Off flavor question

[boondocker]

Did a quick boil this afternoon and made 15 gallons of amber rich, actually it was almost golden but I graded it as amber. As I was pouring off into my press tank I cought a wiff of the steam and it seemed to have almost a nutty smell. I took a sample as I always do and tasted it. It is sweet and has a good maple flavor but has a nutty almost kind of fruity tast on the back side and a small amount of after test. I rinsed out my front pans on Wednesday and cleaned my float boxes but have not cleaned my flue pan. I looked things over tonight after everything cooled off, I do have a lot of brown sludgy foam it the back corners of the pan and of course the usual crap stuck to the flues. So I guess my question is where is this flavor coming from. Sap was less then 2 days old, crystal clear and my sugar has been running between 2.5% and 3.2%. It was run thru the R/O but only brought up to 8.5% due to a time restraint. The R/O is clean, I do a soap wash and rinse cycle after every use and is rinsed with a minimum of 300 gallons of permeate. I really need to get this figured out asap, I have bulk customers waiting for product and I sure dont want to disappoint anyone. Thanks in advance.......i am doing a complete acid wash on all the pans tomorrow. Josh

[Sugarmaker]

Sometimes Ma nature gives you sap that tastes funky. That, you have minimal control over. The rest can all be cleaned and start again. I really doubt its form your rig. My guess is its in the sap from the tree. Its getting late, Metabolism can be a issue.
Regards,
Chris

[RileySugarbush]

We have had some metabolism off flavor this year too. I had some of this 20 years ago, but this is the first time since then.

Look at the papers on the Proctor site for a good description and a potential way to improve the syrup. Labor intensive but early experiments here show some improvement to the syrup.

[boondocker]

Sometimes Ma nature gives you sap that tastes funky. That, you have minimal control over. The rest can all be cleaned and start again. I really doubt its form your rig. My guess is its in the sap from the tree. Its getting late, Metabolism can be a issue.
Regards,
Chris

We still have a foot of snow on the ground here and the ground is still froze so it's not late here in Maine. We are basicly just getting rolling here. I think I found my issue today and going to run a test on Monday and I'll get back to you guys with what I find out. Pretty sure it is a setup I have next to a farm and I think it has to do with the runoff from what he feeds his pigs.....all potatoes. I belive the ground is saturated with starch. The sap is very cloudy and all my other tanks are crystal clear. It's a long shot but I will not collect that tank tomorrow and see what happens. This is the last year I am going to use those trees, it is a dangerous spot to collect due to speeding traffic on a blind hill and the trees are not looking real good not to mention the major squirrel problems there due to all the feed in the area. That system will be taken down this year. My new bush I acquired last fall has the potential of 2000 taps and I am only 225 in there so I will go with area and just keep adding every year.

[Sugarmaker]

Very interesting. I have thought about similar issues on some trees where a farmer does his thing with a spreader. Wonder if that could affect flavor of sap and syrup?? He was not there this year. I have also questioned about moving to other trees. So the question I guess is, do trees pick up flavors from ground water??
Regards,
Chris