Syrup not "Maple-y" Enough

[jmp]

Made some syrup yesterday and I am stumped as to why it has very little maple flavor. Yes, I tapped maple trees :) red maples, same trees I have tapped before. Boiled the same way, drew off at 219, density was 66 Brix and all that good stuff. Super light but have VERY little maple flavor. Maybe my tastebuds are accustomed to dark stronger syrup. Any thoughts guys? :o Thanks!

John

[wnybassman]

Did it have a "buttery" flavor? My first batch last year was extremely light and had a buttery flavor rather than mapley. This rest of the year was fine though.

[tuckermtn]

depending on your set up (i.e. how fresh your sap is, etc) you sap might not have had enough time for the microbes to interact with the sugars in your sap.

check out http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?15429-Hyde-Park-VT-Maple-School-Highlights&highlight=hyde+park

the session on maple tubing and other technologies and their impact on flavor is the one you want to look at.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

It is not abnormal for very light colored syrup to have a very light flavor or lack of maple flavor as you put it.

[jmp]

Thanks guys. Not a buttery flavor, just super sweet with a slight hint of maple. Its really good, just not what I am used to making. I will check out the link as well. Thanks again guys. Hope all is well with you operations.

[Redmaple]

I have had many very light maple syrups that taste more like rocket fuel than maple syrup. Thats why so many people like grade B.:D

[Sugarmaker]

Red Maple,
First if your making light syrup that tastes like rocket fuel I would bet it is early season metabolism flavor. And can be very NASTY tasting.

But I would like to congratulate John on making what sounds like grade A fancy Maple syrup! That is the goal John! Nice job! Took me about 35 years to learn how to make fancy syrup. Its all about the details.
Regards,
Chris

[RileySugarbush]

If you really prefer darker syrup and don't think you will make enough this year, you can recycle it!

Next time you boil, pour some of the slight stuff in your float box every few minutes and let it ride through with your sap. The second time through will darken it up.

[Murphy's Law]

John - I'm a very small-time hobby operator and yesterday I processed 60 gal of red and sugar maple sap. I got a little over a gallon of syrup. This batch is very light and has almost no maple flavor just like you described. I test the temperature often during the final stages of finishing and this batch was very near 7.5°F above my boiling point. Now I wish I had gone to 8°F or 8.5°F above boiling. It's very discouraging for a small batch maker like me to have all that effort into a batch and it not live up to expectations. But I still have a lot to learn.

[Sugarmaker]

OK I guess I am missing something here. Only been making syrup for 50 years. So now we want to recycle our syrup to make it darker and are discouraged when we make light syrup???
I must have just woke up from a fairy tale.
I am going to log out and see if anything is happening on the other forum.
Regards,
Chris

[RileySugarbush]

Don't panic Chris! Some of us prefer the taste of darker syrup. That's ok isn't it?

When I cooked outside on a block arch I made the most wonderful grade B. I can't make even dark A anymore on my faster system unless I take some extra steps. I've made award winning light syrup and it's great. But that old dark stuff, now that was really something!

[mountainvan]

your light syrup will make wonderful maple sugar/candy, or maple cream/butter. enjoy all maple has to offer!

[Murphy's Law]

OK I guess I am missing something here. Only been making syrup for 50 years. So now we want to recycle our syrup to make it darker and are discouraged when we make light syrup???
I must have just woke up from a fairy tale.
I am going to log out and see if anything is happening on the other forum.
Regards,
Chris
Is there a reason why this reply is so nasty?

[PerryW]

Mt favorite syrup is the grade that my customer likes.

Actually, I prefer Light or Medium, but occasionally, the light syrup can have a blander taste. You can always blend this with some darker setup if need be.

[jmp]

Trust me I can relate! That's how I felt with this batch but the more I go back to it and taste it I am starting to like it more. Have had some friends taste test it and 4 out of 5 liked it. The one that didn't like it prefers darker syrup like me.

After reading all the posts here its clear that everyone prefers different grades and that's a good thing. If we all liked the same things life would be boring!

[bowtie]

my goal is to make syrup i really do not care what grade it is if it tastes good!! some of the guys on this site seem to have a holier than thou attitude about their ideas on making syrup. i think if you follow some health guidelines to ensure a safe product who cares how you do it, make it , or what "grade" it is. maybe those guys should start a new thread and lock the rest of lessers out, and let us discuss and share our experiences or lack of.

