How do I thin "too thick" syrup

[Eileen]

Hello
Darn..cooked syrup too long and cannot even pour it out of a jar its so thick.
Have two gallons like this.
Can anyone suggest a fix to make it pourable?
The taste and color are good and I hate to lose all that syrup.
Many thanks for any help
Eileen (newbie to syrup making)

[BryanEx]

Add sap to it until your density is right, bring to a boil, filter, and re-bottle.

[Eileen]

Many many thanks for this

[Dennis H.]

Either use tap water, sap or syrup that isn't syrup yet.

The quickest way would be to use water since there is no sugars in it then the next fastest would be sap. That route you can say that nothing but sap from a maple is in there.

I used the stuff out of my syrup pan that wasn't syrup yet to thin my heavy syrup. It was surprising how much I had to add to lighten the heavy syrup.

It sounds like you went way over, it isn't burnt is it?

[Maple Hobo]

Hello
Darn..cooked syrup too long and cannot even pour it out of a jar its so thick.
Have two gallons like this.
Can anyone suggest a fix to make it pourable?
The taste and color are good and I hate to lose all that syrup.
Many thanks for any help
Eileen (newbie to syrup making)

Might as well finish it as Candy...lol

[PerryW]

Keep in mind that all syrup appears real thick when refrigerated.

There is a formula to calculate exactly how much water to add to "too thick" syrup, but I'm assuming you don't have a syrup hydrometer.?

Also, You really don't even need to bring it to a boil and refilter if you keep it refrigerated. Just add some water and stir.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I wouldn't use raw sap, use distilled water or at least bring the sap up to a hard boil for a few minutes. By introducing raw sap into it, you are introducing bacteria into you syrup.

[buck3m]

I wouldn't use raw sap, use distilled water or at least bring the sap up to a hard boil for a few minutes. By introducing raw sap into it, you are introducing bacteria into you syrup.

Brandon has taught me a whole lot on this forum, but bringing your syrup to canning temperature should kill all the bacteria in raw sap. The table in the North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual shows how much sap (or water) to add per gallon to bring syrup up to the proper density. I find that chart and the one to adjust for temperature to be extremely useful, and I try to remember to think twice and add once to prevent adding too much. It would be possible to repeatedly add, stir and test until the right density is reached.

I draw off syrup a little heavy, figuring it's easier to add some sap later than have to boil it more later if it's too light. I like using sap vs water because it's just that much less sap to boil away.

As others have mentioned, the way to test is with a hydrometer. Syrup thickness or even the boiling temperature can be misleading.

[Big_Eddy]

I draw off thick, then toss it in my freezer until bottling day, once I have 15-20 litres ready.

I put the stock pot on the propane burner, and start to heat it up. As soon as it gets warm, I stir it well to make it uniform, then I float my hydrotherm in the big pot and check the density. I add sap 2 cups at time, stirring and retesting until the density is where I want it to be, all the while continuing to bring it up to a boil. ( I don't bother with the hydrometer cup for this, as the pot is full and the hydrotherm floats in it)

Once I have the right density, I take it to a full boil for 5 mins, then pour into the filter tank and bottle right away.

This way I'm not waiting forever to boil off that last cup of water while the syrup foams over, and I filter in large batches which minimizes the filter cleaning and keeps the syrup hot longer while filling the bottles.

Just how I do it. The hydrotherm is great for this, as it is accurate from 37 -210 degrees F without any charts or calculations.

[mdag58]

My first batch finished thinner than I'd like. Even though it's been refrigerated a couple days can I simply boil it again to thicken it? I don't have a hydrometer,(yet), and used temperature to finish...218.5* based on a 211.5* water boil temp. The syrup tastes great, is a light amber, but just too thin. If I can re boil, what temp should I try to hit to thicken? Thanks!

[PerryW]

My first batch finished thinner than I'd like. Even though it's been refrigerated a couple days can I simply boil it again to thicken it? I don't have a hydrometer,(yet), and used temperature to finish...218.5* based on a 211.5* water boil temp. The syrup tastes great, is a light amber, but just too thin. If I can re boil, what temp should I try to hit to thicken? Thanks!

Yes, keep boiling till you reach 7 degrees above boiling water. I would recheck your boiling water temp because it changes w/ barometric pressure.

[mdag58]

Thank you Perry. I didn't think about the barometric pressure. I'll give it a shot. This was my first try and I'm looking forward to tapping more trees next year.

[Amber Gold]

[/QUOTE]The table in the North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual shows how much sap (or water) to add per gallon to bring syrup up to the proper density.[/QUOTE]

Does anyone have a copy of the above mentioned chart handy? I'm looking for the values for water, since this is what I correct with.

[happy thoughts]

There's an old archived copy (1976) of the manual you can download. I hesitate to provide the link because a lot of the info is dated and don't want to be responsible for someone using some of the old sanitation methods, but that said, there's a chart on page 88 to correct for density. That should still be current

http://www.archive.org/details/maplesirupproduc00willrich

If you can't download, I'll try to print the chart here for you but a copy/paste causes the table to go wonky.