Making Maple Syrup Update & Questions.

[Stax]

So like an idiot I decided to start boiling down my sap last night at 10 pm. Don't ask. Boiled down like 6-7 gallons in a turkey fryer pot. Couldn't stay up into the night and woke up to the picture below. It's probably something like a Gallon of yellowish sap with alot of "sugar sand" as Scotty calls it at the bottom.

Question 1: Do I boil this down more outside before brining in to finish?

Assumption 1: This sap needs to be filtered before bringing to finish.

I realized "cheesecloth" and my coffee filter aren't good at filtering Sap. Guess I need to hit up amazon.

Question 2: Should I be maintaining a certain temp while I'm boiling outside (wow, hope that doesn't sound stupid)?

Question 3: Do you recommend filtering the "yellow sap" and storing it a week refrigerated before finishing?

Any advice is helpful.

 

[ScotO]

Stax, I use wine maker filter bags. You can get them really fine, too. I'm pretty sure my bags are half micron, and you want to filter the syrup when its warm (not blazing hot, but warm). You'll be better off storing it in a gallon container in the fridge until you get a chance to finish it with more sap, etc. Or you could just finish that batch off, then let the sand settle on its own. You should end up with close to a quart of syrup if you boiled 9 gallons of sap.....

 

[Stax]

Are those bags available at state stores?

 

[ScotO]

Are those bags available at state stores?

Not sure. Do you have any local winemaker or beermaker supply stores? They will surely have them.

 

[ScotO]

Keep in mind, most maple syrup makers "rack" (put the syrup up for a period of time) to make all the sediment fall to the bottom....
The sediment is harmless to you, but it is unsightly to see it in the syrup. I skim my syrup through a filter bag right out of the evaporator when it's hot (pretty sure it's .5 micron, but I can't remember. I do know it's super fine).
I then let my syrup rack for a week when it's close (it's probably around 55 to 60% sugar), carefully pouring it out of the racking bucket so as to not disturb the sediment at the bottom of the bucket....then I finish it off on the kitchen stove and bottle it.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

We never worried about racking. We just enjoyed eating it.

Matt

 

[ScotO]

We never worried about racking. We just enjoyed eating it.

Matt

in small batches it isn't a big deal. But when you make 20 to 30 gallons of it, and it sits on a shelf in the basement, that stuff settles and looks horrible on the bottom of the jar....

Racking don't take much work and it makes the syrup look pretty....

 

[Flamestead]

Question 1: Do I boil this down more outside before brining in to finish?

Assumption 1: This sap needs to be filtered before bringing to finish.

I would get rid of the bulk of the water outside and then bring it in to fine tune/finish. Check Scotty's comment, above, with regard to guaging it based on the volume of sap you started with.

Question 2: Should I be maintaining a certain temp while I'm boiling outside (wow, hope that doesn't sound stupid)?

No need to be too fussy. Generally time is the most important factor, so you boil as hard/fast as you can. You could simmer it and (eventually) get the same quality of syrup.

Pay very close attention as you get closer to finishing it. At first you are removing a lot of water and getting a small change in sugar content. As the process progresses, it takes much less water removed to significantly change the % sugar content.

Question 3: Do you recommend filtering the "yellow sap" and storing it a week refrigerated before finishing?

Ummm, yes, it is OK to store it and then finish it, but no advantage to doing so.

No matter how well you filter, if you then bring it back up to a boil you will once again have sediment, or at least cloudiness. I think the magic temperature is somewhere around 190 degrees, but am not sure about that. All perfectly edible, only reason to be fussy is for asthetics. We have used dairy milk filters in the past for stovetop batches. Not ideal, but seems to work OK.

 

[ScotO]

Temperature depends on altitude. Here in central PA the magic number is around 218 degrees......that is considered syrup.

But you don't have to be too picky. get it where it looks nice to your needs.......

 

[maple1]

It's a pretty simple process - just boil the bejeebers out of it until it gets to 7°F above the boiling point of water. Just keep adding in more sap as it boils away - it can seem to take forever if you've never done it before. It's around a 40:1 ratio, so that's a lot of boiling.

That's the 'official' boiling point of syrup - but you could likely stop before you get to that & call it good if you don't mind it a little bit thin. As mentioned, the closer it gets to that the easier it will scorch - so make sure you've got at least a good couple of inches in the pot. If you get your sap used up before you get syrup, and are left with too little to keep boiling, you could refrigerate or even freeze until you get more sap to add to it - and the less you clean things the less you'll lose to wash water. And don't ever use any soap when washing anything that it will come in contact with - hot water only. There has been lots of syrup lost to bad taste from people washing their filters using some kind of soap, or even throwing in the washing machine without soap. Also, soap isn't the only thing that will off-flavour syrup - it doesn't take much of a foreign substance to mess the taste up (turkey grease would not be good ).

