Making Maple Syrup

[Rickhem]

I have a big tree out behind our house that I tapped this year.  Been toying with the idea for a couple years, this year I did it.  I bought a 5 gallon bottle from WalMart, and ran the lines into that.  That bottle filled the first day!  Back to WalMart, bought another bottle, and a roaster pan to fit my grill, and I'm now collecting sap while I'm boiling the contents of that other bottle.  Unfortunately my grill doesn't have the BTUs to distill as fast as I can collect, so I'm going to get a separate propane burner, turkey fryer kinda thing to help speed things up.  I may end up using the pan on my grill for finishing it off, not sure yet as I'm not close to that yet. 
I'm really only into this actively for a few days now, tapped the tree on Monday.  It's already growing into a bit of a rabbit hole, and I'm getting sucked into it good. 

[MUSKRAT]

Ha Ha
You did it now !
The sap is really flowing at my place ,
Hard to keep up with it …:-)) 

It takes a lot of beer , to keep feeding the wood fire , to boil of the sap !
Have fun

[1shot1kill]

It's a sickness, but you could certainly have worse habits!  lol  150 taps out this year for me.  Tapped about two weeks ago and the run was fast and heavy pretty much straight on through.  Mush easier to handle when it's sporadic and not all at once.  Get it while you can.  Unfortunately looks like it's going to be a short season, at least for me in West Shokan.  I don't see another freezing night in the 10 day forecast to keep things going.

[Rickhem]

I ran two runs so far.  First run on a single 5 gallon bottle of sap gave me about 32 ounces of syrup.  That's about double what I calculated I should get, but it went to 219ºF, and tastes good.  It's a light amber color, and I think that is due to the way it was heated and distilled.  Second run was on a total of 22-23 gallons of sap, and that was all boiled down in a turkey fryer.  Lots more heat there, and it boiled down a lot faster.  That batch finished up at about 96 ounces, which is still more than the 40/1 ratio that's always referenced.  I asked some people at a big saphouse operation near me, and they asked if it was a really big tree, and if it's ever been tapped before.  Well, a huge tree, and to my knowledge, never been tapped.  So apparently my ratios aren't off for my situation.
I have a full 5 gal bottle left, and another bottle filling, but the one filling is cloudy after yesterday, so I'm going to dump that one.  I think it may be about done for this year.

[MUSKRAT]

Sap is pretty much done here , time to clean up the buckets
You had a good year for a small start up operation..
It’s kinda a learn as you go , you did good .👍

[1shot1kill]

Definitely learn as you go and it sounds like you did really well.  Very good sugar content which makes for less boiling, good for you.  Most of my trees are buried in the woods and my sugar content fluctuates throughout the year, but is typically pretty low.  !.5-2%, sometimes a little higher.  As you grow you might be interested in testing your sap.  It's a do it yourself process, incredibly easy, with a hydrometer.  When you get a chance, check out some of the maple equipment dealers online, like Bascom, Leader & Shaver Hill.  There's some others too.  I ended up making just over sixteen gallons, which was a mediocre year for me.  Basically got dumped on all at once, instead of a longer spread out season.  I'm holding out on cleaning up for now, hoping the colder weekend brings perhaps another run early in the week.  Fingers crossed although at this point I'm pretty shot!

[Rickhem]

Well I may have spoken too soon.  After dumping those two bottles, I now have the sap from two subsequent bottles boiling down, and another is still filling under the tree, which is about ¾ full.  Weather looks great for collecting the next few days too.  I'm thinking I should get another half-gallon or so more syrup once this next run is done. 

A buddy that I play pool with has been doing this for well over a decade, and he's my go-to when I have questions.  He keeps telling me how if I'm like him, it'll become a bigger and bigger operation every year.  He uses the Brix hydrometers along with the temperature for finishing.

Thanks for those online dealers, I'll be doing some shopping for sure.

[1shot1kill]

It's a great hobby and we actually sell quite a bit of syrup.  It certainly doesn't cover the time I put it, but I enjoy it and I'm not complaining.  I finish mine the same way, mostly just based on temperature.  Bascom sells a really handy tool for finishing, call a Murphy cup.  It combines a thermometer and a hydrometer.  Perfect syrup every time.  It's a little expensive, I think around $150, but once you have it, you have it.  Good luck finishing off this season, you'll be searching for more trees to tap next year!