Really really dark syrup... but tastes great. What gives?

[Ntatar]

Sap this week in Needham MA was a nice run all week. That said, the sap was cloudy and we held out a couple of containers that were particularly cloudy. Cooked down around 100 gallons. Finished product was the darkest I've ever made - can't see through a bottle. Flavor is great and it's not too heavy. Thickness is good too. Thoughts?

[fisheatingbagel]

I'm going to venture and say because your sap was cloudy, probably had a high bacteria content and that's why the syrup is dark. Was the weather on the warm side, at least during the daytime hours?

[Ntatar]

Definitely a warm week. We collected sap from the buckets every day and put them into a walk in refrigerator at the College each night. Nights have been on the milder side... low to mid 30s. Anything to be done if cloudy again? Batch tastes good... still good to eat or cook with?

[Russell Lampron]

Anything to be done if cloudy again? Batch tastes good... still good to eat or cook with?

The only thing to prevent cloudy sap is to boil it as soon as you get it collected. I've made a lot of great tasting syrup with cloudy sap. As long as it tastes good there isn't any reason not to eat it or cook with it.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Now get 5 friends togeter and do a taste test with the syrup in clear glasses and don't set any expectations. When their done ask if they would prefer the dark or lite. I give away all my dark end of year syrup to the people I owe it to for their help they don't want the lite.

[blaircountysugarin85]

The first year I made syrup I was obviously new to it and didn't know much about it. I remember that batch looking like a very light honey. I couldn't figure out where I went wrong. Everything I tested came out legit. I posted pics on here to find I made a beautiful premium grade A fancy. I have yet to make syrup like that again. I typically get a medium amber at the darkest but this year overall my syrup has been pretty dark, medium amber or dark amber. Im sure the warm weather has alot to do with it.

[Ntatar]

The only thing to prevent cloudy sap is to boil it as soon as you get it collected.

I'm dealing with relatively small batches say 20 gallons on a good day. Could I bring that batch to boil for 30 min, filter it, and put in the fridge to create a larger batch?see bottle in the middle for a pic of this recent dark batch. Bottles to the left are from each week this year. Bottles to the right are from each batch last year.
17901

[blaircountysugarin85]

Yes that will work. If it's boiled down enough it shouldn't even need refrigerated for up to a week or more if there is enough sugar in it. I have a divided pan and many times I shut it down and flood the pans and its sweet enough I have never had any mold or anything with up to 5 days or so sitting in there. I wish I had the walk in cooler! Just a FYI I would maybe put some of those bottles in the fridge it looks like there is alot of headspace it may grow mold sitting out

[Ntatar]

What about freezing it daily? We have a walk-in freezer here at the college that we can use. This would be less of a disturbance for the kitchen staff than trying to boil every day....

[Haynes Forest Products]

KISS is the name of the game. You need to get your sap boiled down as soon as possible and as quickly as possible and to density as possible. I know we all have busy lives but this over handling and getting it close but not quite there is a problem. Head space is a normal part of bottling. Its like George from Seinfeld said its shrinkage. HOT packing syrup in a bottle does not leave room for mold. Packing under density, cold syrup leaves room for mold!! I have cases of syrup in my basement that 3 years old without any mold or crystals.

Guys I'm not trying to pick on ya or dog you BUT you have to quit trying to do everything but COOK IT TILL ITS DONE this over handling it and freezing and unfreezing takes longer than just cooking it. I guarantee you if all you can do is small batches is cook it up 2-3 points under hot pack it in a food grade bucket and just keep it closed until you dump the next batch in. Just pop the lid dump in the next batch and close it up you will be fine. HOT means hot right from the cooker. Don't filter it until its cold and been exposed to the air and dirty filter. YUP your filter is a bacteria screen if you didn't sterilize it so filter at the end of the final cook.

[Ntatar]

Would love to have bandwidth but I can only get kitchen time 2x a week. One to cook down and one day to finish and bottle. That said, we do heat the bottles up in our pizza oven before bottling so we haven't any mold issues. Our issue with bottling tends to be burning our fingers if we aren't careful handling them :-)

[maple flats]

My dark syrup has for years been my best seller, and I ship all over the country and to lots of repeat customers time and time again. One year I sold out of dark and told them I could only ship amber . They ordered Dark the next time (and they buy 8 half gal in each order, usually 2-3x a year.)
Except for making confections I sell almost no golden, in fact I usually add a little very dark to make it dark.

[Ntatar]

Thanks! Tested it with my kids over some ice cream (no snow here today) and pancakes at breakfast. Two thumbs up!!

[bowtie]

My syrup is dark also but what really gets me is the amount of sugar sand/niter in it. So far way worse than any year before.

[maple flats]

Just remember, the darker the syrup the more intense the maple flavor.

[bowtie]

I personally prefer the dark,robust because it tastes more "mapley" to me. I actual like syrup that has a hint of wood smoke flavor to it.

[Ntatar]

My syrup is dark also but what really gets me is the amount of sugar sand/niter in it. So far way worse than any year before.
We were blowing threw cone filter liners too....
Cleaned all the buckets today didn't put them back out as the sap wasn't really running and the temp at night is in the mid-to-upper 30s. Dropping back into the 20s early next week and will put the buckets back up then.

[unclejohn]

we had a similar experience with our final batch (#5 for the year). We had some sap that sat outside in our jugs for 4 days, got up to 50 deg during day but just below freezing at night. when we had collected additional sap, and had enough to boil, the sap in those jugs was still clear. after not much time in the pan we could tell that it would be a darker batch. We ended up with a very tasty dark batch of about 5 gallons; but like you we had to use many filter liners and the niter/waste was a dark goo. The syrup appears to be thicker, or is it more bacteria organisms that plug the filter? Perhaps Dr. Perkins will read this thread and inform us how the sap chemistry changes as the days get longer and trees get closer to budding- I think that made the sap darker. All of our previous batches required just one filter liner. I wonder if this batch would have been more golden than dark if we had processed it more promptly. Our season is over now.... we pulled taps and reclaimed our buckets just before we got 5" of rain here in mid Missouri. Good luck to you folks at more northern latitudes! John