Our sugar bush is located in Birnamwood, Wisconsin. Each spring, we place taps into healthy maple trees. As sap leaves the roots of the Sugar Maple trees en route to the topmost branches of the tree to produce leaves, a small portion travels into the spout.
Once the sap travels into the spout, it's pulled into a vaccum system. The vaccum system is a complex system woven into our woods. Since we also let gravity do a lot of work for us, we try to let the sap flow from a higher elevation to the lower elevation at the Sap Shack. We also have pump stations in our woods that help move the sap from the farthest part of our woods into our collection area.
Once we're ready to cook, we measure the sugar content of the raw sap. This lets us know how long we need to use our reverse osmosis (RO) machine and how long it might take to make a batch of syrup. Raw sap typically has a sugar concentration of 1-4% sugar.
A reverse osmosis (RO) machine pushes water out of the sap, so the sugar content of the raw sap increases to 8-12%. We use a RO to decrease the amount of time we need to cook each batch of syrup we make.
Once the raw sap has a sugar concentration of 8-12%, it's pumped into an evaporating pan. The size of pans can vary, depending on the size of the operation. Our evaporating pan is 10 feet in length.
Once the sap is in the evaporating pan, it is heated (with either wood or gas heat) as it travels through rows of coiling. It's heated to a temperature of 212 degrees Fareignheight. As it travels, steam is produced, and the raw sap continues to concentrate. The raw sap eventually makes it's way to the front evaporating pan, where it continues to cook down. Once the raw sap reaches a sugar concentration of 30%, it is drawn off into a finishing pan, where it is cooked in small batches until it is 180 degrees fareinheight, with a sugar concentration of 32%.
Once raw sap has reached 32% sugar, it is considered maple syrup. To ensure that our syrup remains free from sediments and impurities, it is run through a filter press. From the filter press, our maple syrup is either placed into large 35 or 55 gallon food-grade barrels, or bottled.
Once our syrup is bottled, sealed caps are placed on the bottles, and we allow the syrup to cool. Once our syrup is cool, we place one of our Sippl's Sap Shack labels and give each bottle a good cleaning, and it's ready to go.