Question on using a syrup hydrometer

[jrm]

Last year, my 1st, I had three trees, three taps. Made a barrel evaporator, finished inside. I used a ChefAlarm digital thermometer to test for done, after calibrating with the day's water boiling point. The resulting syrup was thinner than I'd like.

This year, six trees, seven taps, so far only six running, slowly at that with only 5 gallons collected, stored in a food grade pail in the snow. I decided to buy a hydrometer to see if that would help In producing thicker syrup.

I've looked at these instructions... http://www.leaderevaporator.com/pdf_files/syrup-hydrometer.pdf that were posted in another thread -- which I now can't find.

Am I understanding correctly that once my cup is filled, if the the temp is 209 and the brix reading is 59, then that is the correct density for syrup and I am done boiling, but that if the temp is 209 and the brix were to read 57, that I need to keep evaporating?

In other words, when I test my syrup, I am not actually looking for a brix reading of 66-66.7?

Also, as I am small time, can i dip the cup in to the syrup to fill or do I need to pour into in so that I am not somehow changing the reading with syrup on the outside?

Thanks for your help.
Janet

[wiam]

You are correct. You need to use a good thermometer with your hydrometer. Any syrup on the outside of the cup has no bearing on the hydrometer reading. I actually float my hydrometer in my draw off container.

[jrm]

Thanks for confirming that I understood what I read. :)

Janet

[PerryW]

You should have a hot test red line on the hydrometer (the higher red line). You don't need a thermometer to do the hot test, simply dip the cup directly into the syrup, or fill from the draw-off valve and test immediately. The manufatcurer figures that your syrup will cool from 219 to roughly 209 during the 10 or 20 seconds it takes to fill the cup and take the readings. If you hydrometer cup is really cold, I would fill it once, then dump it back in to warm the cup up a little before testing. Testing multiple times is also a good practice.