26 to 1 ratio?

[JohnnyMax8]

Hi All,

First post. This is my second season tapping the trees around my house in Ann Arbor, MI. This year I picked 4 black maples that line my street (between the sidewalk and the road). I got roughly 48 gallons between the four trees (1 tap each). It boiled down to about 1.85 gallons of syrup. Is this possible, or did I stop boiling too early? The syrup flavor, sweetness, viscosity, etc is what I would have expected and similar to store bought. I pulled it off the stove at 219 and calibrated my thermometer in boiling water before.

Any ideas? Is that level of sugar content possible from black maples? The containers I'm using are 5 gallon buckets from lowes and 1 quart mason jars for the finished syrup (not sure if these are throwing the math off).

Best,

John

[unc23win]

Yes a ratio of 26 to 1 is possible your sugar content would be in the 3-3.5% range depending on if you are using the rule of 86 or 87. 86 @ 3% is 28.6 and 87 @ 3% is 29. 86 @ 3.5 is 24.5 and 87 3@ 3.5 is 24.8 Bucket trees along a road tend to have higher sugar content. A hydrometer would tell you for sure but if you calibrated as you said your probably good.

[MidMichMaple]

Hi All,

First post. This is my second season tapping the trees around my house in Ann Arbor, MI. This year I picked 4 black maples that line my street (between the sidewalk and the road). I got roughly 48 gallons between the four trees (1 tap each). It boiled down to about 1.85 gallons of syrup. Is this possible, or did I stop boiling too early? The syrup flavor, sweetness, viscosity, etc is what I would have expected and similar to store bought. I pulled it off the stove at 219 and calibrated my thermometer in boiling water before.

Any ideas? Is that level of sugar content possible from black maples? The containers I'm using are 5 gallon buckets from lowes and 1 quart mason jars for the finished syrup (not sure if these are throwing the math off).

Best,

John

I am also a newbie, not too far from you in the great scheme of things. I got most of my sap from two trees, a black maple and a sugar maple. I don't know if my ratio was 26-1, but it was definitely less than 43-1. I used a syrup hydrometer to finish my syrup, so I know for sure that mine is syrup. Next year I am going to get a sap hydrometer to measure sugar content in the sap, and also track how much sap I collect. The 43-1 rule of thumb is based on sap having a 2% sugar content. If the sugar content is higher, the sap to syrup ratio will be lower.

According to my math, a ratio of 26-1 means that your sugar content was 3.3%. I am not an expert, but I do believe that is possible. I have seen many other forum users talking about sugar content over 3%. I wonder if the long, cold winter here in Michigan played a part in that.

[JTripp]

If your sugar content is in the 3.5% to 4% range I think it could be possible, this season we figured we were around the 33 gal to make a gal of syrup. Nice paper I found could be interesting and make you understand the variances in content can vary alot. http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmaple/sapsugarcontentvariation.pdf

[Michael Greer]

Almost all of the trees I tap are streetside, with big wide crowns. I had a ratio of 30 to 1 this year, which was far better than I thought possible. In the absence of better information, I'd like to throw out a wacky theory of my own. What effect do elevated carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have on trees? I know that there is some research into increased tree growth, so I'm wondering if we'll see differences in sugar content? Perhaps Dr. Tim could give this a thought.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

For 50+ years we tested every tub of sap brought into our sugar house. One route we called roadside was made up of roadside and cowlane trees. Big trees and big tops. It consistently tested from 3.5 to 4.5 % for years. First records are from 1956 and continue through 2005.

[ryebrye]

It is possible. In the 1956 they published a study where they sampled the sugar content on tons of different trees for a long time to analyze how sugar content varied between seasons.

3-3.5% is certainly reasonable. Especially for roadside trees.

In the study, they had an entire sugarbush that averaged over 5% sugar content.

The paper is here:

http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmaple/sapsugarcontentvariation.pdf

I'm sure a lot more research has been done since then - but to answer the question posed here... No, it's not unheard of for trees to have 3.5% sugar content and trees tend to vary in sugar content from year to year.

[SPILEDRIVER]

black maples as a rule run much higher sugar than other maples

[motowbrowne]

At the beginning of the season I tested our tanks consistently around 4%. Takes a lot less sap and wood to make a gallon of syrup. Have two trees right next to the shack that tested over 5%.

[Super Sapper]

I ended the year with 1715 gallons of sap and just over 58 gallons of bottled syrup so that equals 29.5 to 1. I dumped the sweet that was left in the evaporator at the end and had some spills so your numbers seem in line.

[Clinkis]

My sap averages around 3.2% and my ratio is about 27:1. It's been around this for as long as I've been tapping these trees. Most of my trees are in fence rows and thus have large crowns. A good friend close by taps all bush trees and his ratio is closer to 40 to 1. He marvels how I usually make more syrup with less taps then him. That said, it takes me more time and effort to collect as my 120 taps are spread out over my 120 acre farm. This also makes it more challenging to use pipelines and vacume. So I guess there can be some trade off (at least for me) with getting higher suger content.

[JohnnyMax8]

Thanks so much everyone for your responses and info. Good to know I (probably) didn't totally screw up. I really appreciate it.

Best,

John