somthings wrong

[whitetail farms]

i collected 5 gallons of sap this weekend and have been boiling for 3 hours now i got it to 210 then brought in the house to Finnish it on the stove but at 210 i have 2 gallons left theirs noway 5 gallons of sap can make 2 gallons of syrup what should i do thanks nick

[happy thoughts]

I don't understand why you chose 210. If you mean a temp of 210F, that's under the boiling point of water. What temp did it reach when it started to boil? Sounds like you may have a lot more left to boil off.

[hitnspit]

I had the same problem. It took forever to go from 210 to 219-220. On the good side i got 1.5 gallons out of 35 gallons of sap. Came out wonderful.......its well worth the wait.....jim

[whitetail farms]

it was about 200 when it started to boil and it got to 210 and stayed there so my dad thought i was loosing alot of heat up the stack of my barrel evaporator so we put it in a pot and put it on the stove on high and its still at 210 how much longer do you think it will take and how much syrup should it make?

[John c]

I had the same problem. It took forever to go from 210 to 219-220. On the good side i got 1.5 gallons out of 35 gallons of sap. Came out wonderful.......its well worth the wait.....jim that's a nice ratio!

[happy thoughts]

I had the same problem. It took forever to go from 210 to 219-220. On the good side i got 1.5 gallons out of 35 gallons of sap. Came out wonderful.......its well worth the wait.....jim

imho something sounds wrong with your batch, too, if you made 1.5 gallons of syrup out 35 Gals of sap. Your yield sounds too high to me./ That's a 23/1 ratio. It's possible if your sap had a very high sugar content in the 3.7% range, but that would be a better than average sap reading.

I have my doubts you're really at syrup stage yet especially if you're only going by temperature to finish your syrup. Did you check your thermometer to see what temp water boiled at the time you were finishing your syrup? Thermometers can be very inaccurate. It's also good to do the calculations for barometric pressure correction since that will change the boiling point. Knowing what temp water should boil at will give you a better idea of the temp you should shoot for.

[happy thoughts]

it was about 200 when it started to boil and it got to 210 and stayed there so my dad thought i was loosing alot of heat up the stack of my barrel evaporator so we put it in a pot and put it on the stove on high and its still at 210 how much longer do you think it will take and how much syrup should it make?

If it started boiling at 200F something is seriously wrong with your thermometer. Do you have another you could double check with?

How much you should get depends on the sugar content of the sap you boiled. There is no normal because it varies from tree to tree. For guestimating sap to syrup yield a general average might be 40/1 meaning 40 gallons of sap to make 1 Gallon of syrup. The yield could also be better or even much worse. A few people this year are getting 60 or70 gals sap/1 Gal syrup.

using a 40/1 ratio you'll get about a pint of syrup or about 16 oz from 5 Gals of sap. But don't plan on it. You could get less or you could get more. You won't know until you get to syrup.

[whitetail farms]

no, i never checked the boiling point of my water and i dont have another thermometer to check with and 200 was just an estimate im not really positive what it was

[happy thoughts]

no, i never checked the boiling point of my water and i dont have another thermometer to check with and 200 was just an estimate im not really positive what it was

You can still check your thermometer. Boil some water and see what temp it reaches a full rolling boil on your thermometer.

It's hard and some even say impossible to make syrup with just a thermometer. Many people use a hydrometer instead because it's easier to know exactly when it's syrup. If you're going to use only a thermometer you have to at least know what temp water boils at on the thermometer you're using at the time you're making syrup.

[jmp]

If you want to save yourself a lot of grief and frustration invest in a hydrometer. :) About 20 bucks. A good thermometer will get you close but to be positive you are making syrup you need a hydrometer. And you don't need two thermometers. I hope you are using a digital one, all other styles of thermometers are too hard to read accurately.

Check the boiling point of water by throwing some water in a pan on the stove. Check the temp. Write it down. Add 7 degrees and this will get you close to finished syrup. So, if you have a boiling point of 212 for water (about average but remember it will vary even throughout the day so dont use a temp taken at 7AM for finishing at 9 PM at night) add 7 for a temp of 219. Why 7? The boiling point of syrup with a standard density is figured by adding 7.1 degrees to the temp of boiling sap. Also invest in the North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual if you haven't already. Its a wealth of information. Best of luck!

Good luck!

[jmp]

Happy Thoughts, I find that using a thermo to get me close and then using the hydro is quite easy. Takes the guesswork out of temps. Just my opinion :)

[MustardSeedMum]

Ditto on getting a hydrometer.

Case in point. Used my hydrometer this evening for the first time this season (I finished 2 quarts a few days ago without using it)

Finished on my kitchen stove indoors. Took my candy thermometer to get boiling temp of water. It was 214 this evening! So add 7, I should be looking at 221ish. Right? Wrong.

