Funny smell/ good taste

[bowtie]

I collected today got about 215 gallons of super clear sap. Pumped right into feed tank and fired the Evaporator up, it boiled over before I was really paying attention and got some nasty foam up on flue pan. So I hit it with defoamer and kept boiling but I started to get funky smell. Had wife smell the steam and she said she thinks it is fine, my father who sits with me when I boil thought it was a little funky, and my nephew who has never been in sugar shack said it might smell a little weird. Well I drew a little off and brought in to boil down on stove and it tastes fine, good actually but it is cloudy after running it three times through some clean pre-filters. I have never had this problem before. I have a very sensitive nose/olfactorty sense and when I get a strong smell in my nose it sticks with me. At least half of my taps are reds and some have swollen buds but they are budded. Do not want to boil all down to get bad syrup but would hate to waste a potential 4-5 gallons of finished syrup. Any advice would be helpful. I can boil the rest of the sap tomorrow afternoon if it is good but do want to waste time and wood if it isn't.

[Cedar Eater]

Toward the end of the season, the early steam from each boil starts to smell like cooking sweet corn. I smelled that last year toward the end and the syrup it produced was good, but then my taps dried up. This year I have some on vacuum, so it might actually turn buddy before the flow dries up. All my trees are reds. I'm waiting for the steam to smell like sweat socks and/or produce syrup I wouldn't even cook with before I call it.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

If it makes you feel any better I have noticed the steam's aroma changing a bit too. I boiled tonight and the sap was clear and syrup tastes good with no aftertaste. My wife always says that the steam has a "corn chips" aroma but I disagree. I'd say late in the season it is smelling good but with increasing amounts of "plant matter" smell. Very hard to describe this in words. I think things are changing and buddy sap could be flowing any day.

Last year my last batch had almost a perfume/flower aroma when it was boiling. Good robust maple flavor, but a little bit of an aftertaste. I think it's good to go until it really doesn't taste good.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Toward the end of the season, the early steam from each boil starts to smell like cooking sweet corn

Well I guess my wife has a point. Now that you mention it as well, I guess I have noticed this before, but I speculated it was from defoamer.

[jdbrown20]

I have all reds and experienced the same issue Monday. The syrup looks cloudy and smells odd, but tastes ok. Yesterday it ended up perfectly clear and tastes great again. Not sure why it was different for just that one day.


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[Cedar Eater]

Well I guess my wife has a point. Now that you mention it as well, I guess I have noticed this before, but I speculated it was from defoamer.

Well, when you say "plant matter" and I say "cooking sweet corn" I'm thinking of when the outer leaves are left on the cobs as they are steamed. So it's kind of like corn with a grassy note. Maybe that's what others call buddy, but the syrup hasn't turned bitter yet.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Well, when you say "plant matter" and I say "cooking sweet corn" I'm thinking of when the outer leaves are left on the cobs as they are steamed. So it's kind of like corn with a grassy note. Maybe that's what others call buddy, but the syrup hasn't turned bitter yet.

Yeah that's a good description, and I think I can agree with that. Again the syrup tastes good so I'm not concerned that it's buddy. To be honest, I've never experienced buddy but everyone says it's unmistakable.

[Cedar Eater]

Yeah that's a good description, and I think I can agree with that. Again the syrup tastes good so I'm not concerned that it's buddy. To be honest, I've never experienced buddy but everyone says it's unmistakable.

I guess maybe I would stop sooner in years when I met my target, but I'm trying to make some syrup for sweetening smoked meats, so I'm not minding the super dark stuff that I'm starting to get. I'm only targeting 5 gallons and I'm still about a gallon short. If I don't get enough, I'll try to make up for it with birch syrup. That's good for smoked meats, too.