Newbie first boil questions

[Lt706]

I completed my first boil yesterday and have a few questions if someone can answer please

1. On my final filter I used cheese cloth I ended up with a bunch of cloudiness on the bottom of my jars about a quarter of it should I reward and filter again? Should I run the finish product thru a coffe filter?

2. I bought a hydrometer and checked the product a few times when it went up to the target temp but the hydrometer never moved of the bottom of the test cup I went with my candy thermometer and stopped syrup tastes good and looks decent except for the cloudiness any ideas?

13199

[lindseyr1980]

The first year I did maple syrup, I only used cheesecloth. I ended up with cloudiness and sugar sand. The next year I went out and got a filter that is specific to sugaring. It almost has a felt-like consistency. My syrup turned out clear. You ned a better filter for sure.

[psparr]

The cloudiness is niter. It won't hurt you, just looks bad. Cheese cloth or coffee filters won't remove it. You would need a true syrup filter to do that. The easiest way for a small operation like yours is to let the syrup settle a day or two and then pour off the clear syrup.

Pretty sure your syrup isn't really syrup yet. A thermometer will get you close, but the hydrometer should be the judge. If it wasn't floating yet your way too thin.

[maple75]

Last year was my first tme and I struggled with filtering, tried coffee filters and it just made a mess. BOught a bunch of cone filters and they worked ok but slow, combersome and fairly expensive for just a little syrup... What ended up working best for my small amount of syrup was to let it settle and then pour off the clear syrup.

[Lt706]

The cloudiness is niter. It won't hurt you, just looks bad. Cheese cloth or coffee filters won't remove it. You would need a true syrup filter to do that. The easiest way for a small operation like yours is to let the syrup settle a day or two and then pour off the clear syrup.

Pretty sure your syrup isn't really syrup yet. A thermometer will get you close, but the hydrometer should be the judge. If it wasn't floating yet your way too thin.

So if I bring it back up to the target temp again let it boil at that temp until my hydrometer reads correctly?

[michael marrs]

the proper isn,t necessary now, but a higher temp will make it it go through your filter material faster. if not happy , rinse filter, just invert, and run under hot water, and run it through again I. I used 2 big pots and a colander to put the hold filter material in, pour from one pot to the other, rinse filter pour it back. good luck

[maple flats]

There are some main reasons why a hydrometer won't float when the draw off temp is right. 1. the thermometer is wrong. 2. the hydrometer got dropped making the paper scale inside slide making it inaccurate. 3. the syrup in your test cup is not deep enough. 4. the barometer is rather high which raises the boiling point of water. Draw off should be a 7.3 degrees F above the boiling point of water at that time. To check the water boiling point it must be at a rolling boil, not just the beginning of the "boil". This should be checked at a point in time close to the finishing of the syrup because the air pressure is almost constantly moving. On the other hand, buy a Smokey Lake Murphy cup and a gold series Smokey lake Hydrometer and you will get true density syrup. The Gold Series Hydrometer is the only one made at this time that has a ref. line in the glass to verify that the scale on the paper is aligned where it should be. If that paper slides the readings are incorrect.
If you use a murphy cup, it will tell you what the hydrometer should read at whatever temp. the syrup is at. Another older way, as used by the "accu-cup" (invented and made by our sponsors) and based on a table found in the "North American Maple (Syrup?) Producer's Manual" will give you a chart to convert the temperature to what the density should be. The murphy cup simply replaces the thermometer scale with the corresponding hydrometer reading.
One thing on hydrometers, always make sure it is perfectly clean and that it gets lowered slowly into the test cup. If the price of a test cup is too high right now, you can make one out of PVC pipe and a cap or you can use any other clean container that will safely hold a sample at least as deep as the overall length of your hydrometer.Secondly, a hydrometer that is correct really needs to be used at either 60 degrees F or 211 F, those are the 2 red lines. Any other temperature must have the reading corrected based on the temperature.
My guess, if your hydrometer is really correct, you are under density and that is why it did not float.
The cloudiness issue is because you used the wrong filter, only a syrup filter with at least 2 pre filters on top will filter correctly. If you get one, never wring it dry, that will ruin it, just squeeze it. As one pre-filter gets plugged up, carefully slide it out and use the next. When I used filters I used 5 pre-filters.

[Marcus]

The first time i used a hydrometer it my wife said that thing does not work, because of taste and thermometer. The next batch i waited a little longer, and put the hydrometer in and it was floating. My wife said we are redoing the first batch.

[Lt706]

Thank you all for the advice I have my second boil going today with many lessons from yesterday's adventure I'm sure there will be more questions to come thank you

[TrapperX]

Thank you all for the advice I have my second boil going today with many lessons from yesterday's adventure I'm sure there will be more questions to come thank you

When your second batch gets close, just add the first batch and make sure you get that red line floating above the syrup.

I will be doing just that as my first batch had sugar sand in the bottom.

[Lt706]

So I used all the advice given to me on my original questions and sweet success on my second boil when I went to finish I added my first not yet syrup to the batch got to the target temp and held until I got good endings on my hydrometer filtered using the correct filters and made some really nice looking and tasting product on my second try thanks again to all for pointing me in the correct direction now for another question if I prolong my boil to a higher brix number will my syrup be darker?

[Run Forest Run!]

Lt706, congratulations on your first year making syrup. :D To answer your question, higher brix doesn't make darker syrup (unless you also burn it in the process ;) ). You'll find that as you progress through the season the colour of your syrup will most likely vary. Sometimes not much, and sometimes a lot. Have fun!!

[saphound]

Heya Forest *wavin*

I did that last year, LT706.. which was my first attempt also. Didn't mean too, things happen fast at that stage and the thermometer I had turned out to be wrong, plus I was a newbie, lol. It didn't burn or get darker, but it did end up thicker and I actually liked the thicker syrup from that batch better than the other batches I made after. So this year I plan to go a little farther than the proper 59 brix at 211 degrees...maybe to 60. You also have to be careful of going much higher than that or sugar crystals will form in your syrup after it's stored a while.

[annabanana]

Hello, kinda of a newbie here too! second year 14 taps, just boiled up our first batch, which we ar cooking down on a wood burning makeshift stove. Noticed that the syrup has a smoky taste.... not bad but, how can i avoid this?