Another Newbie that is happy and has some questions

[VerHageFamily]

This was our first year tapping. After going skiing in Vermont last year and looking at all the taps it got my family thinking of tapping trees. My wife's has 50 acres in the Catskills and my grandfather has 80 acres in Orange County NY we thought of trying to tap. We marked out some trees in NY this past fall. However, life got ahead of us and I ordered supplies last and didn't tap until the 1st Saturday in March. We ended up putting 2 taps in a Norway maple that my wife's grandparents planted in their backyard (now our backyard) 60 years ago. Wow were we surprised at the production. Before the temps hit 70 degrees we collected about 7 1/2 gallons of sap. I tried to tap a silver maple in the backyard too but there was no flow.

This past weekend we boiled down the sap and got just under a pint of syrup. At least so I initially thought. As I was finishing the boil, I was watching the candy thermometer to make sure I didn't burn it. It hit about 220 degrees and went to a rapid boil as I was waiting for it to thicken a bit as I thought it was too fluid yet. I thought I burned in and was a little ticked. I filtered it and bottled anyway. On the second pot I let it hit the 220 mark but didn't keep it there as long. I then bottled the rest. My wife who works midnights came home in the morning and did a taste test. She liked the one that I thought I burned better. We have since boiled down the remaining syrup.

Now here's my question. At what point does the syrup become a little thicker? I know it won't be as thick as Log Cabin syrup since that is fake syrup. Am I supposed to bring it to that rapid boil point and hold for a bit until it thickens slightly?

Another question. With the 70 degree temp the tree stopped producing sap. With the snow coming this week and the night temps around freezing or below, do you think the tree will produce again?

All in all it was a great experience and we are prepared for next year. Our back yard backs up to a school yard and the teachers are getting curious. I see this being a school outing next year, which will be awesome.

[wobbletop]

It's syrup when the temp is 7degF above the boiling point of water. That actually changes a bit day to day, so I just boil a small pot of water next to the syrup and measure the temperature. Add 7deg to that and when the syrup hits that, you're done. The syrup tends to start bubbling over as you get close to that temp. If you need to stop the bubbles, I add a TINY sliver of butter (like grain of rice size) to the pot and that will take down the bubbles.

The trees do start and stop depending on the temps. If it doesn't go below freezing, mine don't do anything.

[psparr]

It is as thick as it its going to get when its at syrup density. If you like it thicker, you could take it to a higher temp " higher density" and it will be fine if you use it within a week or so. If it's over density, "thicker" it will crystallize

[John-NJ]

Boiling a pot of water next to it is a great tip - That way you have an automatic calibration of your thermometer. I find that the thermometer I use reads high - syrup isn't done till it reads 221 or 221.5.

Best way to be sure is to buy a syrup hydrometer and cup. You will need to make enough syrup to fill the cup and float the hydrometer. You will notice with time that you will be able to judge it by eye and be pretty close to accurate. When it wants to foam up, you are close to there. Also when hot it always will be thinner. If you have a pretty good depth in your pot, you shouldn't burn it - you can take it well past 220 - but as said before you will find that it crystallizes. Can't offhand remember the temperature, but it is something like 245 that you cook it to in order to make granulated sugar - that is another neat thing to do.

I pulled my taps on 3/6 in Hunterdon and there has been no weeping from the tap holes - I doubt if there will be much if any flow from the cold snap. My maples have moved on from winter dormancy and are blooming. Even if there was flow and you made syrup, it would probably have "buddy" off flavors. Last year this time - no problem!

You need wide temp swings between day and night for flow, and usually below freezing at night. You also need trees to be basically dormant. In this dormant phase, they respire CO2 which will dissolve in the sap. During the warm days the CO2 wants to come out of solution and will generate positive pressure inside the tree to "pump out" the sap. At night the cycle reverses and there is a vacuum generated which helps to pull water up from the roots.

If you don't want to be done for the year, try tapping some birches and make birch syrup. Usually they start around the time the maples peter out.