Maple Syrup

fallfreak said:
Looks like some good stuff. What is the process?
Click to expand...
First thing you have to do is tap several maple trees. Second, collect and boil the sap down to syrup. Generally, the ratio is 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup. Most of the sap consist of water, so boiling evaporates the water off. Usually right around 219 F is when the sap turns to syrup.
 
I collect about 40 gallons of sap so I get about a gallon of syrup. I need to make an evaporator like yours. How big are the pans on top?
 
My granddad had a big evaporator when I was a kid. We tapped about 200 large maples between his land and the neighbors. It made for very long days but I miss it. This was in NW PA.
 
Gellar said:
I collect about 40 gallons of sap so I get about a gallon of syrup. I need to make an evaporator like yours. How big are the pans on top?
Click to expand...
20x12, 6 inch deep. I only fill about 2-3 inches, seems to boil off quicker with less sap in them. All I did was cut a 55 gallon drum to fit the pans, then bought a stove kit that consisted off a door, legs and a flue. I’m boiling about 3.5 gals an hour, last year I used a turkey fryer and it took forever.
 
Kaitum said:
My granddad had a big evaporator when I was a kid. We tapped about 200 large maples between his land and the neighbors. It made for very long days but I miss it. This was in NW PA.
Click to expand...
Wow! 200 taps would be some work, I’m only tapping 37 trees and it’s all I want to do.
 
Neighbors down the road do 5-10k gallons a week when the sap is running. They bottle in 55 gallon drums. Lol
 
My brother-in-law taps 7000. I work for my nephew who taps 10,000. All pipeline and vacuum. My first spring out of high school I worked for a family that hung 11,000 buckets. We gathered with two teams of horses.
 
Yooper906 said:
20x12, 6 inch deep. I only fill about 2-3 inches, seems to boil off quicker with less sap in them. All I did was cut a 55 gallon drum to fit the pans, then bought a stove kit that consisted off a door, legs and a flue. I’m boiling about 3.5 gals an hour, last year I used a turkey fryer and it took forever.
Click to expand...
I’ve always built a fire inside of a brick wall and set the pots on top. I was going to use a turkey fryer last year but heard it took a long time and uses a lot of gas. I know an Amish guy that has a sugar shack and thought about asking him if I brought him 40 gallons of sap if he’d give me a couple quarts of syrup.
 
Gellar said:
I’ve always built a fire inside of a brick wall and set the pots on top. I was going to use a turkey fryer last year but heard it took a long time and uses a lot of gas. I know an Amish guy that has a sugar shack and thought about asking him if I brought him 40 gallons of sap if he’d give me a couple quarts of syrup.
Click to expand...
Wouldn’t hurt to ask. The turkey fryer is a slow process because of the lack of surface area. More surface area you have on your evaporator, the faster your boil rate will be.
 
for 40 (3-4 hr ) to 80 gallon (6-8 hr) runs, its easy to make a cinder block furnace with the right height and spacing to drop in stainless catering/serving pans over the fire. The pan lips overlap each other and the edge of the block, forming a top over the fire. Run an 8’ flue out the back and use a sheet tin sliding piece for a door to load wood and control draft. Run a sap pre-heat pan in front then 3 or 4 boiling pans over the hot part of the fire. You don’t want to lose your boil by adding cold sap, it tremendously increases the time needed! Progress your sap with a ladle from front to back as it thickens, by the time you start running out of feedstock, carefully boil down the last pan a bit more (helps to keep the front pans full with plain water at that point as they will warp and scorch if left empty over the fire, or you can pull them and replace with heavier metal cover to keep fire contained underneath). then finish your final pan on a stove for a gallon or 2 of syrup. Leather gloves and vice grips and a partner help with pulling the trays off your furnace, sucker runs hot!

To avoid boil over, keep some powder coffee creamer “flux” to apply if pans get frothy. Use a seive to scoop and discard any foam or debris that collects and floats on top.

Once done (bubbles start getting much smaller and around 219 F, use a candy or electric thermometer, and adjust slightly down for your altitude), a poly and wool filter bag system cleans up the syrup perfectly, make sure you filter it hot, otherwise its going nowhere! Goes right into quart canning jars at over 200 degrees, tighten the lids, listen for the pop, and will store for years and years.

You can also use red maple (need more sap) or boxelder, black walnut, and black birch to make other flavors of syrup. ratios will vary.

Tapping in the east by me is typically a late January through early to mid march affair. Sap won’t flow (well) on subfreezing days and it gets too warm if nights don’t drop below freezing. Make sure your sap stays cold. A big snow bank in a shady spot makes a great place to store buckets for up to a week. Ice on top of the sap is no problem. Once things get warm and buckets can’t be kept cold and little ants start appearing at your taps, time to pack it up for the year.
 
Last edited:
Bullshot said:
for 40 (3-4 hr ) to 80 gallon (6-8 hr) runs, its easy to make a cinder block furnace with the right height and spacing to drop in stainless catering/serving pans over the fire. The pan lips overlap each other and the edge of the block, forming a top over the fire. Run an 8’ flue out the back and use a sheet tin sliding piece for a door to load wood and control draft. Run a sap pre-heat pan in front then 3 or 4 boiling pans over the hot part of the fire. You don’t want to lose your boil by adding cold sap, it tremendously increases the time needed! Progress your sap with a ladle from front to back as it thickens, by the time you start running out of feedstock, carefully boil down the last pan a bit more (helps to keep the front pans full with plain water at that point as they will warp and scorch if left empty over the fire, or you can pull them and replace with heavier metal cover to keep fire contained underneath). then finish your final pan on a stove for a gallon or 2 of syrup. Leather gloves and vice grips and a partner help with pulling the trays off your furnace, sucker runs hot!

To avoid boil over, keep some coffee creamer “flux” to apply if pans get frothy.

Once done (bubbles start getting much smaller and around 219 F, use a candy or electric thermometer, and adjust slightly down for your altitude), a poly and wool filter bag system cleans up the syrup perfectly, make sure you filter it hot, otherwise its going nowhere! Goes right into quart canning jars at over 200 degrees, tighten the lids, listen for the pop, and will store for years and years.

You can also use red maple (need more sap) or boxelder, black walnut, and black birch to make other flavors of syrup. ratios will vary.

Tapping in the east by me is typically a late January through early to mid march affair. Sap won’t flow (well) on subfreezing days and it gets too warm if nights don’t drop below freezing. Make sure your sap stays cold. A big snow bank in a shady spot makes a great place to store buckets for up to a week. Ice on top of the sap is no problem. Once things get warm and buckets can’t be kept cold and little ants start appearing at your taps, time to pack it up for the year.
Click to expand...
I’ve got about 750 taps on tubing and vacuum. I’m boiling now. It’s gonna be another late night.
 
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