boiling now, need help....odd taste

[Cameron670]

Hi guys,

Started at 9:00 AM I have a home made flue pan, and am still doing batch method. I boiled down about 140 gal of sap today @ about 18 gal/hr avg. About 5 minutes before we pulled the pan, I noticed that the air no longer smelled sweet. Syrup tastes weird, no maple flavor. This is the second time this has happened to us. Reaching out for help here, just added 5 gal of fresh sap to the pan. We put the batch into my flat pan now. Its about 5-6 gal. and then I added the 5 gal fresh sap. Very discouraged,

Karl

[CampHamp]

I feel your pain. Some ideas on why syrup can taste weird... sap is old, tanks not clean, the trees are budding, some sap is not from maples or a burning pan. Otherwise, is there some equipment giving off-flavors, like a pump or old tube/tank or do you use scented cleaning chemicals or was something not fully-rinsed? Did you taste the sap? Good luck hunting down the cause.

[harrison6jd]

wish i had an answer but i am in the same boat. last night i was left with 6 gallons of almost syrup. finished half of it this morning and it was fine.i put the other half in the finisher after lunch and right away it had an off smell. actually smelled fishy. would have ended up with at least 2 gallons of finished syrup but i dumped it . i will be watching thid thread for possible solutions.

[Cameron670]

Well it ended up being 4.5 gallon. Adding the fresh sap helped to sweeten it back up, but it still tastes weird. Very tired,
sometimes it tastes different when its cooled off. Dunno, tired, hungry and clueless..... KJC

[Run Forest Run!]

Karl, that must be so frustrating. In the morning taste it again and see if anything has changed. You might try having some 'innocent bystanders' give it a taste. They may be able to identify the off-taste or perhaps tell you that there is nothing weird about it at all. Either way, you've earned a good night's rest. Good luck with everything.