Nitre? Sugar Crystals? Odd evaporation

[H'Artwind]

I'm experiencing something odd during my "second batch" of boiling down sap. The first batch turned out great...nice light amber with no nitre or crystals-sap was right around 3% brix.

Now for my second batch (collected last week). As I was slowly boiling this down, it would form a gray-ish brown surface scum (which I've seen before) but, as I would remove it, it would immediately crystalize. The sap was not even measuring on the hydrometer at this point. Continued to boil it down until temperature reached 211. I tested it with the baume hydrometer and it read 36. A little past where I usually take it. Then, when I looked at my "finishing pan" I saw that it had immediately formed a crystalized covering. I feel like I took it past "the point" according to the hydrometer but not the thermometer. I did re-heat twice....once for the finishing and once to reheat (Not to boiling, though) for canning. Filtered many times during the process and then I always filter the finished syrup into the mason jars (we're just hobby sugar-ers) After canning, I'm seeing "clouds of suspension" but it doesn't look like nitre...it almost acts like it's already crystalizing. I've attached pictures....

Is there anything I can do for this batch or does anyone know what I can do to prevent this in the future? In the past, I've used felt for the final filter but they were out of white so I had to resort to triple thick cheese cloth. Takes forever to drain into the jars <haha>.

Thanks so much for any and all help! (By the way, all of the pictures are of the same jar....it was just kinda difficult to get the right angle)

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[Snappyssweets]

I had the same thing happen last week. I thought perhaps I overcooked it so I opened them all up and decided to turn the gallon into candy. What happened has been well rather interesting in. It had a very strong flavor robust and very maple I considered it a grade B. However upon cooking it down at 240 I took a sample. The maple flavoring was nearly gone it had a small hint of it yet it had become molasses. I continued to cook it down until I got to 290 where I let it set up. I now have a very sweet molasses that I got from the gallon of Maple Syrup. It turned out to be about a quart and a half of a molasses or two pounds now its hardened so it wont go bad. To use I will add water dissolve it and add it to food. Its rather tasty yet was strange.