Day 2 and Day 3 (36-48 hours after initial tapping)
The excitement of the initial tapping gave way to a wait period. How much time would it take to collect the sap? Well, for the first day or so, the results weren't bad. After 24 hours, we'd collected 2100ml (2.1 litres) from the Silver Maple, and a combined 2400ml (2.4 litres) from the Sugar Maples. After 36 hours, those totals had risen to an impressive 5.5 litres for the Silver Maple and 6.5 litres for the Sugar Maples. Wow - these were real-live-maple-syrup-sap-producing trees!
After 36 hours, the weather took a cold turn and we entered an extended 48hr+ period of well-below freezing temperatures. Sure enough, the sap production dried up, and we were back in waiting mode. But we had about 11 litres of sap to work with - enough to start experimenting with the first processing step.
Maple tree sap needs to be reduced approximately 40 times to produce maple syrup (although probably this varies depending on tree type and individual tree concentrations). The conventional wisdom recommends two stages of processing - an intial 10:1 reduction phase and a subsequent 4:1 reduction and caramelization phase. We decided to perform the 10:1 reduction with our first batch of 11 litres of sap.
While transferring from the outdoor buckets into a boiling pot, we ran the sap through some thin foam filters we had purchased (along with the other maple syrup gear). This took out bits of bark and other debris that had accumulated in the sap.
Beginning Reduction
Nearly all information we researched warned of the dangers of processing maple syrup on the kitchen stove. Peeling wallpaper, damaged paint, and sticky drapes. Seeing as we don't have a huge outdoor boiler, we initially tried a small butane-powered camp stove. This, unfortunately, did nothing more than heat the sap slightly.
A backyard wood-fire certainly wasn't appropriate, so I thought a bit more about the stove-top solution. A quick test did in fact reveal that the wall right next to the stove would quickly become moist after only a few minutes of boiling. However, if I could properly vent the steam, it should in fact be possible to do this. Perhaps the naysayers hadn't tried to engineer a solution.
Most importantly, one needs a properly-vented fan-driven stove hood, which we had. I took the filter out of the stove hood, which allowed maximum flow, and then I constructed a crude custom duct. Made out of a balsa wood-frame and panels made out of sections from a garbage bag, I was able to fashion an opening that led from directly over the boiling pot to the stove hood's fan. With the switch flipped to high and the sap at mostly a full boil, nearly all of the steam was sucked up through the custom duct. It looked ghetto, sure, but it was working.
Reduction results, first pass
For the next five or six hours, we carefully boiled down the 11 litres of sap to about 1.5 litres. I placed a digital hygrometer (i.e. something that measures humidity) next to the stove, and it never registered above 39% for the entire session. The walls nearby remained dry. No peeling paint for us!
Our initial processing step netted us two separate batches (we elected to keep the Silver and Sugar maple saps separate, in order to see if there was any difference) of a golden watery liquid. Both were quite sweet to taste, but were clearly not yet maple syrup. We again filtered this reduced liquid through our thin foam filter, which managed to capture a surprising amount of a nondescript white-ish sediment. We placed the now-filtered partially reduced sap into the fridge, where it would remain until we processed the next batch. Likely we'll start processing this intermediate form into maple syrup when we have somewhere between four to eight litres of it.
Update: March 30 (six days after initial tapping)
Six days after initial tapping. As I put a batch of Silver Maple sap on the stove for initial reduction, I reviewed the progress of the last 6 days. Some highlights:
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We had a stretch of 48 hours of well below freezing temperatures. This stopped sap production pretty much in its tracks. No flow at all from any trees on March 27
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The two smaller maple trees in the backyard only intermittently produced small batches of sap. One tree in particular that had some over-zealous pruning during the summer, and that one in particular seems reluctant to produce sap.
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The spell of very cold weather froze the sap (with the tube end embedded within) for the one Sugar Maple in the front that we had draining using a tube. When the weather warmed back up, this chunk of ice and frozen tube-end caused a complete blockage of flow from that tree. As a result, we had well below normal accumulations from that tree, even after the weather warmed up. In fact, when I freed up the still frozen tube end, I got a hiss of releasing pressure and a spray of sap. The tree was trying to produce, but couldn't! Moral of the story: make sure the ends of tubes don't stay frozen after a cold spell (if you use tubes).
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The big Silver Maple was a big producer: during the last couple of days of the period, it produced in excess of 5 litres per day!
Collection ramps up
Here is a rundown of the 6-day total accumulations (note that for two of those days, we had a stretch of continuous below-freezing temperatures):
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March 24/25: Silver Maple sap - 2.1L, Sugar Maple sap - 2.4L
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March 26: Silver Maple sap - 2.8L, Sugar Maple sap - 1.6L
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March 27: No flow (too cold)
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March 28: Silver Maple Sap - 0.9L, Sugar Maple sap - 0.8L
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March 29: Silver Maple sap - 5.5L, Sugar Maple sap - 1L (* - blocked hose on one of the Sugar Maple trees)
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March 30: Silver Maple sap - 9L, Sugar Maple sap - 6.6L
Grand total: Silver Maple sap - 18.2 Litres, Sugar Maple sap - 12.4L, Total sap 30.6L. Approaching enough for one litre of maple syrup. Woohoo!
