GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: maple syrup video

Simple Maple Syrup Evaporator : GF Video
Learn how to make maple syrup with this simple maple syrup evaporator. I’ll show you how to tap and collect sap from your sugar maples and then boil down the sap. This setup uses propane and 2 outdoor propane stoves.

We have used several methods to make maple syrup, watch all our maple syrup videos here and we have built a DIY maple syrup evaporator out of a file cabinet.

What’s great about this simple maple syrup evaporator rig is you can walk away from it. You don’t have to watch it constantly. I have mine outside the kitchen, and every 15 min or so I go out and check it.

I found a used large stainless steel pot that was probably used to boil clams, and I found a large shallow stainless steel bowl at the dollar store. The idea behind this DIY maple syrup evaporator is the cold sugar maple sap is brought up to a boil in the first large pot, and then it is ladled into the shallow finishing pan to be boiled down into maple syrup.
Sugar Maple Sap becomes maple syrup when the sap reaches 7.5 degrees F above the local boiling point. Boil a small pan of water on your stove and when it boils, measure the temperature with your digital thermometer. Add 7.5 degrees to that temp – at our house the boil happens at 210F – and when the sap reaches that temperature, it is now syrup. Quickly turn off the heat on the finishing pan burner, and strain the syrup in to jars. If you are up to it, you can let the sap boil to a slightly higher temperature for a slightly darker syrup – be careful not to burn the finishing pan.

Parts You Need For The Simple Maple Syrup Evaporator
- Propane Burner https://amzn.to/2GezLE0
- Wide Stainless Bowl https://amzn.to/2J1SkJo
- 20 Quart Pot https://amzn.to/2GxaSTt
- Digital Thermometer https://amzn.to/2GDEiiC
- Fine Mesh Sieve https://amzn.to/2IbeRlF
I strongly suggest buying a digital kitchen thermometer, old style candy thermometers are hard to use with this setup.

If you see your finishing pan foaming big time, you probably have syrup, and probably the temperature is above the ideal, turn off the propane and pour off the syrup.

The drawback of this system is that it uses quite a bit of propane, not the best use of what you’ve got. The plan is to build a wood fired evaporator next year. I have a ton of white pine from the trees we dropped that would fire a sugar shack nicely.

Watch all our Maple Syrup How To Videos here.

Here is a great PDF from the Univ of Maine on how to tap trees and boil sap

Questions? Comments? let us know below:
March 28, 2018
Propane Maple Syrup Boil : GF Video
Our first year of making maple syrup! Learn how to make maple syrup with this cheap evaporator, using a propane turkey deep fryer rig.

We have used several methods to make maple syrup, watch all our maple syrup videos here and we have built a DIY maple syrup evaporator out of a file cabinet.

A turkey deep fryer is a good way to start making maple syrup. It will take quite a while to boil down the sap. Here is what we used:
- Propane Burner https://amzn.to/2GezLE0
- 20 Quart Pot https://amzn.to/2GxaSTt
- Digital Thermometer https://amzn.to/2GDEiiC
- Fine Mesh Sieve https://amzn.to/2IbeRlF
Maple sap becomes Maple Syrup at 7.5 degrees F above the local boiling point. Go boil a pan of water on your stove, use your digital thermometer to measure the temp at boiling. I bet it wont be 212F, but probably lower. Add 7.5 to that boiling point for the temperature you want to attain.

Wide Pots work best for boiling sap

When its Syrup, the sap starts to foam up, so you have to keep an eye on the process.

Be very careful. Hot sap burns bad, plus there is open flame. Use common sense, keep kids and dogs out of the way.

The wider the pot you use, the more sap you can boil off faster. Its all about surface area. This is why evaporators are wide and shallow.

Take the pot off the propane burner as soon as you reach temp. Its OK if the temp goes a bit higher, but not much higher. I find it best to finish the boil on the stove in the kitchen. Take it inside when you are within a few degrees of syrup at your elevation.

Strain through cloth, cheesecloth, whatever you like. You will have some cloudiness in the syrup if you use cheesecloth.

This video shows how we improved version of making maple syrup with a propane burner

Let us know any questions or comments below! Go out and do stuff!
March 28, 2018
Steam Table Pan Maple Syrup Evaporator Improvements – GF Video

After making boiling sap with out steam table pan maple syrup evaporator for 2 seasons now, I have a few thoughts on improvements. The build videos for our homemade maple syrup evaporator are here. Watch the update video below:

How To Improve the Steam Table Pan Maple Syrup Evaporator

I’m not sure why I connected the chimney stack about 6″ below the top of the cabinet. But I think the air flow might improve if the smoke exited higher up, in addition, the hot air would wrap around the back pan more. Also, consider a higher chimney pipe, it will cut down on the smoke the downdrafts on top of you.

For the turbo fan, which really womps up the fire, consider connecting it just below the fire door. I plan on adding a dimmer switch in the power cord, since controlling the fan speed is important. You can find bathroom fans at tag sales or in your neighbor’s garage.

