Roseum Maple Syrup

Building a temperature controlled maple tubing vacuum system For the 2021 season we converted our operation to 3/16" tubing and built a temperature controlled vacuum system that uses a diaphragm pump.  The setup worked amazing and we averaged over 1 gallon of sap per tap each day, totalling 19 gallons of sap per tap and 0.275 gallons of syrup per tap on the season.   In 2022 this system averaged over 0.35 gallons of syrup per tap on the season. We used Leader clear check valve spiles with approximately 100 taps on a total of 6 lateral lines of tubing (~16 taps per line).   Our lateral lines have fairly good elevation drop to them (over 100 feet total and at least 10 feet from the final tap in most cases).  This resulted in good natural vacuum and increased our sap yields.  Additionally, the small diaphragm pump induced additional vacuum in the lines, further increasing sap yields.  We consistently saw approximately 29 inHg of vacuum at the top of ...

Does anyone else find filtering to be one of the most frustrating (and slow) parts of sugaring? I do.  If you are a small/hobby producer and are using a set of cone filters like I have been, it's awful.  It's slow.  It wastes your precious syrup.  And the results can leave some niter which settles out later - not attractive in nice glass bottles. Filter presses (like the big producers use) work awesome but they aren't conducive to smaller scale hobbyists.  First, they are expensive.  Second, they require a fairly large minimum volume of syrup for processing (5 gallons might be my entire season!).  Third, fairly involved set up, tear down, and cleaning. So what is an alternative? A vacuum filter . You can achieve drastic improvement over cone filtering (time and quality) at a fraction of the cost of a filter press. This year I built a vacuum filtering unit that also has a steam pan to keep the filtered syrup at a constant temperature for bottl...

This post will walk through the basic principles of reverse osmosis for maple sugaring, general design considerations for a DIY hobby unit, and an overview of multiple DIY portable hobby RO units i have built.   I use Membrane Solutions 400 and 500 gpd membranes and am incredibly happy with their performance and quality.  Here is a link to the Membrane Solutions Amazon store : General Principles: Reverse osmosis is a process by which pure water (called permeate) is created through filtration at the molecular level through semi permeable membranes, facilitated by an applied pressure (normally from a booster pump).  This removes unwanted ions, particles, molecules, and even bacteria from the water output (permeate). The "waste" output (called concentrate) is full of all the items removed from the feed water.  In maple sap applications the concentrate is what we are keeping and leads to less water to boil out of the sap, or, in other words, a higher sugar...

When then maple sugaring season has come to a close, there is a lot of cleanup and storage that needs to be done so that everything is well maintained and kept in order for the next season.  In this post we will discuss tips for cleaning the following maple equipment: Evaporator pan Reverse Osmosis (RO) cleaning and storage Buckets & lids (collection and gathering) Spiles Collection / gathering tanks   The required items and process steps are outlined below and are accompanied by instructional videos.  Evaporator Pan Things you will need: White vinegar Water (preferably permeate or distilled) Non-abrasive cleaning cloth or large scrub brush Baking soda Garden hose or pressure washer (optional) Detergent free SOS/scouring pad (optional) Process: First, make sure your pan has been drained of all sap and syrup.   Premix a 50/50 blend of white vinegar and hot permeate (if you used an RO system during the year), distilled water, or ...

In 2022 I rebuilt this evaporator to accomodate a set of Smoky Lake Dauntless drop flue pans. I added burners, stainless sidewalls, and lengthened the arch. In 2019, I designed and built a custom hobby maple syrup evaporator to improve efficiency and increase the volume of syrup we could produce.   In this post I will outline some of the design and build process.   Custom Hobby Evaporator Specs and Features Number of taps: 10 - 50 Max main pan volume: 27 gallons (29.5" long x 21.5" wide x 10" deep) Recommended batch size: 5 gallons (sap or concentrate) Evaporation rate : 4 gallons/hour for 5 gallon batch Fuel type:  Natural Gas (can be converted to propane with different orifice) Thermal output: 210,000 - 270,000 BTUs Burners: three (3) stainless steel U-burners Piezoelectric ignition Independent burner valves and air/gas mixing chambers Lid : stainless steel tiltable with steam catch channel Draw-off:  gate valve over a mountable 6" ...