[Brent]

We have had this problem chronically sinse we started years ago. The principal noted above about letting the microbes do there thing to make the different sugars that
carmelize and darken the syrup and make stronger flavor sounds good. We tried it a couple of times and for reasons we can't explain, our bacteria/microbes gave us a batch of nice light "ropy" syrup. It's worth a try but your mileage, like ours, may differ. If you get into the ropy stuff, there is no know recovery. The only remedy is to dump it, and all the sap and vigorously clean everything that has been exposed to it.
Big loss of syrup.
Big loss of time.

Oh and all the customers that sought us out and come up the driveway want "real" maple flavor, with gusto. Very frustrating.

[jmp]

Amen Bowtie!

[jmp]

Brent, I understand how frustrating it can be. Seems to me that 90 percent of the folks that we sell syrup to prefer dark.

[Sugarmaker]

Sorry, I wasn't really trying to be nasty! I apologize if I was harsh. And will try to do better.

I like it all! Light, dark and in between. And have made it all. award winning syrup to god awful tasting stuff that was grade A fancy color. This hobby is about doing the best you can do, continuing to learn and improve and then helping to teach others if possible. Mother nature sometimes give us good sap to work with other times not so much. The rest after that is up to us.

Brent can you describe the ropey syrup in more detail. I may have seen this tonight at the neighbors on some syrup he was reheating.

Have a great evening!

Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Is there a reason why this reply is so nasty?
Ever have one of those moments? Sorry.
I have learned a lot from this forum. And like several of the other good suggestions we try to make syrup the best we can or how our customers might like it. Some years we have produced no light amber and the still sold all of it. One year we made almost no dark syrup. So I understand the idea of reboiling to darken it too. I still have a lot to learn about making quality products with maple.
Regards,
Chris

[Brent]

Ropy Syrup: I guess the best way I can describe it is like a coloidal, mucous suspension.
It does taste maple-y but has background tastes that are unpleasant.
If you pull a spoonfull out of a container, it just keeps coming, sort of like spagetti. Eventually the weight of whats hanging in air
pulls what's on the spoon off and back into the tank.

We got into it because we were not keeping the RO isolated and kept the sugar shack heated enough to prevent freezing. That meant that the head tank which is of coarse up in the rafters, was pretty toasty. After a week of this the bacteria that cause it kicked it. It was in the head tank, feed lines, float boxes, SteamAway, flue pan and syrup pan. No cure but to dump everything and clean vigorously. No amount of boiling could change it back to normal syrup. It would not go through the filters. Enough to make a grown man cry.

[wiam]

Ropy Syrup: I guess the best way I can describe it is like a coloidal, mucous suspension.
It does taste maple-y but has background tastes that are unpleasant.
If you pull a spoonfull out of a container, it just keeps coming, sort of like spagetti. Eventually the weight of whats hanging in air
pulls what's on the spoon off and back into the tank.

We got into it because we were not keeping the RO isolated and kept the sugar shack heated enough to prevent freezing. That meant that the head tank which is of coarse up in the rafters, was pretty toasty. After a week of this the bacteria that cause it kicked it. It was in the head tank, feed lines, float boxes, SteamAway, flue pan and syrup pan. No cure but to dump everything and clean vigorously. No amount of boiling could change it back to normal syrup. It would not go through the filters. Enough to make a grown man cry.

You can stand a spoon up in the middle of a bucket of finished.

[70 Buick]

seems every year it is light in the beginning & gets darker as the year goes on

I like them all

My wife prefers the darker , so we get some for everyone every year

[jmp]

Good run here today in western Massachusetts, going to boil tomorrow and see how it comes out. Dark!!!!! I like dark!!

[Ozy]

One option would be to buy the freezer gallons and store your early light syrup till the end of the season and blend with darker syrup from later on. If is for your own consumption you can blend it to taste before you bottle. The fact that you made light just goes to show that you are doing a good job, you can't make it if things aren't done properly.

Good Luck
Ozy

[jmp]

Thanks Ozy. Appreciate the vote of confidence! When I get through the rest of the season without screwing up I will feel better :)