What causes ropey syrup?

[Bruce L]

I have heard of it before ,but never witnessed it until today.I was judging syrup at a local fair,came time for the final colour class,dark,and one of the bottles I found to be ropey when I dipped a stir stick in to place a sample on the refractometer.I showed it to the convenor,who watched in amazement as the syrup came off like a snake coiling up to strike.The density was high,so low sugar content/fermentation couldn't be the culprit.

[Rhino]

Not sure of the scientific reason for it but when we made ropey syrup, it was at the end of the season, the sap already had a consistency of latex paint and was very cloudy. Could it be the starches are takeing over the sugars in the sap??? That was the year where we had a very bad/short season and just kept makeing until it was totally done. Sold the ropey syrup bulk. Would never imagine canning that stuff up.

[DrTimPerkins]

Not sure of the scientific reason for it but when we made ropey syrup, it was at the end of the season, the sap already had a consistency of latex paint and was very cloudy.

Ropey syrup is caused by several types of microrganism, often Aerobacter (formerly Enterobacter) aerogenes. This is a fairly common spoilage bacteria, also involved in souring of milk, meat spoilage, vinegar spoilage, etc. The slime is due to excessive bacterial bodies (kind of like the slime that will develop on sliced meat or chicken if left too long). It grows very rapidly at the end of the season when things are quite warm. Makes the syrup impossible to filter. Time to stop making syrup at that point....or, if you really want to keep going, dump every tank and empty the evaporator, clean everything VERY well, and then start over.

If you found it in syrup after it was packed, either it was that way before it was packed, or it was light in density and formed subsequent to packing.

[Rhino]

Thanks for the scientific reason doc. Here is a interesting thing i heard from a fellow producer about if you have ropey syrup and want to get the "ropey-ness" out of it......He said to take the containers the ropey syrup is held in, such as milk cans or barrels, and set them outside along the south faceing side of a building where the sun really hits for most of the day. He said the heating of the syrup during the day and then the cooling of the syrup at night will take the "ropey-ness" out of the syrup. Works better in May and June when you get the cooler nights he said. Sounds like a interesting thing to do if a person has some. Don't know if he was full of B.S. or not but he said it with a straight face.

[DrTimPerkins]

Thanks for the scientific reason doc. Here is a interesting thing i heard from a fellow producer about if you have ropey syrup and want to get the "ropey-ness" out of it......He said to take the containers the ropey syrup is held in, such as milk cans or barrels, and set them outside along the south faceing side of a building where the sun really hits for most of the day. He said the heating of the syrup during the day and then the cooling of the syrup at night will take the "ropey-ness" out of the syrup. Works better in May and June when you get the cooler nights he said. Sounds like a interesting thing to do if a person has some. Don't know if he was full of B.S. or not but he said it with a straight face.

Basically, if the syrup is light, it'll ferment to something between syrup and vinegar. Will taste like crap. That is essentially what happens when using the 'sour sap' method of pan cleaning. Not anything you'd ever put in a jug, and you may have a hard time even selling it in bulk as commercial syrup. You'd have to refilter it, since you can't adequately filter it while it is ropey. Probably more trouble than it is worth.