Anybody making Maple syrup?

[astaft]

Just throwing this out there to see if anybody has experience or tips. I have about 90 acres of woods in SW Wisconsin with plenty of sugar maples (about a 90 minute drive from home) and was going to try and make some maple syrup this spring. I ordered some taps and tubing from amazon and have a few 5 gallon buckets to collect the sap.

My thoughts are that I was going collect the sap, bring it home and boil it in a 5 gallon pot over a propane outdoor burner? Depending on how fast the sap flows (no idea on this), I would tap on a Sat. morning and pickup on a Sun. evening.

any advice would be great!

Andrew

[Philster]

I don't have any advise for you but would sure like some! Maybe vsalon branded?

[David Tollefson]

I don't have any advise for you but would sure like some! Maybe vsalon branded?

Baller's Ride Maple Syrup. Yeah, I like that.

[echelon_john]

40:1

I've dabbled; outdoor burner is a good way to go. Don't rush it. If you're going to bother, make a bunch. Put your buckets out Friday night; take em in Saturday night and consolidate; keep it cool. Put 'em right back out so you don't miss any of Sunday, and bring em in Sunday afternoon. This, of course, depends on having perfect weather; well below freezing at night, ideally sunny and 40 during the day.

[joosttx]

Baller's Ride Maple Syrup. Yeah, I like that.

Sounds kinky.

[TMB]

A number of years ago we had a summer exchange student for 3 years in a row. She was from Quebec, just outside Lac Megantic, she was coming out for the summer to go to English Immersion.

Her family owned a Maple farm and ran a sugar shack. Ever since, every year at Christmas we get a case of a dozen cans of fresh, medium Maple Syrup. Heaven.

[Curt Goodrich]

I did it once with our one maple tree in the backyard. I figured how much sap can come from one tree? Let's just say I bit off a little more than I could chew. I did the 5 gallon pot over the outside burner and it took a long time due to the small surface area of the pot. If I ever do it again I'd look into a large flat pan which would increase the surface area and speed the evaporation rate. This is what commercial maple syrup boilers do. My one tree yielded 20+ gallons of sap.

[Wisco]

Whatever you make, save me a bottle.

Your friendly neighbor.

[sine]

I did growing up outside Montreal. One tree in our backyard, my own finely (not) craft parts. I boiled the sap down a bit to much….best maple syrup ever.

If you follow Echelon schedule, you could boil the first batch on Sunday. Less to haul back home.

Have fun.

[Bertleman]

Find someone with an evaporator...bring him all your sap and help out in exchange for some of the finished product. It takes about 40-50 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. I help out a guy in northern New Hampshire who has an insane set up.
Here is your next rabbit hole....MapleTrader.com

[tele]

+1 for mapletrader, good site with good info but nothing is like talking to someone next to their rig.
I "work" at a sugar shack with 2 buddies; we learned a lot from talking to others and trial and error.
Sugaring is a blast and its about keeping the process going: tapping, collecting, burning, drinking and late nights!

[echelon_john]

Pro tip: Make sure it's a maple tree. Don't ask. There were no leaves.

[David Tollefson]

Pro tip: Make sure it's a maple tree. Don't ask. There were no leaves.

Oh man... Big joke in scouts was to give some one a cascara branch for a roasting stick.

[echelon_john]

I've always wanted to put buckets up on a bunch of phone poles around here.

[mmoore]

I did it growing up on a farm.

We tapped probably 20 trees or so and used a early century maple shack with original evaporator and finisher-but the finishing pan was rusted through so we only used the evaporator for the little amount we were doing.


Get something wtih a lot of surface area. We filled a 8' by 4' evaporator 3x over every day with 20 trees and keeping the pan roughly 4" deep in sap until nearing the end. It was a great time, but a lot of work, especially with the deep snow.

We only did it for a week or so... but it was a riot.

[astaft]

Update:
First run with ~15 gallons of sap.

My setup, with wind breaks
syrup1.jpg

Finishing on stove
syrup2.jpg


unfiltered syrup (I let the sugar sand settle for a week)

syrup3.jpg

[ericpmoss]

These guys also seem to be into it: