Maple Syrup

[AAASTINKIE]

I was out in my garage (very loose use of the word garage) trying to
move enough junk out of the way to see if I can get to my maple syrup
equiptment, I haven't made any for a few years but I bought a new
truck a few months ago so no more excuses.

I have this batch of welches wine making it's in the secondary a week
now and still gasing off, when it gets done I'm going to put in some
camden tablets, stablize and bought some liquid clearing agent, then I
was thinkig about sweetening with a small amount of maple syrup, maybe
I'll rack into my 5 gallon carboy and a 1 gallon jug and try 1 gallon
first.

 

[Hippie]

Yes, I would do small taste tests before ruining the entire batch.

 

[AAASTINKIE]

just imagine I have 500 primary fermenters out in the garage, and everyone has a hole drilled in the side and one in the lid!!

(these are my sap buckets)

 

[MedPretzel]

The one in the lid isn't so bad.


And depending on where the hole is (upper, lower, mid-line) in the bucket, it might not be bad to make some 1-gallon batches at least.

 

[AAASTINKIE]

medpretzel, I see you are a "Senior Member" now that must mean you get there at 100 posts, I'll have to work xtra hard now to post, that will be great some new guy will see that and think I know something about wine..lol

the story of my life, good at taking multiple choice state tests

 

[Hippie]

Stinkie, do you really mean you drilled holes in all those buckets?

 

[AAASTINKIE]

you have to drill a 1 1/4" hole to hang them on the spout with, that's
OK most of them are jelly buckets from bakeries that I paid 25 cents
each for, three years ago I bought 200 for $1 each I never used them
and they might be undrilled but they are only 4-5 gallons each anyway,
fortunatly I don't have a good space to use for wine yet, my space is
good but only room for 3 batches at once, probably good I'd have 10
pails going by now..lol

 

[Hippie]

Oh well, ok. I know nothing about collecting syrup. Sounds very interesting, however. An old timer here speaks of collecting syrup from sugar maples in the woods. They are wild trees.

 

[AAASTINKIE]

I just realized today only 7 days to tap tree's...eeee..I don't know if I'm ready

 

[AAASTINKIE]

Making maple syrup is like an addiction, you dread it, lots of work, you decide not to hang so many buckets this year cause you don't need all that syrup anyway, then that crystal clear nectar starts dripping one drop at a time and it is worse than heroin to a junkie!! you run around hanging more buckets!! you can't get enough....HELP I'm hooked!!

then the expensive part comes in, you bottle it and give it to your friends (that's where you guys come in

) oh wait I forgot the part where you scrub 300 5 gallon pails and lids clean in one day

 

[Hippie]

Since being in this hobby for a number of years, I started remembering why I didn't have alot of friends growing up and I got bullied alot. I am stingy, especially with something I have worked hard to get.

 

[MedPretzel]

I have to agree with you there. I am quite selective of who I give my winner wines to. In fact, I give them only to people who give me something not only in return, but in advance (bottles, etc). I also have a "Wein-Schwein" (wine-pig in German - wine piggy bank in english. Wein Schwein just sounds better). Most people are smart enough to contribute. For adollar even, they get2 whole bottles of wine.Edited by: MedPretzel

 

[Hippie]

Wow! That is some cheap wine! You are way more generous than I.

 

[MedPretzel]

Well, like I said, I'm very selective of who I give my winners to. I have given a lot of "cooking wine" away in the past.

They still seem to be thrilled.

 

[Hippie]

I have some Rotgut anyone can have if they come get it.

 

[MedPretzel]

how old is it and how rot-gutty is it?

 

[Hippie]

It is very rot-gutty and has been in the bottle close to a month after bulk aging over a year. NASTY. I might try a bottle in 5 years.Do NOTuse too many dark raisins in any wine! Edited by: Country Wine

 

[MedPretzel]

Could you use it as a marinade?

 

[Hippie]

I am afraid it would ruin anything and everything soaked in it. I only bottled it because I tell everyone else to bottle whatever they make and it will get better. I have my doubts about this one. I think it might work well for polishing silver or stainless steel or chrome. Actually, it might be too harsh for chrome.

 

[AAASTINKIE]

I just changed my avitar to a maple leaf, that is a sugar maple also known as a rock maple, fitting for an elf such as myself.