maple syrup making

[bierandbikes]

Although I have always wanted to make my own syrup, I have not lived in the right area. However, my mother in law started making syrup last year. It turned out pretty good but hoping to get her on her way to perfection. I gave her an extra hydrometer I had and she got a fancy ss "trough" to cook it down in next time. Any recommendations on books or other essential equipment? I benefit from her success, so want to set her up right.

 

[Evets]

Although I have always wanted to make my own syrup, I have not lived in the right area. However, my mother in law started making syrup last year. It turned out pretty good but hoping to get her on her way to perfection. I gave her an extra hydrometer I had and she got a fancy ss "trough" to cook it down in next time. Any recommendations on books or other essential equipment? I benefit from her success, so want to set her up right.

I also started making syrup this year. I tapped the two silver maples in my yard and made almost one gallon of finished syrup. Truely the best syrup I've ever tasted. I boiled on my keggle/banjo burner. This season, I'll be building a masonry arch and boiling in restaurant pans over wood. I've learned a good bit about sugaring on http://mapletrader.com/community/
Here are some pics of last seasons work and my partially completed arch. This season, I'll be tapping about 12 trees.

 

[Evets]

and a couple more

 

[bierandbikes]

Nice setup. We have very few maples on our land here in northern Virginia. I may have to search around for a few maples. I don't know if the climate is right. For now I need to get the wife's mother set up properly and maybe help out a bit this month getting things ready for the spring run.

 

[krackin]

Make sure you use a yeast risen pancake batter for your syrup. Basically just omit the baking powder and baking soda and use yeast. I also omit the salt most of the time.

 

[Evets]

I cut back on the baking powder by half and add a half cup or so of sourdough starter.

 

[Homercidal]

I made syrup this spring. I tapped a couple of small BoxElder trees in my yard, and one of my sister's Maple trees. It was huge and I got three taps in it. She has 2 other large maples in her yard, and I might tap them this spring too. I didn't have enough taps for all of them and those two trees are on the sidewalk and I'm leary of schoolkids messing with them on the way to/from school.

Anyway, I just poured the sap into my electric keggle and it did fine. I could leave it running for hours without worry. I ended up with 2 gallons of syrup, but it was kind of dark. It tasted good, but I found it sugared up in short order. Next time I will definitely go by the temperature, and not worry about the expected finished volume. For some reason I ended up with nearly twice the syrup I was supposed to get.

I'd like to improve the boiling equipment and make a large surface electric rig. My keggle worked fine, but boiled off slower than I'd like. I could easily build a large pan with 3-4 smaller elements and boil the syrup a lot faster.

A wood fired system would be better, but I don't have the time and ambition to manage one. The electric is just VERY handy to operate.

 

[Evets]

Sugar season is just around the corner. I've got my arch just about ready to go. I might still add an air blower system to the fire box.
This is still just temporary. If it works well enough I'll rebuild it on a concrete slab and finish it off for next year.

 

[Homercidal]

Nice work!

 

[boscobeans]

We did it for a few years over a wood fire ( oak ) and it picked up some of the smoke flavor. Different but really good.

bosco

 

[Evets]

Must be spring! Taps are in and sap is flowing! Let the sugaring begin!
I'm thinking about boiling some sap down to .050 or so and adding some hops. we'll see how it goes.

 

[Homercidal]

Still too cold here, but I am ready. I bought a case of syrup bottles so I can give my syrup away this year and it looks fancy. I do need to try and find a few more trees though. If this season isn't as good as last season, I still want a decent amount of syrup.

 

[Evets]

I made 2 quarts of dark amber syrup yesterday.

 

[Homercidal]

We're STILL getting below 0 nights and teens and single digits during the day.

Winter sucks ass.

 

[krackin]

Too cold here too. We have to run a few sections of new line and hopefully it may get warm enough to make it easier. Y'all know how fast the weather can change and leave you kicking snow banks.