PRMC Study on RO and Syrup Flavor

[WestfordSugarworks]

Proctor published their research on reverse osmosis and syrup flavor. It's worth a read. From what I gathered from the research summary, there are no significant differences in flavor between syrup produced from varying levels of concentrated sap (between 2 and 21.5 Brix). I had heard from word of mouth that studies had been done that proved there was no real difference in flavor between syrup produced from high Brix concentration and syrup produced from raw sap. As a side note, I brought my father home some syrup produced from 40-something Brix concentrate, and he thought it tasted great without knowing what it was made from. My next question is what differences exist in flavor between syrup made from super-high Brix concentrate and more conventional levels of concentrate. If I'm not mistaken, Proctor was going to tackle this research in the near future.

[DrTimPerkins]

My next question is what differences exist in flavor between syrup made from super-high Brix concentrate and more conventional levels of concentrate. If I'm not mistaken, Proctor was going to tackle this research in the near future.

We did this work over several years. Although we've done a lot of presentations about it, it took a while to come out in the maple industry literature because we first had to publish the results in scientific journals (once it has come out in non-scientific literature, it can't be published in the science literature). It any case, that paper is the result of a lot of work/time/energy/$ spent, so I would encourage folks to read it.

http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/Effects%20of%20RO%20on%20syrup%20-%20van%20den%20Berg%202015.pdf

To answer your question....yes....we will be doing some research over the next year on the effects of super-high Brix concentration on maple syrup flavor. In addition, starting in the 2017 season (and running for 3 yrs), we will be investigating the various ways of processing birch sap to produce good syrup flavor.

[emericksmaple]

Have you ever considered studying the flavor of syrup produced with high concentrate that was refrigerated right after being produced. Compared against the same syrup that was just hot packed into a drum? We sometimes notice a change in the flavor of our syrup over the summer. We do not refrigerate our syrup at the moment.

[DrTimPerkins]

Have you ever considered studying ....

We've heard this, or similar questions many times. What people may not realize is that doing a study of this sort scientifically so that the results are valid and useful is very difficult and rather expensive. If we could do it in the lab it would be fairly cheap and quick, however it wouldn't be as useful or applicable to what happens in a real industrial sized maple evaporator.

A great deal of planning and effort goes into any work of this type. First of all, before any of this work could be started, we determined that we had to construct a building specially designed for these projects. We needed it to hold 4 full-size evaporators, 3' x 10' units and all the associated tanks and other equipment, and the scientific equipment to make our observations. Secondly, we need to do multiple runs (evaporations) for several hours each (to allow everything to equilibrate and to produce enough syrup to replicate what producers do) for each trial and to be sure that we had statistical replication. When you're using high-concentrate, it requires a HUGE amount of sap to run 2-4 evaporators at a time for several hours each time for 4-6 times over the season. With about 3,500-4,000 taps, we don't produce nearly enough sap to do this in a timely way, thus we have always had to purchase sap from nearby, very large operations. Then the sap or concentrate has to be trucked to our site. Then you need to have 2 people actually doing the boiling, a couple of technicians, and 1-2 scientists to make sure everything is running just right and that all the samples are collected properly for each run. Then you have to collect the syrup, filter and package it from each evaporator all EXACTLY the same, then assemble a tasting panel of 25-30 experienced maple people to taste the syrup. Then data analysis and writing it up. Overall, each experiment (one season comparing 2-3 different treatments with 4-6 boils per season) can cost $100-150k, NOT counting the building or the tanks/evaporators. The full set of experiments we did (over several years) just on RO effects on maple syrup chemistry and flavor totaled nearly half a million $. The two years of research we did on air injection ran about $300k.

Therefore we choose the experiments we run after a lot of input from the maple industry as to what things they wish to see done. We'll gladly add your suggestion to the list though.

[WestfordSugarworks]

Thanks for the info Dr. Tim. Wow, had never considered how much goes into a study. That's so expensive, but sugarmakers certainly appreciate the work you do. I know I do.

[DrTimPerkins]

Thanks for the info Dr. Tim. Wow, had never considered how much goes into a study. That's so expensive, but sugarmakers certainly appreciate the work you do. I know I do.

The unfortunate reality is that good advice based upon good science is rarely cheap or fast. You want cheap and fast, go to McDonalds. :)

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

in this experiment was what was the fuel source used to boil the sap down? did I miss it in the conversations?

[wiam]

in this experiment was what was the fuel source used to boil the sap down? did I miss it in the conversations?

Oil ( I hate that I can't write a 3 letter reply on this forum. What does message too short mean?)

[DrTimPerkins]

Oil ( I hate that I can't write a 3 letter reply on this forum. What does message too short mean?)

Correct. Oil was the fuel source. Using wood would add a huge layer of complexity to the experiment as you would have to fire the evaporators all exactly the same with the same type and amount of wood.

We used cross-flow pans for a similar reason. We were measuring the changes in sap/syrup chemistry from the sap tank through every partition and in the finished syrup. Reverse-flow pans result in periodic changing of sides, and thus a mixing of sap/syrup in different partitions, which would have made each of these experiments far more complicated.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Correct. Oil was the fuel source. Using wood would add a huge layer of complexity to the experiment as you would have to fire the evaporators all exactly the same with the same type and amount of wood.

We used cross-flow pans for a similar reason. We were measuring the changes in sap/syrup chemistry from the sap tank through every partition and in the finished syrup. Reverse-flow pans result in periodic changing of sides, and thus a mixing of sap/syrup in different partitions, which would have made each of these experiments far more complicated.
so what you are implying is that wood fired maple syrup could give the syrup a better taste, because wood is hotter than oil and the carmelizing effect due to the heat could produce different Maillard reactions.

[DrTimPerkins]

so what you are implying is that wood fired maple syrup could give the syrup a better taste....

No, I don't believe that I implied that at all.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

No, I don't believe that I implied that at all.
"implying" was the wrong word Doc, sorry.

[DrTimPerkins]

"implying" was the wrong word Doc, sorry.

No problem Flats.