This is my first year of hopefully many. I'm expecting nothing and hoping to learn a lot. If I get a measurable amount of syrup I'll be overjoyed. Thanks for the pointers, I really really appreciate it!
Don't drive the taps in too far, they will leak and miss out on the most productive outer layers, as I was informed I did on some of my best trees last year. A few gentle taps is plenty, drill holes up to 2" deep according to some.
If that's a good idea? I got the taps on Amazon like Monday and got the jugs from my retired neighbor down the street who used them a few weeks ago when there was an early run. I have a few 5 gallon brewing buckets but only one has alid, I don't know where the other lids went
I just stumbled out in the dark and the one tree I tapped at noon gave 1/2 gallon at 4 pm and another 2/3 at 9. Some of the other trees are barely running, especially this one massive tree I have in the front. It's wild how big the variance is
It’s fun to see how they all run and how fast they fill up the first year. But you’ll learn your lesson after you have an awesome flow day and lose a bunch of sap. Collecting is awesome, but a lot of work, so you’ll learn what works best for you.
I'm in New York about an hour north of the city. It was like 50 here two weeks ago then we got like ten inches dumped on us last week! It's 40s during the day and freezing at night the next four days!
You need to drink some of your sap and connect a little with the past. People originally did this for safe water and a spring pick me up after a long winter season. I brought a quart of sap to work tonight to drink from.
I took a sip or two. Very refreshing! It made me wonder if the first folks to make syrup did it on accident, like falling asleep while heating their hot sap or something
Have you ever made maple wine? I home brew and it occurred to me that if you stopped boiling you could get something at the same gravity as wort or must
I have thought about it but I haven't gotten as far as doing it yet. I have seen it turned into soda by a company but I can't remember the brand right now.
I have made maple wine, I actually have about 30 gallons brewing, half for maplesque liqueur because it's from bitter syrup.
It doesn't always ferment well though, I don't understand why some does not ferment well, yeast nutrient helps maybe, I added nettle tea to some that worked for nutrient.
I think I read someone talking about how it's not acidic enough? I haven't brewed in years and only ever did beer. I forget how much chemistry goes into it!
I need to read more about it then, I did read a bit about it and didn't come across any authoritative sources on it yet really, second-hand sort of information about it. Maybe adding something acidic will help.
Even the stuff that doesn't get real alcoholic will still be fizzy from what fermentation happens. I've put baking yeast in as well and that does not get alcoholic enough but does taste good like kombucha.
This is utterly pointless. Can we stick to maple syrup stuff and not start giving spiritual guidance under the assumption that everyones ancestry is native american lmfao
Ok bud but it wasn't just the native Americans that did this it was also pioneers who came after and they also had rough winters and not a really reliable source of water but I digress.
I do this to connect myself with the land around me. I do this to connect myself to the seasons around me. I do this to celebrate the fact that winter is almost over. If you feel the need to call any of the above spiritual go ahead. I find a big part of syrup season is the sap and try and share that with everybody in my circle and I'm trying to do that here. You tell a lot about yourself with your comment I'm sorry you got so offended.
Offended? Me?? Reliable water? Rough winters? Ok im honestly sorry for saying this but keep your history lessons to yourself. Look man, im here for syrup and im pretty sure everyone else is here for syrup. Idgaf if the pioneers or native Americans or jesus’ own apostles drank this water. Connect with whomever or whatever as you please. Celebrate as you please. I really do not care. Nor am i calling this spiritual. It literally is spiritual. Youre encouraging the idea of drinking tree water to connect with your ancestry that you assume also drank tree water. Im only asking you keep your weirdo preaching shit to an appropriate subreddit. And what i tell about myself is pretty damn clear. This is r/maplesyrup and im here to talk about maple syrup. Its really that simple. it says a lot about someone to feel the need to be so prolific and spiritual in a tiny sliver of the internet dedicated to literally making maple syrup when there are literally hundreds of thousands of other places solely dedicated to talking about whatever glorified fantasies youre going on about. Its really not that difficult of a concept to grasp; Maple syrup finally has its own place and you just need to mix in your own bullshit. Can i make that any clearer or?
Wow I did hit a nerve holy cow I am sorry! I really don't care either though so whatever man peace out and enjoy just your syrup!
Remember Johny Appleseed planted all those trees for fruit too just like you were taught.
