Author: SugarMaster Page 2 of 91

Identified the root cause of the R/O performance problems. While the older membrane may have contributed, there is a cracked fitting on the bottom of the pressure vessel. The membrane rests on this fitting so the pump can inject sap into the membrane for concentrating.

After inserting the new membrane, the high pressure pump wouldn’t even start. Swapped back the old membrane. Same result: the high pressure pump wouldn’t start. Started troubleshooting. Since the pumps tried to start, it pointed to the pressure vessel. The broken fitting was reveled when we removed the pressure vessel.

The two screws that fasten the fitting are directly across from each other. This creates a hinge across the fitting. As the high pressure pump engages, this fitting will move up and down slightly but parts not screwed down, will move on the hinge. It’s isn’t much movement, but over time, the plastic on the hinge weakens and eventually, it failed.

This didn’t just happen. Performance felt like it was declining over several years.

The R/O is down until we get a replacement part. If it arrives by Wednesday, we’ll continue with the season. Otherwise, we might end the season. It’s hard cooking without the R/O. With the sap we’ve collected, we are within 2 gallons of an average season.

Into the woods by 6:00 AM. Took four hours to get ready. We collected the taps left over from yesterday: 40 gallons. Pumped sap from the collecting tank to the storage tank, then worked on swapping out membranes and running a 100 gallons rinse on the new membrane. When the high pressure pump wouldn’t engage, we suspected a problem with the new membrane, so we swapped back to the old membrane. We it still wouldn’t engage, we switched to cooking without the R/O.

We cooked until 4:00 PM. For the first time in many years, we didn’t finish. There is close to 200 gallons left to cook tomorrow.

3” of snow overnight and into this morning. Temperature upper 20s to lower 30s. This afternoon, temperature rose to mid-30s. There will be sap tomorrow.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:15 PM.

Into the woods by 5:15 AM. Goal for the day was to bottle two milk cans. Bottling went well. We’re getting the hang of working with the new bottling equipment.

• Turn on the bottler at the same time as lighting the burner on the finishing pan.  
• After adding syrup, turn up the thermostat 200 or 210 to heat the syrup faster, then decrease the thermostat to 185-190 during bottling.  
• Don’t place the cover on the bottler.  The cover will cause condensation that can dilute the syrup below density.  

Two milk can bottled by 12:30 PM.

While bottling, we debated collecting today or waiting.

The argument for waiting was 1.) we are tired after over a week of 12+ hour days and 2.) rain and snow was forecast making collecting uncomfortable. Starts as rain the changes to snow with 1”-3” possible.

The argument for collecting 1.) the sap is fresher. 2.) some buckets were ½ full. 3.) rain and snow are forecast so it’s better to get the sap before that.

We decided to collect. Out by 1:15 PM after fueling the tractor. 4 hours. Solo. 225 gallons with 30 taps uncollected. Snow started by 4:00 PM and hands got cold. Decided we were done either when the tank was full or all taps collected. The tank filled first with 30 taps uncollected amounting to 40-60 gallons. We’ll get them tomorrow.

Back to the farmhouse by 5:30 PM. Another long day.

Into the woods by 5:15 AM to cook. Mid 20s overnight. Sunny, but only 30 during the day. Mid 20s again tonight with rain/snow tomorrow.

Got by with R/O again. It’s challenging when we are used to much better performance. We’re removing only ½ of the water and 4 Brix.. With 360 gallons of sap, we had to cook 180 gallons instead of 90 gallons if could get 7 Brix. That’s a big difference. A 6 hour day verse a 10 1/2 hour day.

Syrup color is lighter today. Cooler weather helps. We won’t get Golden again, but Amber is nice too.

Took off one last batch at the end of the day to ensure it didn’t get to density when we left.

The wall clock failed. We are used to looking at the clock to monitor our performance cooking. Every hour we check and record tank levels and note when we take off batches. It helps plan the day and keep on schedule. Our phone has a clock, but it’s easier to glance at the wall clock to note the time rather then take a phone out of our pocket and unlock it.

We are trying to condition the new membrane. It arrived dry. It has to soak 24 hours in water before use.