And the only way to eliminate sediment is to use a filter press - so don't sweat it too much, just filter as good as you can with what you can get (decent suggestions above). You could try doubling up your filters, or filtering multiple times.

 

[Stax]

Thank you guys.

 

[loadstarken]

All this talk of syrup is making me hungry!

Is anyone selling syrup?

 

[Stax]

From Monday to Wednesday, I collected approximately 22 gallons of sap. With overnight temps in the upper 30's and daytime temps in the fifties, my buckets went dry. They were dry again today because last nights temps got around freezing, but not below. We have good sap weather in the forecast for the next couple of days, so we shall see. Boiling again tonight.

 

[Stax]

Hopefully forecast will hold up. Need the sap flow to return. Who knows, maybe it wont. Went to the restaurant store last night an I was able to pick up a couple processing supplies. Got some filters (for oil fryers) a stainless steel cone holder, a 4 quart storage bucket and a funnel for the mason jars I'm going to get. More boiling today.

 

[Ehouse]

No one's mentioned it yet but using a wide flat boiling pan will make it go faster.

 

[Stax]

I saw that as I was researching. I have to get one...the turkey frying pot is taking forever!

 

[ScotO]

No one's mentioned it yet but using a wide flat boiling pan will make it go faster.

He's just gettin started, Ehouse......he's off to a good start, nonetheless...

I started out just like him......with a 40qt stockpot, then a 20 gallon stainless homemade kettle (antique Speed-Queen wringer washer tub), then TWO 20 gallon kettles (yep, modified another Speed Queen tub), then finally built the huge stainless flat pan I have now. Sadly, no syrup for me this year......too many 'honey-do' projects....

 

[Ehouse]

He's just gettin started, Ehouse......he's off to a good start, nonetheless...

I started out just like him......with a 40qt stockpot, then a 20 gallon stainless homemade kettle (antique Speed-Queen wringer washer tub), then TWO 20 gallon kettles (yep, modified another Speed Queen tub), then finally built the huge stainless flat pan I have now. Sadly, no syrup for me this year......too many 'honey-do' projects....

I'm no big time sapper, just remember doing it as a kid, but I'd rather be sellin' than buyin' right now. We went to a pancake breakfast at a farm last week end and they were sellin' jugs at $80/gallon! Tough season last year I guess.

 

[ScotO]

I'm no big time sapper, just remember doing it as a kid, but I'd rather be sellin' than buyin' right now. We went to a pancake breakfast at a farm last week end and they were sellin' jugs at $80/gallon! Tough season last year I guess.

It was a horrible season last year.....the worst I ever saw. That's not a bad price, either. 90 bucks or more per gallon is the going price around here!

 

[Stax]

Holy sugar! While understanding the sap to syrup ratio and its laborious process, I couldn't imagine paying $80 for a gallon of syrup.

 

[Ehouse]

It was a horrible season last year.....the worst I ever saw. That's not a bad price, either. 90 bucks or more per gallon is the going price around here!

Hmmm... Buy it by the gallon here, divvy it up into quarts at $30 and pints at $20 drive down...... No, no. Evil thoughts!

 

[Stax]

What a tuff business. I will say this tho...id love to visit a "sugar bush" or a "sugar shack" in new england or canada during the sugaring season to see how things are ran. Gotta be cool.

 

[Paulywalnut]

What a tuff business. I will say this tho...id love to visit a "sugar bush" or a "sugar shack" in new england or canada during the sugaring season to see how things are ran. Gotta be cool.

I went to one in I think Wilmington, Vermont( not Delaware) when I was a kid. Too young though I didn't appeciate it. Where are you in South East PA?>

 

[firefighterjake]

What a tuff business. I will say this tho...id love to visit a "sugar bush" or a "sugar shack" in new england or canada during the sugaring season to see how things are ran. Gotta be cool.

I usually make it a point to go visit my high school buddy's sugar shack.

According to another friend some of the sugar shacks in Quebec really do up the experience . . . a few of them are going for a visit here in a few weeks.

(broken link removed to http://www.bonjourquebec.com/qc-en/attractions-directory/sugar-shack/cabane-a-sucre-megantic_1180185.html)

 

[webby3650]

I used a turkey pot with a propane burner for the first few years. I experimented with a few different pots and cooking methods and this is the best set-up I have found so far. I use a stainless pan, it's actually a pan from a buffet. It's 5" deep 14" wide and 24" long.
I was shocked to see how much faster a shallow pan will boil down than the turkey pot would.

It's my 2nd year using it. I only make a few gallons of syrup each year, if I had more time I could definitely cook alot more with this set-up.