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Tom59
03-04-2013, 08:04 PM
Wondering if anyone else has noticed a drop in sugar contnt the last week. My first boil on 2/23 2/24 boiled 30 or so gallon and yielded 3.5 quarts. This weekend boiled 90 plus gallons and only yielded 6.5 quarts. Is it the trees or am I doing something wrong!!! Sap kept cold, not spoiled. Syrup tastes AWESOME!!!!! Just a lot less than I expected from the quantity of sap. Heres a couple pics of my barrel evap and some of the finished product from the first boil. As always, open to any and all suggestions from the awesome resources on this site!!!!!!!!!!! Tom717171727173

bunkerchump
03-04-2013, 08:44 PM
Hey Tom,

I noticed a drop in sugar content last week before the freeze. Even with the freeze, the content doesnt seem as high as I would have liked today. Still a bit less than 2 but I'm going to use it anyway. Tonight SB really cold, so lets keep our fingers crossed for a good run over the next couple days.

Snowy Pass Maple
03-04-2013, 11:55 PM
I am just across CT border in Dutchess - also noticed about 0.2% drop in sap sugar on the latest run.

killingworthmaple
03-05-2013, 07:23 AM
It dropped here before the freeze up but I think now that we have temps in the 20s it will come back.

Nathan

CTfarm
03-05-2013, 06:28 PM
The volume of sap is out of control. All my buckets and Bags were over flowing this afternoon and I just emptied them all yesterday. Unfortunately the sugar was at 1.5%.

lafite
03-05-2013, 07:23 PM
how are you checking? I checked all day from multiple trees and averaged 2.1% I even checked with my sap hydrometer to see if my refractometer was reading correctly. I'm only 20+ miles west of you.

hodorskib
03-05-2013, 08:42 PM
My trees are in Watertown and they started at 2.2 and the last 2 runs it is down to 1.75ish. This is still above what it was last year. My little RO that I built last year is bringing it up to 6.5 so all is good here as long as it keeps running.

lafite
03-05-2013, 08:59 PM
last year I averaged 1.6 so this year is a blessing! just bottled almost 4 more gallons tonight. long boil tomorrow but I'll take what I can get!

CTfarm
03-06-2013, 01:26 PM
Lafite, I'm checking with a sap hydrometer, but it's a small one so you have to guesstimate small percentages.