At 221 AND the tiny bubbles rising in the pot, I checked with the hydrometer in my cup and nearly broke the darn thing because it dropped right to the bottom of the cup.

It took several more minutes, and close to 223/224 before I got my 66 brix.

So as someone else said, save yourself some grief, and get a hydrometer. You won't regret it.

[John c]

Ditto on getting a hydrometer.

Case in point. Used my hydrometer this evening for the first time this season (I finished 2 quarts a few days ago without using it)

Finished on my kitchen stove indoors. Took my candy thermometer to get boiling temp of water. It was 214 this evening! So add 7, I should be looking at 221ish. Right? Wrong.

At 221 AND the tiny bubbles rising in the pot, I checked with the hydrometer in my cup and nearly broke the darn thing because it dropped right to the bottom of the cup.

It took several more minutes, and close to 223/224 before I got my 66 brix.

So as someone else said, save yourself some grief, and get a hydrometer. You won't regret it.

66 brix? At 60 degrees?!

[MustardSeedMum]

66 brix? At 60 degrees?!

No, 66 brix @ 223/224F or approx 106C

[Tom59]

****, if you got that much from 35 gallons, I want your trees!!!:lol: Boiled 20 gallons today, got 48oz. of syrup,using a hydrometer.
I had the same problem. It took forever to go from 210 to 219-220. On the good side i got 1.5 gallons out of 35 gallons of sap. Came out wonderful.......its well worth the wait.....jim

[John c]

No, 66 brix @ 223/224F or approx 106C
At that temp you would want to be at 58 brix. 66 brix is for room temp readings. If you boiled to 66 brix @ 224 degrees your syrup is too dense and will not keep well!

[MustardSeedMum]

At that temp you would want to be at 58 brix. 66 brix is for room temp readings. If you boiled to 66 brix @ 224 degrees your syrup is too dense and will not keep well!

OK, you're scaring me now. :o

I just went to get my instrument. Is there a difference between a hydrometer and a hydroTHERM? I've got the hydrotherm.

Looking at the instructions that came with it.
"Hydrotherm is a combo of hydrometer and thermometer. It will indicate density of maple syrup at any temp between 35 and 210F
Scale of the hydrotherm is graduated in 2/10 brix and will show how far syrup is from correct density..."yada yada yada.

Basically i'm supposed to get the top of the red column to float even with the surface. If it's below, syrup is too thin. If it's too much above, syrup is too thick.
When it's even with surface, it's at approx 65.8 Brix. So I boil it to 2/10 Brix over to get my 66 Brix

This is what I used in my first year of sugaring 2 years ago. And my syrup kept well.

Does that make sense?

[happy thoughts]

Happy Thoughts, I find that using a thermo to get me close and then using the hydro is quite easy. Takes the guesswork out of temps. Just my opinion :)

jmp- I don't disagree but first you need to have a hydrometer which the two posters with questions don't seem to have. You need to be able to work with what you have. That said, I myself use just a thermometer and looking at the behavior of the boiling sap. If you just look at an instrument reading you aren't taking everything into account. That certainly holds for thermometers and I would add for hydrometers as well.

How and how often do you check the accuracy of your hydrometer? They can be inaccurate, too and especially over time and with hard use. Is there a standardized density solution that you use to calibrate it? Or do you just replace them on a regular basis?

[PerryW]

Mustardseed Mom,.

yes, the hydrotherm automatically corrects for syrup temp.

[PerryW]

They used to calibrate hydrometers at some of the maple suppliers but not sure any more. I have two of them and I check them against each other. They used to say you should make a paper tracing of the hydrometer because the only thing that can go wrong with them (other than breakage) is the paper inside the glass can slide up or down.

[happy thoughts]

They used to calibrate hydrometers at some of the maple suppliers but not sure any more. I have two of them and I check them against each other. They used to say you should make a paper tracing of the hydrometer because the only thing that can go wrong with them (other than breakage) is the paper inside the glass can slide up or down.

Well at least you're doing something to check. I have to wonder how many others are as conscientious as you are. As for the "only" thing you say could go wrong with them, that would render them inaccurate, no? And failing to correct for temperature would also have me questioning any reading I got. I am not 100% convinced that all those using hydrometers are taking the care or making the considerations that you are.

That brings me back to my original point, if you're just going by a reading and failing to look at the "patient", then you're not taking everything into account. But that said, I agree that with a hydrometer, it is more likely you'll be making syrup of the right density than by using a thermometer alone.

