Maple syrup

The season is officially over. Taps will start coming out of the trees tomorrow. The last of the good stuff has been cooked. Have about 75 gallons that needs to be brought to the exact right specific gravity about 5 gallons at a time over propane. Need to dilute or cook further depending on specific gravity. Then from there it gets filtered through a 7 layer + diatimacious earth filter. Then heated back up to 185° and bottled. I'll be heading to the bottle plant to pick up about 1200 glass bottles in 8,12,16 ounce. and have 500 plastic pints and quarts ordered. This process takes time but we'll be working on it soon and for probably a month or so. I'll update along the way.
Tentative prices will be...tentative...lol
Glass 8 oz -$10, 12 oz-$14, 16 oz-$18
Plastic 16oz -$15, 32oz-$28, I can also do some half gallon which will be about 50 bucks.
Glass looks so much nicer and is more expensive to bottle since we also have to label it and glass costs more. Im hoping i can safely mail glass to you all. All syrup will be graded according to CT maple syrup producers assoc.

 

Congrats on such a successful season. When ready, I would love some jugs!

 

Can't wait to send you my money! Nice work!

 

@WarEagleSteve love The babu reference. I'm a huge Seinfeld fan

 

Episodes still fit in today's world. How amazing is that?

 

Wait til you guys see the finished product. It's crystal clear and tastes too damn good. The filter is amazing. It takes dark, hazy, syrup to golden deliciousness
Here's some of last year's
I will be doing a limited amount of these maple leaf bottles. They cost a pretty penny and only hold about 4 oz of syrup but are great for gifts around the holidays. These make it all worth it to me

 

It's funny you bring up the show. Today at work I had a patient with a kidney stone. He was puking and said he hadn't puked since 1994 and all I could think of was jerry's puke streak. Lol
Not sure if you've even seen curb your enthusiasm....but that show is amazing too. Kinda a rated R Seinfeld

 

I was at the sugar house yesterday doing a few things. I should have taken a picture of the 18 "homer" home depot 5 gallon buckets full of syrup. It's pretty crazy looking at all that. That's about 3,500 gallons of sap collected one bucket at a time from 150ish taps, over 6 weeks of time. About 8 lbs per gallon. Took about 150-200 hours of boiling it all. 5 cords or wood. Endless cleaning and preparing. Can't wait to get it bottled and sold.

 

I may go for my APRN but it'll be tough with working full time, mortgage, life, and pretty much raising my 5 year old daughter alone

 

Finishing and bottling 15 gallons today. Left is the "finishing" unit, use that to get it to the perfect specific gravity. Middle is the filter press, pumps syrup through filters come out crystal clear. Right is the bottling unit, reheat syrup after filtering to 190° and into the bottles it goes.

 

Did some 16.9 oz glass jugs and some 3.5oz maple leaf bottles today. About 13 gallons worth. Plan is more tomorrow but we'll be doing quart plastic jugs as well as more of these.

 

I'm waiting on my bottle guy for more sizes.
I'll have 3.5 leaf, 8, 12, 16oz all in glass. As of now the only plastic will be quarts. I'm sure I can ship anything. Prices are looking like they will be...$10 (the leaf bottles and tags are not cheap and these make great gifts), $10, $15, $20, for the glass in the above sizes and $25 quarts. I know this isn't cheap and is a lot for syrup but it's a ton of work and investment and trust me we barely break even. I really hope I can find a cheap way to ship these out to you guys. If anyone has shipping tips please PM me.
Thanks again everyone. You guys are the best!

 

Those glass bottles look great! Can't wait till you finish and figure out pricing. And don't be like my wife who runs her little business at a loss. Make sure you are able to pocket some money and fund your next mod!

 

I would like to purchace some please.

 

Truly Natures NECTAR of the Gods! Nice work sir!

 

Yes, let be said, let it be written...the wax seal of the cryptic ring will identify this only as

"Nectar of the Golden Syrup Gods!"

 

Hear ye. Hear ye!

 

I'm inundated with PM's. I promise I'll get back to everyone with prices and let you know when I ship it

 

@Tacogrande Just sent you a PM about size availability

 

And to everyone. I'm sure I'll have a decent stock up until Christmas time. I'll keep this thread alive.
I didn't even think about this til now but I hope it is okay with the mods and @Bob that I'm selling this. I didn't mean to make this into a for sale thread it kinda just happened.

 

Moderators are gonna have to cope with this LOL

 

Haha

 

I'm in for a quart!

 

Liquid Gold...Nectar of the Gods!

 

That's a beautiful evaporator you have there Adam, @FireAC. Is that a 3x10? I love the double syrup pans and the steam hood. I wish I could have something like that. How many taps do you run?

 

A few pints...

 

2.5 x 8'... really nice. Dad picked it up in Quebec a few years back...that thing'll put some steam in the air, let me tell ya! Steam hood has preheater pipes running all through it...what a difference it makes. It's just like a Tundra...a workhorse!
We max out between 500-600 taps... but usually 300-400. All cans collected by hand.