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We always just ran it in a BOP on a wood stove in the kitchen, I've never run it outdoors. Then again, we're talking about a pretty small scale.

One of the bits of advice I've read said that you shouldn't do it indoors because 90% of it turns into humidity in the house, which can mess with your wallpaper...

If I can get some damn humidity in this house AND get the wallpaper off the walls, I'll be a very happy man as I sit down to my waffles.

Did a lot of tree tapping and maple syrup making when I lived in Wisconsin. It was a great family activity. We tapped close to 50 trees but carried sap in 5 gal. pails and a yoke. Tough when the snow is deep! You should definitely look into a wood fired set up if its something you want to continue to do yearly. We had an evaporator with a 3'x5' pan, and a sap reservoir so you could continually add sap and not loose your boil. It was a great hobby and I sure miss it.
Good luck

we used to tap 4000 buckets.
best year was 700 gallons

700 of sap or syrup?

The trays I found at the scrap yard are around 3×5 give or take a few inches but I'm trying to come up with a way to hold for a while then transfer to the syrup boiler/holder type thing which would be my 20 gal ss pot.

Maybe a sliding door to a 2" pipe into the holder/boiler?

700 gallons of syrup.
boiled for 1 month
the season used to be longer 15-20 years ago.
about a month each year.
now 2 weeks on bucket is good
pipeline a bit more
you can start earlier on pipeline cause of vacuum

Hey Shineon;
Been following your post Thanks for starting this one It's encouraging as this will be my first year for tapping. My maple trees are not mature enough to tap yet, will need to give then about 10 more years, but I recently have come across tapping Black Walnut trees http://www.hobbyfarms.com/tap-black-wal ... s-for-sap/ I have a few of those trees readily available and off subject I have made a AG Barley/Wheat whiskey and seasoned over Black Walnuts Roasted/Crushed shell and nut meat (The Roasting helps break up the oils) that had a unique but wonderful flavor, Black Walnuts have a flavor all their own. I've been thinking about boiling the raw Black Walnut sap down to 1.100 - 1.090 SG and making a Black Walnut mead...Figure if it doesn't turn out one could always distill it.

Heck yeah, I have a couple black walnuts myself.

I read the sap is a bit lower than sugar maple but sill some tasty syrup none the less.

Hell, I may have a purpose for the extra taps I have.

I'm headed back now to read the link you provided, I appreciate it

raketemensch wrote:

• Sap is drawn from trees in early spring when the night temperatures are freezing and the days are warm and sunny.
  As a maple tree increases in diameter, a maximum of four taps can be put into the tree.
  Farmers stop drawing sap from a tree when it begins to bud.
  When leaves appear on a tree, the tree’s sap becomes bitter.
  The production of maple syrup is the oldest agricultural enterprise in the United States.
  Maple syrup is rich in calcium, which helps build strong bones and teeth.
  Maple syrup contains approximately 1/3 less carbohydrates than granulated sugar.
  Maple syrup is 100% fat free.
  Maple syrup was the standard household sweetener in the United States until around 1875.
  Once opened, maple syrup containers should be refrigerated.

Man.. yall never fail to impress me on HD. I swear the collective brainpower on this site.. we've got an expert, or at least a student, on every subject you could imagine. This Forum is great for learning about more than just stillin'. Great for learning about stilling too..

It pretty cool once you mention something that there is " someone" who does it or knows about anything


I'm getting ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.

when I was a kid my father cut the end out of an old rusty house fuel oil drum, put it on the flat side, shoved branches and brambles in to burn (cleaning up the farm fence rows) and as many pots as would fit on top. Flat pans boil off better than tall deep ones. Keep your eyes on them so you don't scorch and rotate the darker and lighter ones around as the heat goes. Then when boiled down 'most of the way' put in a pot to bring in the house to use an actual candy thermometer to get down to target for taste/storage without scorching.

One thing we didn't try back then that I'd do now, or at least experiment, is when the sap froze over night (could be a skim or a fist to brick sized clump), pull out the ice and start to evaporate the liquid. Low concentrated water is the first to freeze so the cold has already removed a bunch of water you otherwise need to boil off.

.

Well this Eastern Virginia weather doesn't look like it's going to cooperate this year. Too bad because I really wanted to do this!

At least I'll be able to set up a proper evaporator to do this next time, wood fired, ss trays, final boiling kettle.

I was looking forward but at least I know where to get some for 30 a gal in W.Va If I buy 4 or more gallons.

Oh well

Shine0n wrote:Well this Eastern Virginia weather doesn't look like it's going to cooperate this year. Too bad because I really wanted to do this!

At least I'll be able to set up a proper evaporator to do this next time, wood fired, ss trays, final boiling kettle.

I was looking forward but at least I know where to get some for 30 a gal in W.Va If I buy 4 or more gallons.

Oh well

why what the night time temps outside
the key is freezing in the night time and slightly above in the day
hes it been that hot down your way
we had 16 inches of snow 2 days ago
got about 40 inches on the ground
will be mid march here before they even begin tapping
if you really wanted to sugar you could pay a visit up here to southern canada and have a taste off the evaporator

dukethebeagle120 wrote:

Shine0n wrote:Well this Eastern Virginia weather doesn't look like it's going to cooperate this year. Too bad because I really wanted to do this!

At least I'll be able to set up a proper evaporator to do this next time, wood fired, ss trays, final boiling kettle.

I was looking forward but at least I know where to get some for 30 a gal in W.Va If I buy 4 or more gallons.

