Strong Maple Flavor

[blaircountysugarin85]

Hey everyone I just bottled my first batch of maple syrup today and it turned out pretty nice. Very light more of a light amber. The only problem I have is it doesnt appear to have that strong medium amber mapley flavor that I like. I s there a way to darken the syrup a bit and bring out the maple flavor more. I boiled to 219.1 degrees F then pulled it off and filtered it right away. Should I have boiled it longer at that temp or boil it down a little longer?

[adk1]

wow, that is pretty lite syrup. Well, you cant always or even should go jsut by temp. you really need to use a hydrometer to get that 66 or 66.5% brix.

[BryanEx]

Despite every resource I've seen stating 7 degrees over boiling I still find 8 to 9 is what works out on my hydrometer so you may be a little light on density. As far as taste goes, you will find your syrup gets darker as the season progresses and general speaking, the darker the syrup the stronger the maple taste. Just keep making syrup and you will find that by the end of the season you will have a selection of "delicate" to "robust" maple flavours (and colours).

- Bryan

[Sugarmaker]

blaircountysugarin85,
Nice looking syrup! A lot of the light early season syrup will have a delicate taste. Should be REAL good on some pancakes!
Keep up the good work!
Chris

[red maples]

1st like others said the only real way is to check it with a hydo 219 is only an estimate!! The only real way to get richer tasting syrup is to mix it with darker syrup.

[Southtowns27]

If you really need that flavor right now, you can add some distilled water back into the syrup and boil it back down again. Doing this will further carmelize the sugar resulting in a darker syrup with a more robust taste. I had a special order for very dark syrup last year and this is how I made it.

[RileySugarbush]

Or you could recycle it! Pour that batch back in with your next run of sap. That way it is hot longer and you get the caramelization you are looking for without boiling off distilled water.

Last year I did that one day, taking half of each draw and slowly adding it to my float box. Made great tasting medium amber!

No promises, but it worked for me!

[maple marc]

If you are looking for stronger tasting, darker syrup, let the sap sit for several days before boiling. The organisms working on the sap--especially in warmer weather--will give your syrup the taste and look you want.

[maplwrks]

Theres no way in hell that syrup was made in PA!! LOL Be happy that you made a nice syrup like that---the darker, more robust syrup will come, give it time.

[crackher]

If you are looking for stronger tasting, darker syrup, let the sap sit for several days before boiling. The organisms working on the sap--especially in warmer weather--will give your syrup the taste and look you want.

x2 for this. I had a request to make darker syrup and this is what I did. also if you want you can play with the gradient in the avaporator as well let the pans cool a little more while firing the box. this will hold up the sap some more and allow it to spend a little more time in the flue pan also if you want darker syrup you can flood you pans manually at some point after you reach gradient to disrupt the flow of sap through the evaporat.

[Dave Y]

First of all early syrup is not typically dark,it comes later in the season. Secondly it is never syrup at 219, unless you are at sea level. I dont think many sugarmakers are at sea level,if any.The very best way to determine when your sap is syrup is with a hydrometer. the themometer is to give you an idea when to check with the hydrometer. also get your self a 0-50 adjustable dail thermometer. set it at 0 in boiling water and 7 should be syrup and quit worrying about 219!

[Mike N RI]

Sounds like you are not quite at syrup yet. You get to syrup at 7.5F above the boiling point of water. The boiling point of water is a moving target, it is not always 212F. So syrup can range from 219.5F to 223F+ The best way to tell if you have syrup is to get a syrup hydrometer. When you get to 219.5F start checking with the hydrometer. The "hot test" red line should be just above the syrup--syrup is achieved when you have 66.7% sugar density--that is what the hydrometer tests for. Keep boiling & good luck!

[blaircountysugarin85]

Well that is what boggled me at first was that checked it with my hydrometer and it checks out as syrup, that was until I realized early season syrup is light. It pours like syrup and tastes like syrup just a very light flavor and color, thanks for all the helpful info everyone