Grading Kit Square Glass

[OneLegJohn]

Ok, where are you fellas finding the square glass containers from the temporary grading kit? I'd like to keep batches in glass and put them in the sugarhouse window. I can't find those square glass containers anywhere. Anyone want to share their source?

[Amber Gold]

Almost any equipment supplier carries them. Cheap money too. Customers like to see it and I'll also use it to reference when I'm bottling syrup from a drum...helps to see if I rebottle this drum if I can maintain the grade or not, or if it's borderline if it'll drop down a grade.

[Father & Son]

The Maple Guys used to have them on there site but I couldn't find them today, sooooo

Page 19 of the Leader Catalog, bottom right corner

[killingworthmaple]

Little glass spice bottles work great to I found mine at a yard sale they have a glass stopped and a holding rack

[DrTimPerkins]

Little glass spice bottles work great to I found mine at a yard sale they have a glass stopped and a holding rack

Whatever you use, if you're going to use them with the Vermont Temporary Grading Kit, they should have the same glass thickness as the sample bottles in that kit. If the glass it thicker, the lightpath through the syrup is reduced, and you'll grade your syrup lighter. If too thin, you'll grade it darker. They should also be optically "clean"....that is, without any hint of color or distortion/waviness.

[adk1]

Still need to buy my temporary grading kit. Hopeing to get a couple of years out of it. I know some producers around here who have been using the same kit for 20 years, I thought that was a no no

[220 maple]

Leader has them by the case, every big time producer in Vermont I visited pulled a sample bottle for each barrel. They number the bottle cap and the barrel. They set the sample bottles in the windows at their sugarhouses. They gave me the honor of setting number 454 in the window. 454 times 55 gallon barrel. That was on April 14th, I suspect they went a couple more weeks.
They have 72,000 taps. I visited another operation they was on sample bottle 528, One hundred of their barrels was 40 galloners the rest 55 gallon.

Mark 220 Maple

[maplefrank]

i would keep the bottles every time i bought a new grading kit.

[DrTimPerkins]

Still need to buy my temporary grading kit. Hopeing to get a couple of years out of it. I know some producers around here who have been using the same kit for 20 years, I thought that was a no no

People who do that are cheating only themselves. The caramel coloring (in glycerin) lightens over time (as opposed to syrup, which darkens over time), thus making it harder to make light syrup (as judged by that kit). If you're going to keep it for any length of time (NOT recommended), store it in the dark in a cool (or cold) place. Refrigerator works well. Or get a permanent kit.

[DrTimPerkins]

... every big time producer in Vermont I visited pulled a sample bottle for each barrel.

It is fairly standard to save a sample from each barrel as it is being packed. Often producers will keep two, or even three. One is for display in the window (the syrup will darken over time though). Another is for the packer to see and perhaps taste. If you're organic certified, they also want you to keep a sample of each barrel for a few years.

[red maples]

bascom's 2011 catalog page 30 $.65 each!!! item GLBT1

[Stephen Childs]

The little bottles can also be used to test the invert of each bottle right after the season. It hardly takes enough syrup to notice any is missing from the bottle

[maple flats]

The temp test kits last year had an expiration date on them, Nov, 2011. You should get a new kit every year. After they expire I open them, dump the glycerine and run them thru the dishwasher. I also do the same for sample bottles whose batch has sold out for over a year. Then I reuse the bottles and buy a new cap. I do not reuse glass containers to sell syrup in, just home use.