newbie syrup question

[Laurie Enget Richard]

Hi, this is my first post on this forum. We started tapping last year here in Elk River, MN. We only have 6 trees to tap but for a hobby and to get a years of syrup we decided to try it out again this year. We have 11 taps. We had nice tapping weather beginning of march then it got warm and the snow melted then the weather changed again to the typical good tapping weather. We have one tree that has stopped or slowed down so we pulled the tap. We have two trees that were strong for the first 3 weeks but have slowed down lots so we pulled the taps. We have two trees that didn't really start giving us sap until probably last week. And it is giving us lots of sap and its clear. But all the trees are budding. On top of the tree and now starting on the bottom there are leaves breaking through the buds. I thought it was strange these two trees didn't start sap until later and as far as i know they are all silver maples. Although i am now questioning my sanity. ha. The two trees we have left are also budding and giving us lots of sap but when we boil it down its very very light. Honey colored and sweet. Not a lot of maple flavor but sweet and almost citrus tasting. And we are getting more of it. Today the two pints we got last night are full of sugar sand and suspended in the syrup of which is mostly clear. tastes good? looks really like honey? Anyone had this happen? What does it mean?

[Run Forest Run!]

Laurie, you boiled the syrup too long and made it too dense. You can thin it with a little bit of distilled water and warm everything up on the stove to blend it. It doesn't need to boil (or you'll have to filter it again), but make sure you store it in the fridge so it doesn't go bad. Congratulations on your first syrup!

[chad]

I have had very light syrup before then the next year it was quite a bit darker every year is different, how are you testing your syrup are you using a hydrometer or a thermometer remember its syrup when boiling at 219 degrees

[Laurie Enget Richard]

karen thanks for the reply..i am going to warm it up to 180 again..and rebottle it. its clear as a bell right now with a inch of niter on the bottom. I can't seem to get it filtered...i filter about 5 times from beginning to end. Next Christmas on my list is a maple syrup filter kit and a hydrometer. Chad with 3 different thermometers we are getting 3 different readings so yes next year the hydrometer is a must. Still not sure why its sooooo light and why these particular two trees didn't give us sap until last week. oh well will keep learning..

[pbrain1259]

I think we ID'd these trees as Silver Maples last summer, like Laurie stated these were the last 2 trees to start flowing, quite a bit later, have many pints of darker amber syrup, but was kind of suprised when we went from this to this, see picture. Especially when you supposedly get darker syrup later in the season. But then again this was a different season than last season LOL, we are learning.... we decided to see what we would get out of the last 2 trees that started flowing after I boiled off 20 gallons of sap that was funky so we tossed it. 11487

[TreeTapper2]

Boiling my last run from budding silver maples. Seems to be light and sweet as well. I have a few maples that didn't start running til a couple of days ago. Not sure why, others have been for four weeks. Just the nature of the trees.

[pbrain1259]

Also leads me too another question. We only had 11 taps, but do most people group there saps, i.e boil only silver maples together or mix and match boil it all. Thats what we were doing till we got the funky sap which we attribute to budding, yet the light stuff is coming from budding trees as well, smells and tastes fine. I also heard a rumor that Santa might bring a hydrometer and a better filtering system to Laurie next Christmas..

[TreeTapper2]

I hope you are right about Santa. We mix our sapfrom different trees. I have one tree that was giving a really woody smelling SAP so we just toss that one. Our trees started budding flowers about two plus weeks ago and so we just boiled in separate little batches and they all seem to turn out good

[Run Forest Run!]

Depending on how much sap I'm getting at the time (and my desire to experiment) I've made pure batches and blended batches. In the past I have made pure box elder (Manitoba Maple) batches, pure soft maple batches and pure sugar maple batches. I've also made blends of all three and blends of just two. So far this year the sap is coming so slowly that I've only combined my saps. It's anybody's guess what I'll end up doing once the big runs start.

[lpakiz]

My take on soft maple:
Some start early, some start late, some run all, season and some don't run at all.
Next year, they all change characteristics: the early runner may become the late, the never ran may become your all-season star, the late starter may become the early runner, etc.
Now, vacuum makes them all toe the line.

[Laurie Enget Richard]

thanks for all the replies...so we have come to the conclusion that is a crapshoot..lol and santa is coming to my house this year and what/how do you go about vacuum taps? sounds interesting.. Karen, i will be interested to see what you get this year for your mixture of syrups. :)

[zzammon]

I know this is an old post but with the new snow I am getting itchy for sap season. I have tapped boxelder in the past and have noticed that female trees (those with seeds) produce at least double the sap as male trees. I understand Sugar and Silver maples to be both male and female so it may not cover your question, but just a fun observation.