Bad Hydrometer?

[dkaram]

First off, thanks for all the great information on this site. I've never posted, but have found this forum an endless source of information and entertainment for the past two years.

Last year, I used a thermometer with good results. Usually got my boil up to around 220 after testing the boiling point of water and the syrup was delicious. It was very dark, but clear. Not sure how well it would have stored because all of my 2 gallons was gone before the summer. One jar was growing some large crystals in the bottom, but I know that it came from a batch I boiled a little too long.

Thought I would step things up this year and bought a tapmytrees hydrometer from the local maple shop. Brought in my first finish batch of the year and I immediately noticed that I was boiling way past where I stopped last year. I kept the hydrometer clean between tests, and kept the thermometer in the pan. It was testing light, so I kept boiling and testing. Eventually I let the syrup cool to try the test on the other end of the hydrometer and it was still testing light. This batch was less than two quarts so I figured I would trust the hydrometer and just keep boiling until it hit the red line. It was boiling at over 225 when it finally hit 32 baum (after it cooled to 211). Then after canning and cooling I have a 1/2 inch layer of sugar crystals settling in the bottom.

It was much thicker than what I made last year, and what I buy from the store. I followed the directions very carefully, and double checked all the directions after to see what I did wrong.
So is it my thermometer?
My hydrometer?
My technique?

Only other thing I can think to do is buy a pint of syrup at the store and test the hydrometer on it. Any other ideas?

[jmayerl]

Are you sure you used the hot test line, not the cold test line?

[Russell Lampron]

The only way to know for sure if the hydrometer is accurate is to have it tested. Hydrometers are delicate and the paper can shift giving you a false reading if they are bumped on the bottom of the hydrometer cup when testing for example. A way that you could test it yourself would be to have a known good sample of proper density syrup and check it with your hydrometer. If yours is found to be incorrect you can see how much it is off and do a correction when by that many points when you use it.

[BlueberryHill]

Buy one or two more hydros and compare them to each other in the same syrup. If you are anything like me, you'll be breaking these anyway so a couple extras on hand won't hurt, haha.

[dkaram]

Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't buy another hydrometer yet but I probably will. I did pick up a bottle of maple syrup from the grocery and tested the hydrometer on it. It tested right on the line for the cold test, but about 1.5degrees baume off on the hot test. This still doesn't tell me if it is the hydrometer or my thermometer which is bad, but helps narrow it down a little. I'm thinking the fact that I'm trying to finish at a rolling boil on the stove at full heat is probably not helping either.

Since I'm only finishing a a couple quarts at a time, it seems to be able to go past the syrup point pretty quickly. I think I'll slow down the boil a little and take my time on the next batch. We had a good run for the past two days before things froze up today, so I have another gallon of near syrup ready to test it on.

Thanks again for the help.

[Russell Lampron]

Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't buy another hydrometer yet but I probably will. I did pick up a bottle of maple syrup from the grocery and tested the hydrometer on it. It tested right on the line for the cold test, but about 1.5degrees baume off on the hot test. This still doesn't tell me if it is the hydrometer or my thermometer which is bad, but helps narrow it down a little. I'm thinking the fact that I'm trying to finish at a rolling boil on the stove at full heat is probably not helping either.

Since I'm only finishing a a couple quarts at a time, it seems to be able to go past the syrup point pretty quickly. I think I'll slow down the boil a little and take my time on the next batch. We had a good run for the past two days before things froze up today, so I have another gallon of near syrup ready to test it on.

Thanks again for the help.

Was the temperature of the syrup 60* exactly when you tested it or was it at room temp? If your syrup was 70* with the red line right at the cold test line the syrup would be on the heavy side. If the syrup were then cooled to 60* the hydrometer would rise and the red line would be above the syrup.

[JoeJ]

What type of thermometer are you using? I personally would not trust a digital thermometer.

[Russell Lampron]

What type of thermometer are you using? I personally would not trust a digital thermometer.

I don't trust dial thermometers either. I have had mine sit on the 7 and tapped on the glass with my finger and had the needle jump up a 1/2 degree.

[PerryW]

when you are comparing the viscosity of two samples of syrup, make sure they are the same temperature. cold syrup seems waaay thicker than warm syrup.

[Galena]

Now my curiousity is piqued. I have a bottle of store-bought that I have sitting unopened in the cupboard, which I planned to use to try and calibrate the hydrotherm. But was not looking forward to having to warm it up and then pour it off blah blah blah. So will just dump it in the hydro at room temp and see what happens. And if that works - after all grocery-store syrup is meant to be at Brix - then I'll just put it back in its bottle, and take out the jars of syrup have so far sitting in the fridge. Let them come up to room temp (may even let them sit out overnight) and see if I can Brix em that way.