For most 4 drawer letter sized file cabinet, two regular sized trays fit, but there will be space. As a result, that gap needs to be filled in with a scrap piece of metal or a small food tray. Put this small space above the fire door, and move the pans closer to the chimney. Because your fire is moving toward the chimney, the hottest part of the fire is on that end.

I found that putting the fire grate about 10-12″ below the steam table pans worked for me. It depends on the kind of fuel you are burning, consequently, adjust yours to the size of the wood. We burn pallets, which slide uncut into this evaporator.

This homemade maple syrup evaporator gets really hot, so be careful when standing near it. For our next evaporator build, I may line the sides with firebrick.

If you are thinking about buying a real evaporator pan, read our post here.

January 30, 2017
How To Build A Maple Syrup Evaporator – GF Video

I figured out how to build a homemade maple syrup evaporator because I was burning through a lot of propane when making maple syrup. I don’t make enough syrup to warrant buying one, but a DIY maple syrup evaporator was just what I needed. Watch the 2 videos below and step through the photos of the evpaorator build.

The Making Of time lapse video:

How to use the Homemade Maple Syrup Evaporator

This is made out of a metal 4 drawer file cabinet and a few steam table pans, plus some stuff you may already have or can get cheaply or for free. If you can find a 5 drawer file cabinet, even better, it will allow you space to have another pan for boiling.

This is not an original idea of mine, I learned about it through Annie Corrigan of Earth Eats, a WFIU radio program and podcast. She produced a story about Mike Bell of the Hinkle Garton Farmstead, who made this great homemade maple syrup evaporator. You can see photos of his rig here.

We have two videos of this evaporator. One is a fun time lapse of me building the rig, the second is a walk through of how to use make maple syrup with it. Below the videos are photos of building the evaporator and more videos on how to make maple syrup

Before I built this evaporator, I was using a lot of propane to boil down sap into syrup, you can watch a video of how we use a propane turkey deep fryer to make maple syrup here. The turkey fryer method works, but you burn through the propane, and make a bunch of trips to the hardware store buying refills.

I did not keep close track of how many gallons of sap I boiled down in a day, but if you keep on top of it, I imagine you can boil down about 50-70 gallons a day, depending on the sugar ratio of your sap and how hot your fire burns. Pallets and scrap lumber burn hotter than firewood, I found.

Click Here to go to the next page for photos and instructions on how to build the homemade maple syrup evaporator.

After reading through photos for the homemade maple syrup evaporator, check out how I improved the original design in this video:

Watch all our Maple Syrup How To Videos here.

Steam Table Pan Maple Syrup Evaporator Improvements – GF Video

April 10, 2015
Tap Sugar Maples for Maple Syrup with Buckets – GF Video

Its time to tap sugar maples to make maple syrup in our area, and I went out with my neighbors to help them tap with buckets and spouts. This is the traditional method of tapping trees, many people now use plastic taps and tubing. See the links below for our videos on tapping using tubing. My neighbor Bill puts out about 150 buckets, mainly along the roadsides in our town.

If you are thinking of what method you’d like to use to tap sugar maples, I have no strong opinion between buckets and tubing. The buckets are better for smaller operations, and for tapping on other people’s property. Most tubing stays up year round, and not everyone likes how it looks in summer.

I use tubing and plastic taps, and I take down the tubing every spring. I tap the same trees each year, and I can put back up the tubing. Its work, but so is hauling sap buckets.

This is a hard to find attachment for your chain saw

I’ve also seen people use plastic bags and milk jugs to tap trees. I have no experience with these, but at least with the milk jugs, i can see how they would overflow easily when the sap is running. That wastes a lot of sap.

Ask around your town or check on craigslist for buckets to tap sugar maples, I’m sure there are some in a garage. You can also buy them new, though I believe the new buckets are made of aluminum.

We have a bunch of how to make maple syrup videos, check them out below:

Click Here To Watch All Our Maple Syrup Videos

March 7, 2014
Maple Sap Collection Tips, Backyard Maple Syrup Project GF Video

Halfway through collecting maple sap to make maple syrup, I made this video on tips on tapping maple trees and how to collect sap to make maple syrup. Shot on the iPhone, it looks pretty good.

I use tree saver plastic taps and plastic lines to collect sap, i’m finding that buckets at each tree work pretty well. I have one large barrel that collects from two trees, and its kind of a pain to get the sap out. The benefit is if the sugar maple sap runs really well, the bucket can handle the sap. One time my smaller 5 gal buckets overflowed.

There has been some discussion on how much sugar gets trapped in the ice that we remove from the sap buckets. My neighbors, old time maple syrup experts, remove the ice from their maple sap buckets. But then I was asked how much sugar is lost with the ice, and I don’t know. The questioner brought up Popsicles, and the fact that they are made with sugar that seems to freeze with the ice.

It helps when hauling buckets of sap to have them only half full, its easier on your back and you splash a lot less. I store our sap in a big new trash can on the shady side of the house that has been surrounded with snow to keep the sap cool.