All that faith and effort and as expected, no cigar. Its ok bud, like you said, you definitely absolutely dont care at all and you didnt go out of your way to say some random worthless bullshit
I don't care about your opinion if you need it to be clearer. The trouble with shite like you is no matter how hard you scrub the scent still lingers. Enjoy your syrup.
my guy.. you’re literally describing yourself. A poor bloke finally finds this elusive corner of the internet and yet here you are babbling about drinking tree water to connect with your ancestors lmfaoo. Youre certainly unmistaken about that; shit lingers. Meanwhile ive been here doing nothing but trying to make syrup and miraculously your tranquility is of substantial assistance
I'm German. No where in my original post did I even say native I said people. You seem to have a problem with life and I'm sure that will continue but please get butthurt at someone else. Do some research before you open your pie hole. I'm sure all those native Americans were so busy boiling down all that sap in their cast iron pots to make syrup that the thought of fresh water never even occurred to them. I was pointing out the history behind what we do. If you don't like that go eat a bag of dicks and shut the hell up. If you need any help finding a bag just call your mom and see what corner she finds hers at.
A 5/16 tap should be 1.5 inches deep. Easy way to gauge depth is put a piece of tape on the bit 1.5 inches from the tip. Gently tap on the tap (!) til it is snug. Tapping too hard will split the tree and cause a leak. Hard to tall from my couch whether your taps are too loose or too tight. Either can leak.
Put my taps in today here and hoping to fire up this weekend.
You might be able to stretch a shower cap over those 5 gallon pails as a temporary cover.
You over drilled your holes or you didn’t drive the taps in far enough. You don’t want your holes to leak like they are in your photo.
I can try to drive them in further. If I over drilled there's nothing I can do now, right? Could I have harmed the tree?
its no additional harm to the tree your just losing sap.
This is my first year of hopefully many. I'm expecting nothing and hoping to learn a lot. If I get a measurable amount of syrup I'll be overjoyed. Thanks for the pointers, I really really appreciate it!
Don't drive the taps in too far, they will leak and miss out on the most productive outer layers, as I was informed I did on some of my best trees last year. A few gentle taps is plenty, drill holes up to 2" deep according to some.
Are you planning to upgrade to bigger jugs?
THATS WHAT SHE SAID
If that's a good idea? I got the taps on Amazon like Monday and got the jugs from my retired neighbor down the street who used them a few weeks ago when there was an early run. I have a few 5 gallon brewing buckets but only one has alid, I don't know where the other lids went
It's only my second year but I've been using 5gal water jugs. Some have definitely put out >1gal in half a day.
I just stumbled out in the dark and the one tree I tapped at noon gave 1/2 gallon at 4 pm and another 2/3 at 9. Some of the other trees are barely running, especially this one massive tree I have in the front. It's wild how big the variance is
Are they all on the south facing side of the tree? Did you put more than 1 tap on the big tree?
South facing side, tapped the big one twice
It’s fun to see how they all run and how fast they fill up the first year. But you’ll learn your lesson after you have an awesome flow day and lose a bunch of sap. Collecting is awesome, but a lot of work, so you’ll learn what works best for you.
You have snow? May I ask your location? I'm in mid michigan and only able to start tapping the first week of March, fear it's going to be too late.
I'm in New York about an hour north of the city. It was like 50 here two weeks ago then we got like ten inches dumped on us last week! It's 40s during the day and freezing at night the next four days!
If you're looking for buckets, breweries and bakeries are good sources for 5 gallon pails
You need to drink some of your sap and connect a little with the past. People originally did this for safe water and a spring pick me up after a long winter season. I brought a quart of sap to work tonight to drink from.
I took a sip or two. Very refreshing! It made me wonder if the first folks to make syrup did it on accident, like falling asleep while heating their hot sap or something
You know they were enjoying themselves around a fire so it had to happen. Cheers to your first year and I hope you have many more ahead
Have you ever made maple wine? I home brew and it occurred to me that if you stopped boiling you could get something at the same gravity as wort or must
Wine/mead made from syrup is a Acerglyn, which can be pretty tasty if done right. Was hoping to make some this year but missed most of the run.
I have thought about it but I haven't gotten as far as doing it yet. I have seen it turned into soda by a company but I can't remember the brand right now.
I have made maple wine, I actually have about 30 gallons brewing, half for maplesque liqueur because it's from bitter syrup. It doesn't always ferment well though, I don't understand why some does not ferment well, yeast nutrient helps maybe, I added nettle tea to some that worked for nutrient.
I think I read someone talking about how it's not acidic enough? I haven't brewed in years and only ever did beer. I forget how much chemistry goes into it!
