Metabolized syrup

[jbabel]

I'm starting to get that off smell and butterscotch flavor. I wonder if anyone else is experiencing this? Seems early.. Will the trees come back?
Southern NH

[Sugarmaker]

Well I think I got a little at the beginning of the season. It can happen at anytime.
Very mild but still there. Later syrup had better flavor to me.
Regards,
Chris

[McKenney Maples]

I think I’ve had a big mess up with metabolized syrup. We boil and collect syrup until our finisher gets fairly full. In this case it took 3 boils. I ran the syrup through the press and filled the canner. The next day we reheated the syrup and bottled 16 gallons. Here’s the bad part, it all tastes terrible, no maple flavor. It has a strong smell, reminds me of peanut butter, but others around at the time said it smells like cardboard. It tastes similar to what I would imagine a dirty dish rag does. I tasted the sweet from the evaporator and I think it’s okay, I’m going to empty the flue pan clean everything and start fresh. Any idea how long sap can run like this? I guess the moral of the story is taste every batch, I found it odd that the smell never manifested until it was bottled.

[Sugarmaker]

Not sure of the duration. You dealing with mother nature here. Taste the sap. Taste the syrup as being boiled. smell the steam and taste the syrup before and after you filter. If you dont like it your customers probably wont either. I sold mine for bulk one year. That was late season syrup and was very light in color but tasted terrible!
Regards,
Chris