tgormley358
03-14-2018, 05:14 PM
I finished two gallons of syrup yesterday, my 6th or 7th batch this season which have all been great. I always taste the final product right out of my stainless 16"x16" flat filter canner when it's still warm, after bottling. I bottle directly from this rather than store and bottle later as I hear some do. I took a pretty good gulp of very clear, amber syrup, and didn't have an immediate reaction, but several seconds later a bad aftertaste which first struck me as sharp and I couldn't identify it right away but maybe in the category of a cleaning fluid like soap. I couldn't get this yuk taste out of my mouth for hours after. I brought it right to my wife and had her taste without saying anything to prompt her -- i just said could you taste this. She said it tasted good but it she did notice something, and i think her first description was like cardboard. She also said maybe a little soapy taste. I've since read multiple past posts here back to 2011 and 2014 on metabolized syrup, "buddy" sap and syrup, and other off tastes). I'm trying to figure out what i got, how it happened, and what to do with both the finished syrup and what's left in my pan (new 2x5 raised flue evaporator this year).
Starting from the end of the process and then back to sap collection and storage:
- I happened to take an opportunity to clean my syrup pan the Monday night before, for the first time this season. I had no reason to do this other than it seemed like a good time to do it. I drew off all syrup from the pan into a 2-gallon SS pot, and left it covered with a SS cover on the floor of my sugar shack. I started cleaning the pan with just hot water from the tap, and a sponge. I could feel a sticky layer of niter in the middle and final channel of the pan, so i tried a nylon brush. That didn't seem to help much, so i found some powdered pan cleaner I purchased last year from Bascom and used successfully in another evap. I let it sit, then scrubbed more. It wasn't all coming out but i didn't want to clean all night and figured some niter left on the bottom wouldn't be a problem, so i emptied it, rinsed with hot water, then filled it again and added baking soda, stirred, let it sit, and then sponged it all over the pan. I drained it, rinsed again twice, dried it with paper towels. I put it back on my evaporator that night, dumped my almost syrup back in, and boiled for 2 hours then went to bed. The next day everything looked cool from the night before. I had 75 gallons in my tank to boil. An hour later i was drawing off syrup, and had no indications from the smell of steam or the syrup drawing off, of any problem. Poured it into my flat filter, and started bottling into glass. After bottling just under 2 gallons with just maybe a cup left in the filter pan, I poured into a cup and that's when i got this bad taste. Never tasted it before. I smelled the filters and inside the pan -- same as the bad taste.
I wondered about the paper and felt filters. I'd cleaned the pre-filters a day earlier when i found them in a bag with a little mold in them. But I'd already used them to finish syrup after cleaning that day, and tasted it with no problems, so I can't believe they would be the source of the problem. But anyway my cleaning process was -- Soaked them in a 3 gallons of hot water with maybe a cup of bleach, then scrubbed them a bit and rinsed them three times in hot water. Like i said i used them after this and the syrup tasted fine, so it doesn't seem likely and I'm all but ruling it out.
So the potential problem sources at this point seem to be either the syrup pan cleaning i did monday night, or a problem with the sap i'd collected, or storage of the sap before boiling. The weather here in MA has been great lately, and I'm boiling daily from last friday through yesterday tuesday. This is mid-season here (started a month ago), so it's neither early nor late which this forum said is when metabolism usually happens. We did have two 65-70+ degree days in February, but it hasn't hurt my syrup and I don't see buds on the trees yet. Sap was a bit cloudy during that time but i've since boiled it all and finished the syrup which tasted great although cloudy. The last several days I've been collecting in a poly 210 gallon pickup tank, pumping up to 100 gallons into my SS head tank right after collection, and then boil within the next day.
Does this sound like metabolism? or caused by niter in the bottom my pan? Or something went wrong in my cleaning job? A combination? I can't figure it out, and wonder if i should drain and toss what i've got in my pans? So far i'm just setting aside the 2 gallons of this syrup. I've tasted the boiled sap in my flue pan and it seems fine. The almost syrup now in my syrup pan tastes questionable to me, like the same off taste, but my wife insists it tastes OK. Tonite i'm going to taste test the off tasting finished syrup against a prior bottling to be sure about the off taste. I'll let you all know what i find from that. Really appreciate any input on what to do with what's left in my pans, as the weather is still good and I hope to make another 10 gallons before the season's over.
Starting from the end of the process and then back to sap collection and storage:
- I happened to take an opportunity to clean my syrup pan the Monday night before, for the first time this season. I had no reason to do this other than it seemed like a good time to do it. I drew off all syrup from the pan into a 2-gallon SS pot, and left it covered with a SS cover on the floor of my sugar shack. I started cleaning the pan with just hot water from the tap, and a sponge. I could feel a sticky layer of niter in the middle and final channel of the pan, so i tried a nylon brush. That didn't seem to help much, so i found some powdered pan cleaner I purchased last year from Bascom and used successfully in another evap. I let it sit, then scrubbed more. It wasn't all coming out but i didn't want to clean all night and figured some niter left on the bottom wouldn't be a problem, so i emptied it, rinsed with hot water, then filled it again and added baking soda, stirred, let it sit, and then sponged it all over the pan. I drained it, rinsed again twice, dried it with paper towels. I put it back on my evaporator that night, dumped my almost syrup back in, and boiled for 2 hours then went to bed. The next day everything looked cool from the night before. I had 75 gallons in my tank to boil. An hour later i was drawing off syrup, and had no indications from the smell of steam or the syrup drawing off, of any problem. Poured it into my flat filter, and started bottling into glass. After bottling just under 2 gallons with just maybe a cup left in the filter pan, I poured into a cup and that's when i got this bad taste. Never tasted it before. I smelled the filters and inside the pan -- same as the bad taste.
I wondered about the paper and felt filters. I'd cleaned the pre-filters a day earlier when i found them in a bag with a little mold in them. But I'd already used them to finish syrup after cleaning that day, and tasted it with no problems, so I can't believe they would be the source of the problem. But anyway my cleaning process was -- Soaked them in a 3 gallons of hot water with maybe a cup of bleach, then scrubbed them a bit and rinsed them three times in hot water. Like i said i used them after this and the syrup tasted fine, so it doesn't seem likely and I'm all but ruling it out.
So the potential problem sources at this point seem to be either the syrup pan cleaning i did monday night, or a problem with the sap i'd collected, or storage of the sap before boiling. The weather here in MA has been great lately, and I'm boiling daily from last friday through yesterday tuesday. This is mid-season here (started a month ago), so it's neither early nor late which this forum said is when metabolism usually happens. We did have two 65-70+ degree days in February, but it hasn't hurt my syrup and I don't see buds on the trees yet. Sap was a bit cloudy during that time but i've since boiled it all and finished the syrup which tasted great although cloudy. The last several days I've been collecting in a poly 210 gallon pickup tank, pumping up to 100 gallons into my SS head tank right after collection, and then boil within the next day.
Does this sound like metabolism? or caused by niter in the bottom my pan? Or something went wrong in my cleaning job? A combination? I can't figure it out, and wonder if i should drain and toss what i've got in my pans? So far i'm just setting aside the 2 gallons of this syrup. I've tasted the boiled sap in my flue pan and it seems fine. The almost syrup now in my syrup pan tastes questionable to me, like the same off taste, but my wife insists it tastes OK. Tonite i'm going to taste test the off tasting finished syrup against a prior bottling to be sure about the off taste. I'll let you all know what i find from that. Really appreciate any input on what to do with what's left in my pans, as the weather is still good and I hope to make another 10 gallons before the season's over.