Dark Syrup; Time in the evaporator

[Wanalansett Farm]

Hello Folks,

I am an armature back yard sugar maker.

I have a syrup cooking question. I have a small 2 X 2 divided evaporator, on a home made arch. I estimate I can boil 3 gallons per hour (on a good day), which I believe is pretty slow.

My syrup is always good, but always dark amber. My question... Is there correlation to the time in the pan, to how dark the syrup comes out? In other words if good fresh sap is boiled down quickly does it come out a Golden, as opposed to the same sap taking many many hours to boil down, does it come our darker (amber)?

thanks,

Steve

Wannalansett Farms
50 taps , buckets
2 x 2 evaporator

[billyinvt]

That is mostly correct. More time cooking tends to yield darker finished product. Syrup grade also fluctuates with the season. Sometimes quite mysteriously.

[Sugarmaker]

Wanalansett farm,
Yes the process and the sap can help make lighter syrup. Lots of folks know the details better than I. But here is a example. This year we had really nice clear cold sap, Sometimes frozen sap, we try to boil same day gathered, and are boiling at a medium rate of a little over 2 gallons of sap per minute. The results fro our little sugarbush.

https://i.imgur.com/ntlafEo.jpg

98 gallons of Golden Delicate syrup. Now the home of FIRE & ICE syrup. Your syrup color will vary with time on the heat. I spoke with a good sugarmaker in Middlefield Ohio. He had made just over 1000 gallons of GD. Some reading 94 on the Hanna Checker!

Some folks want to make darker syrup too. So its ok to have more carmelization. One of the hardest things for me is to match the color to the flavor. Mainly because I like it all.

Years ago the goal of a sugarmaker was to make the lightest grade possible. Today not so much.
Keep Boiling!
Regards,
Chris

[berkshires]

Steve, do you batch boil? That means you keep adding sap to your pan to replace the sap that was boiled off, until it all reaches syrup. This method will give you darker syrup than running sap through channels and drawing off a stream at the end.

To explain why, remember that the longer the sap is on the pan, the darker it will get. Let's say you start off with two gallons of sap in your pan. 45 minutes into boiling, that sap has been fully processed into syrup. But... There is no way to get it out of the pan because it is mixed in with all the fresh sap you have added to keep the level in the pan high enough. So instead you keep boiling it, and it keeps getting darker.

If you run your sap through channels, you can draw it off one end while adding fresh sap to the other end. So it spends much less time boiling.

Does that make sense?

Gabe

[Wanalansett Farm]

Hi,

It makes sense to me. Although the 2X2 pan has channels, due to the low boil rate it runs more like a batch pan. I cant maintain a draw off flow (trickle) without loosing the boil. On occasion I have been able to draw off near syrup, while feeding in sap. However, I the level in the pan is about 1/4 of inch and I am very close to scorching. I need to get the fire hotter and speed up the boil rate. Then I should be able to maintain about 1 inch sap level and draw off syrup.

Thank you all for your input.

Steve

[Smokeshow]

Steve I used to run a 2’x2’ with the same evap rates and only ever made dark. It was delicious!

I now run a 2’x4’ and always make amber. It’s still delicious!