Question on Syrup color

[ldick]

During season I packaged most of my syrup in large containers (a few 5 gallon pails but mostly 55 gallon drums). All were packed at 180-190 degrees. I am now finding when opening them that the syrup is grading around 10 points darker (using Hannah meter) than it did when I filled the containers. Is this normal?

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We've had light go to medium and medium go to dark. Doesn't ALWAYS change grade which I can't explain but it is normal for it to darken up some in storage.

[maple flats]

As I understand it, the quicker you cool the syrup the less degrading it has. Packing in 55 gal barrels poses problems cooling them fast, but a cool mist sprayed on the barrel will help some.
This is why some packers use cold water in a trough to help cool the syrup, but even then the water needs to be kept cold.

[OldManMaple]

Store you syrup in as cool as place as you can. I store mine at 50° in both plastic and stainless and have no loss in grade after as many as 16 months

[neil2fish]

Does the flavor change? Does it become more robust?

[Russell Lampron]

Occasionally I have syrup darken in storage. I had some last season that went into 5 gallon plastic jugs as golden and was amber when I canned it. Most of my syrup was golden so it was nice to have it darken a little.

[lew]

In general, I believe you will find that the darker the syrup is when you put it in a barrel, the higher the chance of it coming out darker than original when you take it out.

[DrTimPerkins]

Does the flavor change? Does it become more robust?

Generally not. Color changes in storage due to temperature and/or oxidation. Flavor doesn't change (at least enough to be noticeable).

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We have had this happen as well but can't explain it. Barrels are sold and we keep a bunch of pails for bottling so my experience is with those. We opened a 2016 Amber pail 3 weeks ago and it was still very light. Almost would have passed for Golden. Then back in November we opened a 2017 Amber pail and it had turned to the Dark. So I can't help explain it or why but it does happen and is normal. Our pails were all stored together in the corner of our shack. I will say that the flavor does not appear to change. The Dark syrup still tasted like Amber. If it had been a little closer to Amber than it was I would have called it that even if slightly over.

[maple flats]

If it does darken to another grade, legally you need to label it by color as long as there is no off taste. If there is an off taste, it either becomes commercial or maybe you can process it into a product that gets rid of the off taste. Many say sugar can be made from syrup with a slight off taste and the sugar tastes good, I never tried it.

[DrTimPerkins]

Many say sugar can be made from syrup with a slight off taste and the sugar tastes good, I never tried it.

It depends upon the type and intensity of the off-flavor. Sometimes it'll turn out OK, other times it just concentrates the off-flavor.