Red maple syrup

[Kh7722]

Hey everyone
Just a quick question, does syrup from only red maple trees taste much different then sugar maples? I know a bunch of you mix all maples togeather but im talking only reds. I have 500 plus trees on my property and am looking at tubing next year and starting but dont want to invest the money if it tastes bad. I also know the water content is a little higher but im looking at r.o.'s as well so it wont be an issue, thanks in advance

[Ed R]

Red maples make wonderful tasting syrup. Very mapley taste after the first couple of runs. My syrup all has a very pronounced red hue to it which makes it interesting to grade at times. If they are on low ground be prepared for very dark sugar sand that is very fine grained. Almost all my taps in the Toledo area are on reds. I prefer it to syrup we make at the family farm in Mid-Michigan which is mainly on sugar maples.

[Jebediah]

100% red maple here, love 'em.

[psparr]

Mostly reds and hate em!
Syrup tastes great... After you boil down the 90 some gallons to get any!

[jrgagne99]

I tap all reds, 120 or so. Great syrup, and I generally run about the same sugar content as folks who are tapping sugar maples.

[Lethalbowman]

Plenty of Red's mixed in with a few Sugar Maples on my 20 acre Sugar Bush, I get wonderful flavor and a rich amber color until late season. It does seem like it was a 50-1 ratio even though I was seeing 2.25% sugar content most of last season.

[Jebediah]

Same here, we are not exactly scientific about it, but I think we are about 60:1. We are more like a Laurel and Hardy show.

[Locust Farms]

2014 reds 52:1. Happy with this
2015 reds 93:1 Not so good, Hope better 2016.

Dwight

[Jmsmithy]

Mixed sugar and reds. There's been zero difference. Before our first expansion we tested each tree and never found a discernible difference in sugar content or sap yield. Now we on vac so can't, nor would I want, to test individual trees. But with 300 trees tapped the sap in my 800 gallon holding tanks always measure from low of 1.8/9 to as high as 3 Brix.

Looking at our next expansion (3500 hopefully) and will be buying another piece of property. I'll look more for sugar maples just because but in all reality, if it has the tree density I'm looking for, along with slope, access etc I will not be counting red vs sugar to make my decision.

Although here in the Adirondacks, the piece with the nice trout stream on it could very well be the final deciding factor. :lol::lol:

[maple flats]

Plenty of Red's mixed in with a few Sugar Maples on my 20 acre Sugar Bush, I get wonderful flavor and a rich amber color until late season. It does seem like it was a 50-1 ratio even though I was seeing 2.25% sugar content most of last season.
I think your sap hydrometer must be off or the rule of 86 (87) just flew out the cupola. That is 87/sugar %= # of gallons needed to produce 1 gal of syrup. Thus 87/2.25=38.66667. 87/1.74=50. Check your hydrometer. It is also possible you are spilling that much, I know I've had that problem in the past.
The rule used to be 86/% but recently I read it is more accurately 87/%= gallons of sap needed to make 1 gal of syrup.

[blissville maples]

In my first years sugaring I used to bring hydrometer from tree to tree, I have a large red maple in the corner of my field gets sun from 6am to 9pm in summer wide open top, has branches coming off larger than most trees. I would say the diameter is to be atleast 5 feet at trunk, I have seen 3.75 sugar from this tree. pretty incredible for a red. I have nice old pastures, some of my comparable sugars I have seen 4-6%. I have tapped a 250 red maple bush back in 13' and some runs averaged 2.2, nothing lower than 1.4 late season. buddy sap, as far as my experience, not until after taps are typically pulled.