

Gathered 160 gallons of 2.4 %

We made 15 gallons of Very Dark syrup tonight.

Puts us at 117 gallon for the season so far. Big run coming this week! Hang On is right!

 Regards,

 Chris

Shameless, sap is almost like water out of the tree. I guess I would say it is a very little bit sticky.

Sap is 2% sugar so not very sticky. Just about like water! I have syrup in my coffee too!

We made 15 gallons of very dark syrup last night, using 180 gallons of sap to move it through the evaporator. Most of it was work in process (WIP).

Got a little low on sap and had to pull the fire out of the King Arch. That doesn't happen often. Hot coals were dumped in the yard and hosed down. This allowed the boiling/ simmering to be reduced with no danger of running the pans dry.

It will be a good day for sap this afternoon, as it ran all night. 

Regards,

 Chris

Jim,

 Glad your family is enjoying the maple items!

Folks,

I guess I forgot to mentioned that we may have had near 500 visitors at the sugarhouse and the Maple Shop!

Gathered another 450 gallons of 2% sap yesterday. We made another 7.5 gallons of Dark Robust syrup. Getting the total to 124.5 gallons. If I gather some up today we should go up a class to Amber Rich. 

The day before I had gathered 120 gallons and dumped the ice from the containers, improving the sugar content a little bit also.

Maggie guarding the sugarhouse at full boil. Yes about 50% of the wood is gone! The red oak slabs have done a good job making syrup!

Regards,

 Chris

                                                                                                              

    Could you briefly explain about the dark syrup? I thought that the syrup naturally got darker towards the end of the season as sap quality decreased but you seem to be intentionally making dark syrup. Just wondering. It's all good. Thanks, Russell.

The slow simmering over the days of the Taste and Tour added additional carmelization (color) to the syrup. Didn't changed the flavor much.

Anyone can make dark syrup. All systems must be working well and good sap to make light (color) syrup! Maybe the lightest syrup we made last year of the 20 years we have been boiling here. We call it FIRE & ICE. Think I may go gather just cause I can!

Regards,

 Chris

We both love dogs, do the rescue thing, have had about 4 or 5 over the past 30 years.  But I did buy my girl I have now in Sagerstown near you.  A Springer Spaniel. Longpond Springers.  But still have the old girl, rescue, going on about 11 years now.  Some have gone, still miss them.

Like life my threads are intertwined too. Sometimes I post maple stuff in my thread about our shop. Anyway we are still making maple syrup.

Curt,

 Glad you liked the maple candy!

I took a nap yesterday after lunch, felt foxy and went otu and cleaned up the sap that had ran over night. only 250 gallons, Rhett and Cooper had 5 gallons and neighbors brought 10 gallons. Was back in the house at 10:00 after Steve Y. helped boil it in.

This is the sugar sand that we filter out of the syrup using food grade filter aid. the hot syrup is pressurized through the filter to remove the sand and have crystal clear syrup.

Here is the working end of the old King arch. we fire every 8 minutes with red oak slabs this year. It boils good at a rate of about 120 gallons of sap per hour:

Rain today. Has been very dry this syrup season. Will see how that affects the sap flow today.

Regards,

 Chris

 Very interesting thread here,,Chris,,!!  You're a dedicated fellar cause it looks like a lot of WORK,,,,

 I've always wondered,,,if the sap traveling UP the tree is for aiding the tree to leaf out and produce it's fruit,,,,can you get to where you tap TOO much of the sap,,,????

Yes. Sap typically runs and is sweet this time of the year when the temps are above freezing. When it then freezes again the cycle starts over. We can have 10 to 20 runs during a normal season. You could over tap a tree and damage it. 

As the trees start to get first signs of leaf buds the sap can have a less than desirable taste to it..

 All good questions!

Rain today. Trees shut down completely! Will need another freeze to get sap flowing!

Visited local sugarhouses today!

 

Regards,

 Chris

Bob,

 Pretty much the same rig I am running too! Is your flue pan and front pan same length? Mine are, most newer ones are longer in flue pan.

Regards,

 Chris

I am sure you could over tap.  But the small 5/16 hole generally heals over before next season.  Tapping doesn't seem to hurt the trees. Everything in moderation.

I try to make it not work, still fun and enjoy the process and the product. We had pancakes for lunch with our maple syrup on them!

Regards,

 Chris

 Great job keeping the family syrup thing going. Great fun and some work in the spring of the year! Good head of steam on your pan. 58 quarts is very good!

I like your tapping method too. works well and nice clean sap with the covered buckets and drop lines!

Regards,

Chris

https://youtu.be/Lg7DcCI39GY" rel="nofollow - https://youtu.be/Lg7DcCI39GY

  Dave,,,you something else,,,,, and I'm glad you do this,,,,,

Bob your doing a great job and congratulations on your Best of Show! Award! 

I have visited several sugarhhouses in the last few days:

 Jim B in Linesville PA running what he calls the "MUTT" 

Yep some steam in the shot:

Float box:

Side of syrup pan:

Jim B drawing off syrup from his oil fired 2 x 8 custom:

Then went to Jim R in Cambridge springs and helped him boil for a couple hours, made some nice very dark syrup. 

Old school Leader 3 x 8 no hoods, feel the steam!

Now that there is a boil!:

Back in our sugarhouse I made Maple Mustard Reg and Spicy, Maple BBQ Reg and Spicy and a gallon of Maple sugar Granulated, crumb.

Checking PH on the Maple mustard!

Need to be 4.0 or lower, good to go!

Regards,

 Chris

 We will hear the peepers in a week or so. warm weather coming next week, will it be the end of the season? Maybe?

