Maple syrup evaporator manual

Sugaring is the art of making maple syrup from the sap of maple trees. Jump to Slide Number 1. Home » Learn » Sugaring for Beginners. How to get started in the art of sugaring?

Tap Maple Trees All maple trees can be tapped for sap. Tapping a maple tree requires limited tools. A tapped maple has the potential to produce between gallons of sap.

Sample only syrup that has received the final filtering. Collect samples in a clean glass or plastic container and combine into one lot. Send the required amount, usually only a few ounces, to the lab of your choice. Lead does not come from trees. Sap collected using lead-free plastic materials has virtually no lead in it.

Sugar sand concentrates any lead in the sap as it is formed so it should also be treated as lead containing. Roadside dust and dirt may also contain lead. In tests of several models, all older metal spouts added lead to maple sap. Very old spouts may be made of terneplate and will leach large amounts of lead into the sap.

Lead-free metal spouts are now available. Not all buckets are equal when it comes to lead. Some old buckets have shinier terneplate bottoms; beware of these. Lead containing buckets begin to leach lead into sap within the first few hours, and continue to add lead to sap as long as it is in contact with metal surfaces. Storage of sap in buckets for several days, which may occur when sap runs slowly, can result in very high sap lead concentrations.

Galvanized and lead-soldered tanks also add some lead to sap, although usually less than buckets, because their surface-to-volume ratio is smaller. In an evaporator, a lead-soldered back pan adds more lead than a lead-soldered front pan, due to the many solder seams. The lead content of partially made syrup often decreases in the front pan, as lead is precipitating and sticking to the pan in the form of sugar sand.

After the evaporator is shut down, lead will continue to accumulate in the partially boiled syrup from lead solder. Draining the front pan into buckets and adding the syrup again once boiling resumes, reduced lead accumulation.

Cleaning the front pan with water may remove some of the sugar sand source of lead but also re-expose lead solder source of lead. Water cleaning had little effect on syrup lead concentration. Frequently cleaning a lead-soldered pan with acid will likely result in higher syrup lead content.

Sugar sand may contain extremely high amounts of lead, depending on the concentrations of lead in the evaporator. Good filtering is essential for keeping lead out of syrup.

In tests, cone filters were as effective as filter presses in removing lead. A large percentage of lead in syrup is in a dissolved form, however, which is not filterable.

Bronze used in the manufacture of gear pumps usually contains lead, and these pumps can add lead to sap and syrup. Unnecessary pumping, particularly of sap, should be avoided. Other pump models are available which contain little or no lead. Old milk cans frequently contain terneplate, an alloy with a high lead content, and should never be used for syrup filtering or storage.

Syrup kept in older, heavy galvanized barrels have a much higher lead content after 8 months of storage. Newer galvanized barrels do not add appreciable lead in the same amount of time. Standards for lead concentration are based on models of the maximum syrup consumption by children.

Standards vary within the maple producing regions of the U. Syrup producers and health officials share the goal of a healthy and fine tasting product that is safe from contaminants. Reprinted with permission from T. Wilmot and T. Endyne Inc. To ensure quality for next year, clean all equipment as soon as possible at the close of the maple season. Some producers allow sap to ferment in English tin or stainless steel pans.

If this method is used, watch the fermenting action carefully. When scale loosens, scrub with a nylon pad. If fermenting sap is left in pans too long, serious damage may result. Rinse with clear water, and dry. If chemical cleansers are used, be sure to rinse thoroughly to prevent possible damage to the pan, and off-flavors next season. Materials that collect on the underside of the evaporator during the season are generally corrosive to metal; if corrosive deposits are permitted to remain until the next season, holes may result in the bottom of the front pan, or in the flues.

To avoid damage, clean the underside of the front pan, and use a brush to clean the flues. You can buy special flue brushes from maple equipment suppliers.

If sap tanks or other equipment needs to be painted, use a non-toxic epoxy paint. Paint meeting these standards is available from a maple equipment dealer.

Painting at the close of the season, as opposed to the beginning of a new season, allows time for odors to dissipate, reducing the possibility of off-flavored syrup.

There are many different ways sugarmakers have developed to clean tubing. The following three are probably the most common:. Pulling Up and Cleaning: To do the best job, laterals should be rolled up and tied in bundles, taken to the sugarhouse for cleaning and then stored under cover. Before doing this, number the system so it can be rehung the next year. This is best done by painting numbers or letters on trees and putting a tag with a corresponding number or letter on the tubing.

There are countless variations of identification systems, but the important thing is that the laterals go up in the same place next year.

Once the laterals are numbered, roll them up into bundles of about 25 taps. Take each bundle to a tank filled with cleaning solution and fill the bundle with solution. This can be done by pumping solution into the bundle or mounting the bundle on a rack that rotates the bundle through the solution.

Let the bundles sit in the sun for one or two days and flush them with clean water. As an added precaution, some sugarmakers let the first sap run through the lines onto the ground. The same procedure works well for cleaning main lines. The rinse step is particularly important in preventing off-flavors.

Cleaning in Place: Many sugarmakers leave their tubing up in the woods year round and clean it in place. They usually do this by hooking up a vacuum pump to the lower end of the line, going to the top with a bucket of cleaning solution, pulling a spout, placing it in the bucket so solution is sucked through the tubing, then capping the spout and moving to the next.

Some tubing manufacturers make fittings that are tight under positive pressure as well as vacuum. With this type of fitting, the cleaning solution can be pumped from the lower end of the line back up the system. Commercial Systems: Maple equipment suppliers have commercial pipeline cleaning equipment which consists of a portable compressor pump that injects air with the cleaning solution, thus increasing the turbulence in the tubing, and improving the cleaning action. Some producers have purchased these in conjunction with one or more other sugarmakers to share the expense.

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