The day cooking.
5:55 AM R/O start
7:00 AM 3 ½”
7:35 AM batch
8:00 AM 3 ½”
8:50 AM batch
9:00 AM 3 ¾”
10:00 AM 4 ½”
10:05 AM batch
11:00 AM 4 ¾”
11:15 AM batch
12:00 PM 4 ¾”
12:45 PM batch
1:00 PM 5 ¼”
1:00 PM R/O done
2:00 PM 3 ½”
2:10 PM batch
2:30 PM 1 ¾”
3:00 PM 1”
3:25 PM batch
3:30 PM done

Back to the farmhouse by 3:45 PM

Into the woods by 5:30 AM to bottle. Couldn’t start the burners on the finishing pan because the propane tank was empty. The tank was about ¼, maybe less, when we started the season. Surprised it lasted all of yesterday. It would have been frustrating to run out while trying to finish syrup. Propane refilling services start at 9:00 AM at the Co-Op. We lost the advantage of starting to bottle early.

Bottled one milk can. Three empty, but we still have three full.

Upper 20s overnight. A good freeze. Mostly cloudy at low 50s today. By 10:30 AM trees were dripping. We had to decide if we collected today or tomorrow. Upper 30s tonight but by morning the temperatures drop and stay below 32 all day. Liquid today; ice tomorrow. We went out collecting at 2:15 PM. 360 gallons by 5:15 PM.

New membrane arrived. We have to soak it in water for at least 24 hours to condition it. Won’t be able to use it for tomorrow’s cook.

Back to the farmhouse by 6:15 PM after pumping into the storage tank taking care of a few other things.

Every season there’s an incident where a valve that should be closed is left open or a valve that should be open is left closed causing sap or syrup to flow where it’s not expected. While bottling this morning, we left a fill valve on the new bottler open causing about 2 gallons to spill onto the floor. We leave the valves open after washing the bottler but forgot to check them before adding syrup. We stepped away after adding a pail of syrup so didn’t notice the spill until most of the syrup was on the floor. The floor was both sticky and slippery until we washed it down with water.

Into the woods by 6:00 AM to bottle. Bottled two milk cans. We have a little room for more syrup, but still have four milk cans of syrup to bottle. Bottled 11 ½ gallons plus 2 gallons for the floor.

We had a storm last night into this morning. Started as rain by 4:00 PM yesterday. Changed to snow by 7:00 PM yesterday. About 4” of snow but the strong wind made for quite the storm. It cleared by 11:00 AM but was still blowing at 6:00 AM when we went into the woods. The sun came out and temperature mid-30s. Today is the first day of Spring.

Back to the farmhouse by 2:15 PM.

Into the woods by 5:15 AM. It took until 7:00 AM to prepare for cooking. Cleaned the syrup pan; ran rinse cycle on the R/O; pumped sap from the collecting tank to the storage tanks where it feeds the R/O. We had to let the concentrate accumulate in the tank before starting the evaporator at 7:30 AM.

The R/O was processing 55 gallons/hour at 4 Brix. It’s slow going when we are used to 90 gallons/hour with 7 Brix. At 4 Brix, the ratio is 21.5:1. At 7 Bix the ratio is 12:1. We had to cook out 9 ½ gallons more of water. We can cook at 20 gallons/hour so that’s 9 ½ extra gallons of water to cook out is a big difference.

We were concerned the R/O wouldn’t be able to concentrate even at a low rate because of the membrane fouling up. The water from yesterday’s wash as cycle was dirty. It’s better to run another wash cycle until the water is clear, but we needed the R/O today. It got us through.

Visitors at 1:00 PM from the Felician Village. Gave them a tour of the maple syrup operation to explain how maple syrup is made. Always nice to have visitors. And we were cooking today which is more interesting to see.

High 30s overnight. Low 40s, cloudy and windy today. The wind made it feel colder. Light rain started by 1:30 PM. Forecast to change to snow later this evening. 1”-3” possible.

Back to the farmhouse by 2:15 PM.

