Making Maple Syrup
 

I am wondering if anyone here has experience making maple syrup.

I acquired a bunch of the old style taps and am looking for a simple method to
construct an evaporator that will allow us to make few gallons each year.

Why do most of the evaporators I see online have divided sections
or a raised well on one end or in the center? Trying to understand the
principal behind these so I can make one, anyone know?

I love maple syrup,
it tastes great on cereal:bear_tongue:

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Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

Yep,

My brother and I have been making Maple Syrup off and on over the past 15yrs. Great fun. Watch out, it is addicting.

Here is a nice site: http://www.mapletrader.com/community/index.php

Get the North America Maple Syrup Producers Manual. I have the 1st edition. I see they are out with the second now. It is THE bible on Maple Syrup making.

The season in Western New York will start in a couple of weeks. I love it because it is the first "crop" of the year. It is quite variable as to when the "runs" happen over a 6-8 week period.

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

By the way, you don't need to get started using fancy evaporators and huge stainless steel pans. We started with a turkey cooker pan over a wood fire the first year. I would say start with a propane source that come with most turkey cooker setups. Propane is easy to get started with but if you scale up it will get expensive. We tap about 10 huge yard trees. We get 5-10 gallons of syrup. If we do it this year, I will boil it down to maple sugar and vacuum seal it in 1 gal mason jars, it is easier to store that way for me. I can reconstitute to make maple syrup. It can be tricky to get the right final consistency for maple syrup and if you aren't careful about sealing, too thin and you can get mold, too thick and you get rock candy in your bottles.

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

Gknowmx, Thanxs for the link! this website looks very helpful.
I am still unfamiliar with all of the terminology used on the website
so I defiantly have a lot to learn about this.
They talk a lot about about arches in the evaporators and flues etc.,
I would like to make something that burns wood and is worth while to construct (something that will last and work well)
I'm thinking this will be a great excuse to have a beer drinking event with some buddies while making something delicious and natural at the same time.
Gknowmx, I think you may live only about 1 hour away from me, if you ever want to share a beer or have a dinner you are always welcome at our house.:coolbeer:

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

Good advice (don't boil indoors). I've made it several times but don't have access to sugar maple. I use silver maple which has a lower sugar content but makes a fine syrup. The early run is very light and often you get a little silica in it. The later runs get darker. I also just used propane with a Turkey Fryer. My cousin uses a woodfire and claims that it tastes different.
I have forgotten the ratio - I think for me it was in the ballpark of 40 to 1 (40 gallons of raw sap yielded one gallon of syrup). If you have access to good sugar maple you might get substantially better yield.
My taps were just sections of threaded lamp rod that I cut up. I angled them into plastic milk jugs that I tied around the tree. I could get several gallons of sap from each tree in a week if the weather conditions were right.
Good luck - its fun but time consuming.

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

Heh. I wll say that I still do all my finish boils on the stove in the kitchen. I have a lot more control on the heat on the stove. The finish boil is the more critical part to get the right brix ~66% sugars. Our yard trees have a high sugar content in the sap, sometimes as high as 3.5%. We might get 30 gals from a run that we boil down to a couple gals in turkey cooker pots out in the barn shop then bring it into the kitchen to finish. I suppose 28 gallons of maple steam in the kitchen might be a sticky bad idea...

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

The first year I did it I use oak wood for the fire and there was a hint of wood smoke in the syrup. Actually, it was pretty good, but like wine, everyone's taste is different.

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

It is so nice to hear of people making real maple syrup, most of the stuff in the store is corn syrup with maple flavor.
I made my daughter pancakes this am and she had real maple syrup... Yeah !!!
(product of canada, imported thru NY) I don't think we even have maple trees here in Ca.?

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

yeah
Im in Ca. too
too bad you can't do that with oak trees

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

what are some real good links on buying maple syrup . we try real maple syrup for the first time about a month ago . we can an will never go back to the junk the call maple syrup you buy in most stores . so how about some good places for some of us to buy maple syrup or pm me with links ...thanks mick silver

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

Syrup can also be made from the sap of some Birch trees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_syrup

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

Yeah, I paid $6.24 for a 16 oz bottle of grade A a couple days ago.

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

What a small world!

I happen to have a one quart jug of maplegrove syrup sitting on my kitchen counter!!! :5_1_120:

When the time is right... pancakes and french toast!!! :23_30_104:

P.S. Was purchased at my local supermarket (Shoprite). Yep, pricey, but there's no getting around that.

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

Mapeline...

OK, it's NOT real maple syrup.

But it makes a light syrup that everyone who's ever tried it at our house has asked, "where can I buy this".

http://www.mccormick.com/Products/Ex...le-Flavor.aspx

One bottle (around $4) makes 3 gallons (24 pints). Heat white sugar and water to a boil, add in Mapeline and it's syrup. OK, really HOT syrup, but a good syrup none the less.

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

If anyone is near NE Ohio, they have a big Maple sap festival in Chardon, Oh in April. Use to go to it every year when I was young. They will teach you how to make it and they sell it. I'm sure they probably sell it online now and will mail it to you.

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

Here is a local farm that makes and sells maple syrup on-line. Of course, they are sold out until the new batch is ready in March. There is a nice blog on their website that shows the process from tapping the trees to boiling the sap.

http://www.mayvalfarm.com/maplesyrup.html

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

I've made it for a few years.

1) If you are processing less than 40 gal of sap a year you can boil indoors with no problems. It actually helps raise the humidity (to comfortable levels) and heats the house at the same time. I have never had a problem with sticky walls after a boil.
2) I use SS stock pots for the heavy boiling and a sauce pan for the finishing.
3) You don't really have to watch it till it gets near the end, the temp will start rising past 212.
4) Watch it like hawk when finishing or it will boil over and make a huge mess.
5) You can partially freeze the sap to get some water out but you will lose some sugar.
6) You can tap red, silver, norway, black, and sugar maples.
7) When temps start staying above freezing at night pull your taps. Otherwise you will have mold and bug problems.
8) Let me know if you have any other questions.

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

thanks for the link that the best prices i have seen so far

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

Great post Thank's

Re: Making Maple Syrup
 

I once had a young maple tree about 10" in diameter where I rented a house. I drilled a 3/4" hole upward a few inches into the tree and tightly inserted a 3" piece of plastic tubing into the hole. Under the tubing I hung an empty 5Lb coffee can held in place by duck tape around it and the tree. The instant the sun rose above the horizon the tap started dripping, with the drip fastest at noon. It proceeded until sundown. I then removed the full 5Lb can of clear liquid and very slowly cooked it down on my stove in a wide pot until it was light brown. I only got about 1/4 pint every day, but on vanilla ice cream, mmm...