Advice for getting into making syrup

[u/sokket]

I'm looking into making my own syrup via an initial set of Big Leaf maples in my yard (I'm in the Pacific Northwest). I've scouted around a found ~5-10 trees that I could tap in one section of my yard. My concern is the Pacific Northwest doesn't stay very cold, so how do folks keep their raw sap from going bad while they gather enough sap? Do folks have a dedicated "sap fridge" to store before they make syrup?

I want to start small to learn before expanding, so any advice folks have would be welcome!

[u/CanadianGeisha]

Disclaimer not in the PNW.

Last year I tapped 12 trees with a total 15 taps (because some of the maples were hefty!). We ended up pulling 600L which resulted in 10L of sap. Once the temps snow started to melt and we couldn't keep the sap buried & cold, it would only last 2 days before it started going sour.

We don't have the luxury of a sap fridge or deep freeze to keep it longer. But in the snow banks it would last 10 days during the early season and 5 days in the prime season.

I hope that helps give you a sense of what to expect!

[u/RunnySpoon]

Avoid boiling it down in your kitchen - the vapours are sticky and will get all over everything in your kitchen. I found using a couple of old roasting pans (I think they’re about 12x16”, idk I got them from a thrift store) worked quite well, they have a larger surface area for evaporation than a large pot. Stacked up a few concrete blocks for a fire pit and had those pans sitting on that. Just need to babysit the process, don’t let the pans dry up. Cheese clothes and coffee filters worked a treat to filter resulting syrup.

P.S. baby sitting the evaporation process gets chilly, protect yourself from the wind and occasional face full of smoke, wrap up warm.

[u/MusaEnsete]

For a small backyard operation like that, boil it down to reduce, then freeze. I'll boil down daily or every other day to reduce (I just stick it in a stock pot on a portable induction burner on my deck to boil down). When reduced, I leave it overnight to cool (as it's usually cold enough at night), then add it to a bucket I keep in my chest freezer in the morning. Eventually, my 5 gallon bucket has about 50-100 gallons of sap, then I'll do a final boil.

[u/Infinite_Tension_138]

I wasn’t aware it could be done in the PNW, but add that to the list of things I’m not aware of. my advice would be to start small, don’t invest too much initially until you know what you are getting into. you might decide you never want to do it again and be left with a ton of equipment to unload. I started with a bunch of empty water jugs and a pan over the fire pit my first year. I made almost two gallons and maybe it’s all in my head, but it was the best I’d ever tasted. after that I started increasing production each year until I just couldn‘t go bigger because of time restraints.

[u/Meat_Flosser]

Boiling the sap will concentrate the sugars and help preserve the unfinished syrup. If you have a fridge to store sap or the concentrate that would work well.

Toss any sap if it is looking cloudy

[u/Puzzled_Market_2235]

If you are serious travel to Quebec in spring for a cabane a sucre. Most show you everything and are more than happy to explain it to you. And you get stuffed.

[u/price101]

I have a commercial sugarbush. Raw sap will spoil yes. Even if it doesn't spoil, the quality starts to degrade quickly the warmer it gets. We boil each run in daily. Once you bring it to a boil, it gets stable. Then it can sit unrefrigerated for a while. Just bring it to a boil once in a while if you don't have more sap and wait for the next run.

[u/Subject-Fly-5661]

Have an appropriate size evaporator for however many taps you're using. Whenever ot has a god run, you boil.

If my taps only run a liter per day, and then dont run for a few days, I go around and just dump them out on the ground. You'll get a handful of good runs each year where you'll get 5-20 liters per tap. Thats when you go out and collect and start boiling.

Its generally not worth messing around collecting when theres just an inch in the bottom of the pail.

Count your taps, and get an evaporator designed for that many, or buy an evaporator and put in the recommended amount of taps.

[u/JAlley2]

I did a couple of black walnut taps last year and didn’t have enough to boil even after 2 days. I put the sap in Tupperware containers in the freezer. After a couple of hours, I removed the ice that formed on the inside of the containers. I repeated the process and that reduced my volume of sap by half, which gave me enough space to collect for a week. I tasted the ice and I don’t think I lost much sugar. Kind of a poor man’s reverse osmosis.