The day cooking.
7:00 AM R/O start
8:15 AM 3 ¾”
8:55 AM batch
9:00 AM 5”
9:55 AM batch
10:15 AM 4 ¾”
10:50 AM batch
11:00 AM 5 ½”
11:30 AM R/O done
11:30 AM 5 ¾”
11:50 AM batch
12:00 PM 4 ¼”
12:50 PM batch
1:00 PM 2”
1:00 PM visitors
2:15 PM done

Trees must have started running yesterday afternoon when the temperature warmed and sun came out. Then dripped into the evening before it froze. It was 27 overnight. Sunny and 40 today with a cold wind. But the trees continued running. We checked the buckets and Noon. They were running well and we needed to collect by 3:00 PM. Picked up 495 gallons.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM to clean the syrup pan. Letting it soak in cleaning solution makes it easier to clean. Also ran another hot wash on the membrane.

Went to Menards to get a ½” to ¼” bushing so we can replace the thermometer on the bottler with another thermometer that has ¼” fittings.

Labeled several cases of syrup to have ready for a group that is visiting on Wednesday.

Cleaned the tanks by 2:00 PM. Started collecting at 2:50 PM. Back to the farmhouse by 6:00 PM.

A dusting of snow overnight and this morning. Enough to make the ground white. Temperatures mid to low 30s to upper 20s. Snow stopped by 11:00 AM. Then partly cloudy in the afternoon.

Into the woods by 8:30 AM to bottle. Still refining how to operate the bottler. Used enough water to cover the heating element, but not much more. Also vented the water tank. It creates steam as the water heats. The steam causes water to erupt from the clear tube because it needs to release pressure. Turned on the heating element at the same time as starting the syrup on the finishing pan. That worked well because the water jacket and syrup were closer to the same temperature. Syrup was about 200. Water jacket about 170. We let it warm longer before bottling.

Unfortunately, we set the water tank thermostat too high. The syrup reached 200 and that caused cloudy syrup as particles precipitated out. We’ll redo this batch. We returned the syrup to milk can and emptied already filled bottles too. We know we can do better by carefully monitoring temperature. 2 ½ hours of work without any bottled syrup to show for it.

The second milk can went well. We lowered the thermostat tempature. Still learning and refining the best settings.

We need to discuss the thermometer on the bottler with our equipment dealer. It’s filled with condensation and some water making it difficult to read. That doesn’t feel normal.

We have two empty milk cans and three full milk cans. We’ll need to bottle again this coming week.

24 quarts and 12 pints bottled. Back to the farmhouse by 2:00 PM.

We made Grade A Golden syrup again this season. 2023 was the first season we made Grade A Golden. It’s exciting to make this quality of syrup. There should be two more milk cans of Grade A Golden. The early season sap it always the best, but it still takes quick processing and careful monitoring while cooking to achieve this.

The new equipment we mentioned a few days ago it a new bottler with a water jacket. A 12 gallon tank for syrup is surrounded by a larger tank. The space between is filled with water. An electric heating element warms the water. The warm water then heats the syrup in the smaller tank through conduction.

We had to figure out how to use it and integrate into our workflow. We filled the water tank with too much water. We used 10 gallons. 1.) It took too long to heat: two hours. 2.) We added hot syrup when we turned on the heater because we thought the 3000 Watt heater would quickly heat the water. It didn’t. The cold water cooled the syrup so we waited for the water and syrup to warm. 3.) When the water did heat, it expanded and boiled over. The tank has a clear tube to view the water level. Water erupted from the tube. The lesson is use less water and heat the water before adding syrup. There isn’t any direct heat on the pan to burn it. The heating element only needs to be covered with water.

The water jacket holds the syrup at a consistent temperature. No more micro-adjustments on the propane burners trying to regulate the heat. Another clear tube shows the syrup level in the tank allowing us to better manage how many more bottles we need. Finally, there is a thermometer that shows the syrup temperature. We’ll learn more adjustments to better utilize the new bottler as we gain experience with it.

Low 40s overnight with some rain. The day started foggy, but cleared to partly cloudy by afternoon. Warm and windy. High 50s. Tonight’s forecast is high 20s to low 30s. Next week forecast’s look more favorable.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM. Bottled 22 quarts and 8 pints. Back to the farmhouse by 2:30 PM.