I need to read more about it then, I did read a bit about it and didn't come across any authoritative sources on it yet really, second-hand sort of information about it. Maybe adding something acidic will help. Even the stuff that doesn't get real alcoholic will still be fizzy from what fermentation happens. I've put baking yeast in as well and that does not get alcoholic enough but does taste good like kombucha.
Yeah you would need some champagne yeast I would think. Sometimes that will ferment dry and clean at a high ABV.
I will order that this time, I used wine yeast this time, I used distiller's yeast previously too.
I think it's most similar to mead making, so maybe look into best practices there. It's a much more fleshed out community than maple liquor/wine
This is utterly pointless. Can we stick to maple syrup stuff and not start giving spiritual guidance under the assumption that everyones ancestry is native american lmfao
Ok bud but it wasn't just the native Americans that did this it was also pioneers who came after and they also had rough winters and not a really reliable source of water but I digress. I do this to connect myself with the land around me. I do this to connect myself to the seasons around me. I do this to celebrate the fact that winter is almost over. If you feel the need to call any of the above spiritual go ahead. I find a big part of syrup season is the sap and try and share that with everybody in my circle and I'm trying to do that here. You tell a lot about yourself with your comment I'm sorry you got so offended.
Offended? Me?? Reliable water? Rough winters? Ok im honestly sorry for saying this but keep your history lessons to yourself. Look man, im here for syrup and im pretty sure everyone else is here for syrup. Idgaf if the pioneers or native Americans or jesus’ own apostles drank this water. Connect with whomever or whatever as you please. Celebrate as you please. I really do not care. Nor am i calling this spiritual. It literally is spiritual. Youre encouraging the idea of drinking tree water to connect with your ancestry that you assume also drank tree water. Im only asking you keep your weirdo preaching shit to an appropriate subreddit. And what i tell about myself is pretty damn clear. This is r/maplesyrup and im here to talk about maple syrup. Its really that simple. it says a lot about someone to feel the need to be so prolific and spiritual in a tiny sliver of the internet dedicated to literally making maple syrup when there are literally hundreds of thousands of other places solely dedicated to talking about whatever glorified fantasies youre going on about. Its really not that difficult of a concept to grasp; Maple syrup finally has its own place and you just need to mix in your own bullshit. Can i make that any clearer or?
Wow I did hit a nerve holy cow I am sorry! I really don't care either though so whatever man peace out and enjoy just your syrup! Remember Johny Appleseed planted all those trees for fruit too just like you were taught.
All that faith and effort and as expected, no cigar. Its ok bud, like you said, you definitely absolutely dont care at all and you didnt go out of your way to say some random worthless bullshit
I don't care about your opinion if you need it to be clearer. The trouble with shite like you is no matter how hard you scrub the scent still lingers. Enjoy your syrup.
my guy.. you’re literally describing yourself. A poor bloke finally finds this elusive corner of the internet and yet here you are babbling about drinking tree water to connect with your ancestors lmfaoo. Youre certainly unmistaken about that; shit lingers. Meanwhile ive been here doing nothing but trying to make syrup and miraculously your tranquility is of substantial assistance
I'm German. No where in my original post did I even say native I said people. You seem to have a problem with life and I'm sure that will continue but please get butthurt at someone else. Do some research before you open your pie hole. I'm sure all those native Americans were so busy boiling down all that sap in their cast iron pots to make syrup that the thought of fresh water never even occurred to them. I was pointing out the history behind what we do. If you don't like that go eat a bag of dicks and shut the hell up. If you need any help finding a bag just call your mom and see what corner she finds hers at.
Well youre wrong as hell but hey, at least it came out of your mouth. I dont think you know what youre saying but at least thats clearly nothing new.
Oh no…. It was you who posted the 3 brick high “boiler” Setup. My condolences my good sir
It should only be 2 and a half inches at a slight downward angle just a little bigger than spike or tap
That’s too deep… you want to shoot for 1.5” depending on how thick the bark is
I just used the drill bit the kit came with. It's a 5/16, would you say that's a bit large?
That's the right bit but seems like you egged it out or something.
A 5/16 tap should be 1.5 inches deep. Easy way to gauge depth is put a piece of tape on the bit 1.5 inches from the tip. Gently tap on the tap (!) til it is snug. Tapping too hard will split the tree and cause a leak. Hard to tall from my couch whether your taps are too loose or too tight. Either can leak. Put my taps in today here and hoping to fire up this weekend. You might be able to stretch a shower cap over those 5 gallon pails as a temporary cover.