Last batch finished- mixed results

[btflaw]

Just finished up the last batch yesterday inside on the stove. I had stored the reduced sap from the evaporators in single 5 gallon bucket. As I was preparing to begin the finish boil inside I was using a ladel to scoop out the sap in order to filter the same prior to pouring it into 2 pots. The first pot yielded a beautiful amber product, the second a very dark syrup that you can not even see through with light. Both taste awesome and I used the same hydrometer on both. Has anyone else had this experience? The batches were only commingled from Sunday at noon till 8am the next morning. Perhaps that was enough time for everything to settle to the bottom, I just thought it was a unique result one that I have never encountered before in my past years.

[btflaw]

Got the taps in ------ mixed results ome trees showed promise other slow - we will see the hand we are dealt at the end of the season

[Ausable]

If You had all Your near syrup in the same bucket - What I think happened was that the syrup in the bucket was in the process of settling out. You scooped the clear off the top and when doing so riled up the nitre etc. sitting on the bottom and making the remaining syrup dark. I'm a hobby syrup maker and I'll assume You are too. Even though we filter out a lot of our nitre and other debris - we cannot get it as clear as someone with a filter press. True color will vary in maple syrup and thus we have a grading system. If You notice a jar of your canned syrup that has set for a couple of weeks it may have a little nitre on the bottom and look great on top, Just carefully decant into another container when getting ready to use - leaving the debris behind. I think all you did was rile up the junk the settled out on the pail bottom when scooping for the final boil.

[happy thoughts]

The settling was probably a large part, Another thing that might have happened was layering of the batches if you didn't mix them together well. I have seen this happen when combining 2 different batches each with a different density especially if part has been refrigerated.. If the heavy batch goes in first, the lighter next layer will often stay on top.

If you decant you can mix the debris with fresh sap and let sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. The sand will settle out quickly. Decant again and you can recover most of the sweet before tossing the debris.