Making Maple Syrup

This warm wheather is getting itchy to prep my syruping stuff. Only month and a half away.

2 slow days doesn’t end a season.  I assure you the sap is far from being done as the trees aren’t even close to budding yet.  It’s going to get dicey here and there when we don’t get lows below freezing for a few days in a row.  I’m near Watertown/Lake Mills and I’m only 1 week into my season.  I got about 50 gallons of sap on 21 taps yesterday.

West Bend area looks like she may be done, 43 taps and maybe got a Qt of sap the last 2 days. Sat pulling everything. Was able to get about 14Qt made for my first year.  ​You know, once you start there's always a 2nd!

PSE – Ulbian, thanks for the float box comments. Yeah, I really need to put one in place for next season. Decent weekend, boiled 110 gallons of RO sap at 6%. Was able to draw off almost 3 gallons of finished syrup after the pan was sweetened and have another 3 gallons of syrup in the concentrate that I’ll pick up with this coming weekend.

Dude, your "pedestrian" way of doing it is light years ahead of what I have, which is nothing lol. As PSE mentioned, as long as it results in syrup it's all good!
 I will say seeing the different set ups does seem similar to my buddies who brew their own beer. They started off with VERY basic stuff like coolers and buckets. Now, due to (thanks to?) a divorce for the ringleader, he's transformed half his basement essentially into a brewery complete with huge stainless kettles and conical fermenters. Oh, did I mention he also has degrees in robotics and electromechanical engineering so literally darn near everything is handled by the push of a button? About the only physical involvement they have is dumping the grains to start lol.

As long as there is syrup in the end, it's all good. I just like to stay warm and dry when we cook.

PSE, now run a little whiskey with that. How many quarts you make a year ?

Dang PSE, that’s awesome.  I feel very pedestrian right now!  

JigRod, I do have a float box that is fed from a tank. It keeps the level equal throughtout cooking and feeds while evaporation takes place. I can shut down the flow or slow it down as the sap cooks. In my setup, it goes in clear and comes out syrup. I have an auto draw off that i can set a draw off tempurature. I can set it at 219-218 depending on the brix when it draws off. 218.2, 218,7. whatever temp. that gets me to 66 brix. sap goes in clear and comes out looking like this. 

@the_dude

I sent you a private message.  

@jigrod

I have a float box on mine. If you are thinking that maybe you want to rig one up, just go ahead and do it. Keeping that consistent depth in your pan will allow you to maintain your evaporation rate without it jumping up and down. With the float box it’s easier to gauge when to shut down for the day. Without it there’s a bit more guessing. Keeping my pan at 1.5 or 2 inches at all times keeps the boil more uniform across all channels of my pan.  

There are a lot of different add on gadgets that I invested in but the float box as opposed to a warming box sitting above my pan is something I’d never set aside. That thing is a must anytime I fire up. 

PSE - I'm curious if you have run your evaporator with and without the float box on it and what if any efficiencies you picked up running with it. I'm thinking of making one for my evaporator at some point.

That is an impressive setup PSE!

made 4 gallons yesterday.good start

Sugar content of my first 80 gallons must be crap.  Cooked 50 gallons down to about 2 and still looks like quite a ways off.  Oh well!

Stopped at Smokey Lake in Hilbert yesterday. It's my new go to for bottles and tubing and taps. A little out of the way, but prices were comparable to internet, and most was available. They build all their pans and evaporators right there. Very friendly people there too!