Bob your doing good, matches up same as out old King arch which may be 70 years old??

We made 11.5 gallons of Amber to Dark last night great flavor! At 143 gallons at this point. should have a good run today too. So may hit the 150 gallons or more. So a good season here in NW PA.

Had a chance to get to Back Acres Sugarhouse about 2 miles for where my Great grandfather made syrup 100 years ago south of Conneaut Ohio.

 The tap holes are 5/16 dia. drilled at slight up hill angle, and approx 2 inches deep. On these big trees there can be 3 to 4 tap holes per tree.

The hole heals in a year.

Yes the weather is very warm. and the ground is very dry. Both of those conditions have stopped almost all of the sugarmaking operations in our region.

We finished last night. 250 gallons of 1.5% sap was gathered and boiled. We moved the last of the dark syrup through with water.

Finished gallons of syrup this year was 156.

Kelly brought 100 chicken wings and we had Maple sauces on them. Family and friends in the sugarhouse:

Bugga and her blocks:

Wings: ( Thanks to Kelly, and Cheryl for following my lead and feeding us!)

Rhett and Coopers buckets and spiles pulled:

Getting the shelve restocked:

Amber Rich: (Thanks to Cheryl for helping with all the stickers)

Using the Murphy cup to check syrup density at the canner:

Bringing it back to Allis land:

Regards,

 Chris

The part about Vermont made me laugh. While Vermont may be actually the largest maple syrup manufacturer, a lot of "Vermont Pure Maple Syrup" actually comes from New York.

We visited a local "sugarhouse" Sunday that is owned by a guy's family (his name is Pat) that used to work for me. They made 420 gallons of syrup in one day recently and were on track to make much more on Sunday. IIRC, I think he said they make around 5,000 gallons of syrup per year. (He told me they have $400,000 invested in their sugarhouse !) They sell a small amount locally, but the majority of it is put in 40 gallon stainless steel drums and sold to a middle man in Chazy, New York. Pat told me that his family's syrup operation is small compared to the guy they sell to in Chazy. A lady that I used to work with had told me a similar story about her family's syrup operation. They both told me that the guy in Chazy that buys their syrup, sells all the bulk syrup in Vermont and it is marketed as Vermont Pure Maple Syrup.

Glad you enjoyed the syrup! We try very hard to make the best quality syrup! 

WF, Yes most of the bulk syrup made and sold to broker in our area goes to Bascoms in Vermont I believe to be distributed from there.

 So I agree some very good syrup comes from Vermont! 

Here is my GGrandfathers sugarhouse 100 years ago about 20 minutes from where I live.I went to find the spot last night.

The property owner Dave Shean showing me to place where his floks told him the sugarhouse was. He is standing where we think the sugarhouse was the team would have been up behind him:

I also wanted bring this thread back to Orange Land as Dave Has Allis blood too. He has three Orange tractors, a set of 3 bottom allsi plows and the combine. I may try to help him get them going again.

WD45 wide front

D17 wide front, rebulit engine, Series III

WD 45 narrow front, water in oil?

Regards,

 Chris

 Yes first crop of the year.

I just completed rinsing all the lines in the sugarbush. Which consist of a 100 gallons of mild bleach solution in water. being pumped back up the lines. Low pressure rinse, remove each tap, let it run till clear, Plug it into the cup on each tee. When all the taps on a line are done the taps are pulled from the cups to drain.  Will pick the tubing up in a few days.

Containers will be picked up tomorrow if I feel foxy.

Pans and steam away are in cool down mode.

Regards,

 Chris                                                                                             

 Some footage of me taking about my sugarbush. I do need to get out there and take the tubing down. It may warm enough to do that today too? Kind of like 30 gaint twisted slinky s!

https://fb.watch/4xIWv34bB4/" rel="nofollow - ttps://fb.watch/4xIWv34bB4/

Regards,

 Chris

The maple syrup production is over and the tubing hung in the sugarhouse. Work on next years maple syrup production starts now!

I brought home two bundles of Cherry slabs for starting to replenish the sugarhouse woodshed. First up was getting the saw sharpened:

I use a angle grinder with a 50 grit pad

I touch up each tooth on the inside and the outside edges, trying to keep the correct cutting angles:

Then getting the D17 and buzz rig set in position:

Here friend Steve is running the saw, I am off bearing, cutting pieces 24 to 30 inches long:

Me cutting slabs:

The two bundles depleted, Nice to have a good helper too!

About halfway up the stack the pieces get smaller. That is the cherry on the top:

Regards,

 Chris

I will have to try sharpening my Gravely saw blade the way you do. It's probably in need of it by now.

This slab wood price stayed the same as last spring,  $10 per bundle, loaded.

I am not a expert at sharpening one of these buzz saw blades. But paying attention to the factory angles and going slowly seems to work well. The D17 never even hesitated. I need to get a new tach cable. I just set the speed (RPM) by ear. 

Regards,

 Chris

 I haven't made any for a month or so. It could happen If I get enough requests!

Folks,

Cooper and I went to local Amish saw mill to get a couple bundles of slabs. The sawyer on the band saw mill is my friend. He is riding the cutting head back and forth. Really a nice mill. There is also a conventionl circular sawmill just steps away. Two of his boys work in that mill off bearing. He is also a master craftsmen in custom stainless products. Making stove pipes and special tin knocker items. Today he was cutting cherry logs into boards. I noted that my last name (Casbohm) in German means "Cherry Tree". He confirmed that made sense with his Amish language also.

Regards,

 Chris

 Your persistant I must say. Send me your Address in a P.M. I might be able to get some Maple candy made!

Regards,

Chris