The R\/O is in production. \u00a0It started processing sap at 10:45 AM. \u00a0Its an historic day at MapleAcres and \u00a0changes how we process sap. \u00a0Old school, 375 gallons would take about 18 \u00bd hours of cooking over two days. \u00a0We processed it all in 9 hours.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
We hinted at working on the R\/O a few days ago. \u00a0But held off a full description while we worked out all the setup challenges. \u00a0 \u00a0Many people to thank. \u00a0Dean for the building and his all around help. \u00a0David for figuring out and doing the piping. \u00a0 John for drilling holes and connecting piping. \u00a0Joe for patiently answering my questions as I tried to figure out how it works and troubleshot problems.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Into the woods by 8:00 AM. \u00a0It was cold overnight: down to 13. \u00a0And still cold when we went to the woods. \u00a0Had to do a water run before anything else. \u00a0 Then wash the finishing pan, which we did not do Sunday after bottling. \u00a0 We had to wash the finishing pan so we could wash the syrup pan of the evaporator on the burner. \u00a0The evaporator had to be all ready for cooking when the R\/O was ready. \u00a0Then we had frozen pipes and need the propane torch to thaw out.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"http:\/\/new.mapleacres.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/The_R0.JPG\")
Finally ready to turn on the R\/O. \u00a0But one last problem when it started. \u00a0It was sucking air from a faulty value on the wash tank that did not close 100%. \u00a0Looked around \u00a0the building and found a 1 \u00bc inch plug. \u00a0Disconnected the value from the piping and attached the plug. \u00a0Its not pretty but stopped it from sucking air.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was 10:45 AM when we turned it again. \u00a0The raw sap was 2.2 Brix. \u00a0Sap was moving through the R\/O. \u00a0Then we ran out to check that permeate was at 0 Brix, no sugar. \u00a0And check Brix on the concentrate: \u00a04.0 Brix. \u00a0 \u00a0This is what we expected. \u00a0We can go higher Brix, but wanted to take out 50% of the water to start. \u00a0In about 1 \u00bc hrs it emptied the 225 gallon storage tank. \u00a0 The permeate tank had about 112 gallons of water as expected. \u00a0An unknown benefit: the R\/O shuts off when the tanks are empty so you do not have to watch it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Higher Brix sap boils differently. \u00a0 Much bigger rolling, almost foaming boils across the entire flue pan. \u00a0And we take off batches of syrup every 1 hr to 1 \u00bd hrs. \u00a0Old school we take off batches every 2 \u00bd hrs to 3 hrs. \u00a0We filled a 10 gallons milk can with syrup today.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now we need more sap. \u00a0We were expecting a sap run today. \u00a0But at 13 overnight it was too cold until late afternoon to run. \u00a0Between 2:00 and 3:00 they started running. \u00a0They ran a few hours before to dropped below freezing for the night. \u00a0Mind 20s tonight. \u00a0And snow! \u00a01\u201d-3\u201d with freezing rain and slop. \u00a0 \u00a0But Thursday looks promising.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back to the house by 8:30 PM.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The R\/O has taken us three years. \u00a0There will be more challenges, but we have turned an historic corner. \u00a0Ned (Dad) and Walter (Grand Dad) hope you are proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The R\/O is in production. \u00a0It started processing sap at 10:45 AM. \u00a0Its an historic day at MapleAcres and \u00a0changes how we process sap. \u00a0Old school, 375 gallons would take about 18 \u00bd hours of cooking over two days. \u00a0We processed it all in 9 hours. \u00a0 We hinted at working on the R\/O a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2015-season-98"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}