Check out all of our how to make maple syrup videos here

Here is a great PDF from the Univ of Maine on how to tap trees and boil sap

Let us know your questions or comments below:

March 22, 2013
DIY tapping maple trees for maple syrup – GF Video

Tapping sugar maple trees to make maple syrup is a big tradition in my part of Connecticut, so I wanted to show you how to tap maple trees to get maple sap to make maple syrup. We use plastic taps and tubing that are connected to buckets at the base of each tree. The advantage of using individual buckets is that some of the water in the sap will freeze in the collection bucket. The whole goal of boiling sap in an evaporator is to remove the water from the maple sap, so removing some of the water as ice is a super simple way to reduce your boiling time.

Tubing Connector for tapping sugar maples

We buy our taps and tubing from Leader Evaporator. The smallest length the tubing comes in is 500′, but don’t fret, its quite inexpensive, about $60 for that much tubing. To buy a lesser amount of tubing locally would cost just as much. We use Tree Saver taps. Buy a bunch of their tubing connectors too, you will need them to tie several taps into one bucket.

In a future sugar maple tree tap video, we’ll connect several trees into one large collection barrel.

Check your buckets every morning, scoop out the ice with a sieve, and then store the sap in a large barrel that is in a cold place packed with snow. The sap has to stay cold or it will spoil. You can tell if you sap has gone bad if it has a milky color to it.

We have a bunch of maple syrup making videos, including how to boil down your sap into maple syrup, click here to watch our maple syrup videos

Here is a great PDF from the Univ of Maine on how to tap trees and boil sap

Have any questions or comments? Please post them below:

March 12, 2013
Tap Maple Trees to Make Maple Syrup How To – GF Video

Tapping maple trees to make maple syrup in this DIY video. We tap our Sugar Maple trees to collect sap in preparation for making maple syrup. This is a DIY low tech low volume method of tapping some trees in your yard or perhaps a neighbor’s field. Several of my neighbor’s have sugar shacks complete with large evaporators and huge piles of firewood, some use traditional sap buckets to collect sap, others use plastic lines and taps.

For my yard, I went with plastic taps and lines, they are not expensive, and I used the food grade plastic buckets from my homebrew beer kit to collect the sap. After we collected the sap, we boiled it down, and we’ll post a video about that soon.

The general rule of how many taps to put in a tree, according to the Conn. DEP is 1 tap for a 12″ diameter tree ( 38″ in circumference ), 2 taps for 18″ diameter or larger tree ( 56″ in circumference )

The holes you drill for the taps should be 1.5″ deep with a 5/16″ bit. If you are tapping trees that were tapped previously, pay attention to the previous tap holes. New taps should be 6″ left or right of an old tap hole, and 12″ above or below the old tap hole.

Sugar Maple sap needs to be stored at 38F degrees or cooler, ideally you will boil the sap the day you collect it. If the sap has turned milky and foamy, it has gone bad.

Do you tap sugar maple trees? What are some tips you can share with us below? Thanks for watching!

Here is the tree identification book we like to use:

Buy From An Indie Bookstore Here
Buy From Amazon Here

April 16, 2012
How To Make Maple Syrup at a Sugar Shack: GF Video

Ever wondered how to make maple syrup? I have a number of friends who have sugar shacks and boil down sugar maple sap to make maple syrup. Last weekend I visited one of my friends and made this video about how to make maple syrup.

You can also use simpler methods than the one shown here with the 2 stage evaporator, I plan on tapping my sugar maples next year and making maple syrup in with a simple propane burner and stainless steel steam table tray that will be my evaporator.

Do you make your own maple syrup? How do you make it? and any tips and tricks you can offer us here? Let us know below

March 18, 2011
Tap maple trees with tin sap buckets : GF Video

A number of our neighbors tap maple trees to make maple syrup, here is a video about using sap buckets and taps.

Learn how to identify Sugar Maples trees, make sure you are tapping the right kind of maple trees with this neat tree identification book, Bark. The great thing about this book is that its based on bark identification, not leaf identification, because when you think about tapping trees, there aren’t any leaves on the trees, you know..
Here is the tree identification book we like to use:

Buy From An Indie Bookstore Here
Buy From Amazon Here
Watch all our maple syrup videos here on the site!

September 15, 2009
How to boil maple syrup GF Video

Despite a wonderful head cold, i spent a large part of the weekend with my friend Bill at his sugar house boiling maple sap. Making maple syrup is one of my favorite things to do in late winter, and in this video Bill shows us how to boil maple sap to make maple syrup

{ bill’s farm is also where we have some of our beehives, you can see them in the Beginning Beekeeping Videos }

T

Check out our other Maple Syrup Videos:

Click here to watch a video I made about our other friend’s sugar shack in the next town.

How to tap maple trees for sap Priscilla shows us how to tap sugar maple trees

One error I see people do is to tap maple trees that are not sugar maples, there is a difference. Consult a good tree identification book, like this one called Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast
, which is handy when identifying trees in winter, it has lots of pictures of tree bark.

Do you tap your trees? How do you boil your sap? I plan on doing it myself this winter, and am deciding between using tubing or buckets. What are your thoughts on buckets or tubing lines? Let us know below, thanks.

March 26, 2007