[jmp]

We do the same thing to check out hydrometers. We have three that we check against each other. Have found that they all vary slightly. Same with digital thermometers. They all vary slightly. That is the fun part of sugaring; lots of little variables that make it challenging. You are much braver than I am Happy Thoughts, I would never attempt to make syrup without a hydrometer. :)

[happy thoughts]

We do the same thing to check out hydrometers. We have three that we check against each other. Have found that they all vary slightly. Same with digital thermometers. They all vary slightly. That is the fun part of sugaring; lots of little variables that make it challenging. You are much braver than I am Happy Thoughts, I would never attempt to make syrup without a hydrometer. :)

Trust me jmp, a hydrometer is on my wish list. Maybe when I'm making more than a couple of gallons a year I'll be better able to justify their cost, (and replacement cost lol).

post edit PS- when your hydrometers differ, which do you choose to go by and why?

[PerryW]

my three hydrometers differ by maybe 0.1-0.2 on the baume scale, essentially the difference between the top of the red line and the bottom. I always err in the direction of making the syrup thicker.

You certainly need to take into account all data when making syrup. You can tell by the bubbles of the boiling syrup when it's getting close. You can tell by the dial thermometer when it's getting close. You can try the apron test w/ a syrup scoop (if you own one). When it starts going plop-plop-plop, you are getting too thick and better dipper some hot sap in quick. But even an innaccurate hydrometer is better than a thermometer.

I've been sugaring most of life and I'm a cheap Yankee. I have never bought a sap hydrometer, never used a tubing tool, build houses without a nail gun, never used a pump, but I own three syrup hydrometers.

[happy thoughts]

But even an innaccurate hydrometer is better than a thermometer.

And I don't disagree if all you're basing density on is a hydrometer reading.


I've been sugaring most of life and I'm a cheap Yankee. I have never bought a sap hydrometer, never used a tubing tool, build houses without a nail gun, never used a pump, but I own three syrup hydrometers.

You also have many hundreds of taps :) If I had that many or were selling commercially, I'd have several hydrometers too. That said, making syrup is the same as making candy and many have made all varieties of candy going only by temp and the behavior of a sugar solution. I've only been doing this for 6 years but feel reasonably confident that my syrup is pretty close to what it should be. I am not basing my judgements on a thermometer reading alone. I guess that either makes me cheaper or more Yankee than you:)

[Burnt sap]

5 Gallons of sap made 2 gallons of syrup???? I would tap every tree in the county you sir have a bonfied gold mine!!!!!

[jmp]

Happy Thoughts, our hydrometers vary by about the same as PerryWs. And we also err on the side of cautious.

PerryW, you are NOT a cheap Yankee, you are a TRUE Yankee! :) And thats coming from one.....

[bowtie]

this is just my 3rd year making syrup and my first selling and i would not even try to make it without hydrometer, i have only one but i am going to buy another one this week. i finish in a propane finisher and can tell when it is close by the type and color of bubbles and it is usually "finished" within 2-3 minutes. i always try to err on the side of thicker than thinner. i have a digital thermometer and do not even use it,i would rather "waste" propane and use my finisher. as for 1.5 gallons to 35 gallons of sap, i tested a couple buckets from my lawn and they were 3 percent but i would guess that most of my woods taps are 1.5 -2.0. i would guess that you have some very sweet sap/partially finished syrup i did this my first year and found out that my "syrup" was not quite done. if you are just making for yourself and like thin syrup, it will spoil if not used quickly, then it is a moot point but if plan to sell or even give it away you owe it to customers or even friends to buy a hydrometer, at $25 it is about the cheapest thing you will buy in this hobby/business.

[whitetail farms]

took me 6 hours on Sunday to Finnish but i did it i took it in the house and put it on the stove way to early it took 3 hours on my barrel evaporator and 3 hours on my house stove to make about 18oz of syrup from 5 gallons of sap i think its a little thin though i will get a hydrometer for next time

[hitnspit]

I have noway right now to test for sugar% but im sure it right up there. After the cold nights we would take the ice out of the buckets and by the time we got done we were down to 35 gallons of sap. Dont remember what we started with but we tossed alot of ice. I had read about doing this in a backyard sugaring book at one time. Alot less boil time and higher sugar % in your sap. Just a new guy tring new stuff....jim

[cowboy729]

I agree the hydrometer is the way to go. However for those who have such a small operation that they only make a pint or two and will be consumed the next day on their pancakes. A method an old farmer tought me that works is to dip a ladle or spoon into the syrup or almost syrup. If the drips are single it's too thin, If you get three drips across almost joining it's ready. For all those with hydrometers and thermometers try it out and that method will be **** near right on.

[Yellzee]

I've tried about every way and settled on the hydrometer... however... I would say there is significant batch to batch differences in how they come off the ladle... and how they filter. Sometimes a batch seems crazy thick, and I have trouble filtering... next batch much thinner and filters fine. All with the same hydrometer (2 actually to double check).... can't really explain it. the final product always seems the same... so maybe alot of nitre thickens up the syrup before you filter????

sometimes get a buddy to check with a refractometer and I'm usually about bang on.

[Melody Bee Farms]

If you want a really easy way to check Brix in your syrup get a digital refractometer :)