Oh well

why what the night time temps outside
the key is freezing in the night time and slightly above in the day
hes it been that hot down your way
we had 16 inches of snow 2 days ago
got about 40 inches on the ground
will be mid march here before they even begin tapping
if you really wanted to sugar you could pay a visit up here to southern canada and have a taste off the evaporator

sorry shine
i just checked the weather network for your area
your rite
i think it`ll be a no show
but your still invited

That would be awesome to come up there, possibly next year but this year I just couldn't find the time unless I win the lottery. lol

My work is booming right now so I have to make the most of it, we're booked until June and a ton more bids going our way. That's a good thing but very much time consuming, I appreciate the invite!

Do you have any plans to visit during S3-18?

I've already told my wife, work, family, and friends I'm going out of town that weekend so I'm definitely going to be there.

I tapped 2 Black walnuts (2 Weeks ago)...I may have been a little early (we had a warm spell in NWPA) However it was only 2 taps (I did want to over burdened with to much sap and not enough room to store or time to boil it down... I did order 6 more taps and plan on end of this week to tap a couple more trees... I'm anxious, and I'm hoping to hear good news about others tapping trees, for Syrup, or possibly a "wine" or distillate. This is a new experience for me I'm excited

Shine0n wrote:That would be awesome to come up there, possibly next year but this year I just couldn't find the time unless I win the lottery. lol

My work is booming right now so I have to make the most of it, we're booked until June and a ton more bids going our way. That's a good thing but very much time consuming, I appreciate the invite!

Do you have any plans to visit during S3-18?

I've already told my wife, work, family, and friends I'm going out of town that weekend so I'm definitely going to be there.

eastern va aka say richmond is about 10 hours from here.
like from my place to buffalo ny.
in canada everything is far so thats no concern.
i would like to be able to attend if possible
also maybe i could send you a couple cans of 2018 syrup
grade a no.1
maybe you could pm me with a message and i could do that

PM sent

Damn, Shine_On, I'm awfully disappointed for ya. But, thats life. Not a damn thing we can do about it. The weather is what it is. Myself, i was sure as hell cursing old man winter this morning. Lousy wisconsin snow. Not a big fan of snow. But.. i'll say this, it's nice indoor stilling weather. Not to hot to heat up the house with the gear, and most of all... not a single god damn fly to worry about. I'm not looking forward to battling house and fruit flies this summer. Everything distilling related is fly bait. THey love love any kind of wash, from start to finish. I suppose that's just more motivation to keep everything clean as possible to keep the flies away.

Hopefully next year the weather will cooperate for ya, pal. Good things come to those that wait. Gotta hurry up and be patient i spose.

Yeah man, it's disappointing no doubt but like you said there's always next year (Hopefully)

I'll have what I need properly set up and eagerly waiting for the constant cold.

Last year was cold for months and this year has been 18°f one week and 65-70f the next, etc.

I have high hopes and a strong mind to follow so I'll get her one day.

I hope it will still be a good year for syrup, but the weather is changing a lot from day to day and it's not really promising.
I remember a few years back, one year was only a week of production.
Last year was about 2 weeks but it depends of many factors.
I help my neighbours from time to time when I can, and I hope I'll get a few gallons of maple water to brew my seasonal beer
They've got around 12'000 taps, it's a good size, but small compared to the others around.

I was looking to put in 5-10 Taps depending on tree size, absolutely no telling what may lie in store!
We may have a wild late February and March is always unpredictable so there may be hope and I'll be ready but I don't hold my breath here in Va.

Stranger things have happened here tho

I am thinking about using my boiler (5 gallon pot with internal element) to boil down my sap and then finishing it on a stove. Is there
any reason not to do this? I don't think It will be a problem as long as I don't boil it down to syrup with the element.

Ben, depending on your sap mineral content, you might have surprises even if not boiling down to syrup.
In some places here, they use some kind of anode protection to limit the deposits in the pans when mineral content is high.
It's a real pita to wash the pans with such deposits.

Cede,

That is something that I had not considered, but I have boiled sap from these trees over the last few years and never
had problems with deposits. Also easy enough to replace the element and save this one for sap only.
Thanks for pointing that out.

cede is rite
mineral can be a problem
in finished product also
there is a distillery near my place doing maple shine
its a new start up
waiting to see

Making shine was definitely on the list if I had gotten enough sap but oh well.

The plan was to boil down to get 1.070 or so then making the shine followed by a AG corn with maple backset.

I still need to get a few gallons for the pancakes and french toast plus my wife drowns her sausage with it so I need a good bit. lol

I'd like this thread to keep going although my season won't get started this year but would love to hear others success with syrup making.

Shine0n

Oh god.. you're making me so hungry. Maple syrup drenched pancakes, french toast, and sausage. Sausage or bacon with maple syrup on it is the food of the gods. The breakfast gods.

I whole heartedly agree

Just to say... Sap began to flow !

Tapped 2 Black Walnut trees. (Each tree is producing 3/4 of a gallon or more a day, depending on the weather) after collecting about 6 gallons, then boiled/reducing the volume down to 1 1/2 cups of sweet thin syrup.

Wow does it taste good. It is similar to Maple, but has a more earthy, richer flavor, and darker brown color on the finial syrup product... This is going so well went out and tapped 2 more Black Walnuts, (may tap more trees later, don't want more sap than I can handle at one time) and the plan is to collect and boil to reduce the volume that is more manageable and refrigerate till I have collected enough to ferment.

The goal is to ferment 15-20 gallons sap reduced to 1.090-1.060 SG. This goal "should" net me enough to make a batch of Black Walnut wine (similar to a low ABV mead) and hopefully enough to make a run through the still... I'm curious to see what flavors come over, in the different beverage styles.

Thanks for starting this post Shineon.
I'll try to keep you all up dated on the outcome.
Blackstrap