Boiling maple sap ( udated new pics from 4-2-11 )

[Blazin]

My buddy Brett's arch. 3'x8' raised flue sap pan, 3'x3' syrup pan.


Boiling sap at about 100 gallons an hour. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 galon of syrup.


10 gallons of fresh hot syrup right out of the pan. Awaiting finishing, and filtering. We made 8 gallons last Wed. night, and 25 gallons yesterday afternoon.

[zieg85]

I got a hankerin for French toast...

[Lt.Del]

with a 40:1 ratio, it seems quite labor intensive.  And, not very profitable unless done in quite large amounts.  How does one get 40 gallons of sap from maple trees efficiently?

quite interesting.

[Blazin]

Well there really isn't allot of money to be made. Its a labor of love! Prices range from $40 to $85 dollars a gallon for maple syrup. You can do the same process for birch sap too, but it takes about 100 gallons of birch sap to make a gallon of syrup. Birch syrup has the sweet taste but not the same as maple.
 He has about 1,000 taps out, about 220 of them are into buckets, the rest are on tubing that runs to a number of 20, 30, 60, gallon containers. He has a Yamaha Grizzly with tracks. Has a 12 volt pump in a 5 gallon bucket mounted to the front of it, with two 35 gallon tanks mounted to the racks. Drives it to the buckets dumps them into the 5 gallon bucket and while driving to the next set of buckets it pumps into the tanks. Also has a homelite gas pump, use that to empty out the larger containers. Drives the Grizzly back to the sugar house, or when across town back to the 1983 K30 dump with two 275 cage tanks in it, pumps it into them. Loads the wheeler back into the truck and goes to the next place. Hes a Chevy freak too!! Has had a few 73-87s, several 67-72s. Currently has the 83 K30 dump, and a 2009 2500HD with a duramx / allison combo.

[Lt.Del]

Here in Va, we have a Maple Festival in Highland County, in Monterey, that just ends this weekend.  It's about 140 miles from me, so i've never been to it.  Perhaps next March I'll take the family out there for the weekend.  Monterey is a small rural town and this famous festival keeps it on the map.  People come from all around for this two-weekend long annual festival.

http://www.highlandcounty.org/maple.htm

[thirsty]

Blazin you forget to mention how much beer it takes to make one gallon of syrup!

[Blazin]

None for Brett and I but it took a 12 pack for Pete!  Pete did allot of heavy onlooking. Helped split some wood smaller, When he tried to start the chain saw to cut some that was to long he ripped the cord out of it! Hes a Ford lover by the way! 

[bake74]

     Very interesting to see the equipment that makes syrup, what does he use to clean up the sap from all those tanks and pumps ?

[slammed79]

Thanks Blazin, now I want waffles!

[roger97338]

Well there really isn't allot of money to be made. Its a labor of love! Prices range from $40 to $85 dollars a gallon for maple syrup. You can do the same process for birch sap too, but it takes about 100 gallons of birch sap to make a gallon of syrup. Birch syrup has the sweet taste but not the same as maple.
 He has about 1,000 taps out, about 220 of them are into buckets, the rest are on tubing that runs to a number of 20, 30, 60, gallon containers. He has a Yamaha Grizzly with tracks. Has a 12 volt pump in a 5 gallon bucket mounted to the front of it, with two 35 gallon tanks mounted to the racks. Drives it to the buckets dumps them into the 5 gallon bucket and while driving to the next set of buckets it pumps into the tanks. Also has a homelite gas pump, use that to empty out the larger containers. Drives the Grizzly back to the sugar house, or when across town back to the 1983 K30 dump with two 275 cage tanks in it, pumps it into them. Loads the wheeler back into the truck and goes to the next place. Hes a Chevy freak too!! Has had a few 73-87s, several 67-72s. Currently has the 83 K30 dump, and a 2009 2500HD with a duramx / allison combo.

Are the trees his trees, on his land? Or does he rent or lease the trees? And is it one tap per tree? Do more taps get more sap, or the same amount of sap faster?

[Blazin]

Bleach and hot water will clean everything. Just hot water during the boiling time. Only use bleach when the season is over.
Not all the trees are on his property. Most people will let you tap their trees for a quart or two of syrup, some don't want anything. Amount of taps per tree depend on how big the tree is, if it was a good producer the year before etc. Every tree is different. Some trees can fill a couple of buckets on a good run day, others only half fill the same or less buckets. for the most part more taps run more sap.
Best weather is 33 degrees or colder at night, and above 40 during the day, the warmer during the day the more it will run.

[autorepr]

WOW! That is crazy cool.   Looks like he has a real nice setup for his hobby.  Does he bottle and ship it or just sell locally?  Id be interested in some.

[log1000]

my dad would use syrup in the beer he makes!

[Blazin]

Sells it local. I bet you could find it on line somewhere. Anyone that sells it to the public is supposed to be part of the Maple Association. Which means they are following guildlines etc. for cleanliness. He wants to add on to the sugar house, same size again, plus maybe a little wider. Move the finishing part, and the sink out into to the new section. Figured it out today, we burned about 3/4 of a cord of wood Sat. allot of that is construction debris. He works for a local contractor, brings home all the scraps.

[Blazin]

Made 16 more gallons of syrup tonight. Have 775 gallons of sap to boil Friday night, plus what ever we collect Friday.