Low sugar cause for no syrup ??

[tgormley358]

Just sharing a curiosity from one of my last boils off the season here in central MA. The pans in my 2x5 raised flue evaporator were sweetened from two nights before. I Collected around 55 gallons of sap and boiled straight without concentrating in my RO. An hour in I got to almost syrup temp 216 and took a reason in my Murphy cup, and was just slightly light by 1 brix. So I kept boiling with another 30 gallons or so left, but I never got to 66.9 brix. The syrup temp dropped to 215 and then 214 and stayed there to the end, despite a very rapid, bubbling boil the whole time. I have two theories and would love to hear your thoughts;

1. very low sugar content at end of this season, like almost water
2. My syrup pan is covered in niter and needs a cleaning though I did a full clean 2 boils ago

I have no reason to believe the thermometer is off, as it’s been fine all season. But I suppose that could be another reason.

[ecolbeck]

I had a very similar experience the other day. Boiled 50 gallons in a sweetened pan and made no syrup. I suspect weak sap. Niter would not have any effect on syrup production. Thermometer is only used as a rough measure of when syrup is ready and should be calibrated daily by immersing in boiling water or against a hydrometer.

[Sugarmaker]

My guess is you did not have enough sap to get back up to syrup. 55 gallons is just about right to make a gallon of syrup.
Keep boiling!
Regards,
Chris

[tgormley358]

I no longer think it was it enough sap. Other posts here in the past I think indicated that a layer of biter in the bottom of the pan can get in the way of heat transfer to the syrup. This sounds like a match with what happened, with the syrup temp declining from 216 to 214 over an hour period of very high heat and fast boiling. I drained and cleaned the syrup pan and found a baked on layer of niter. I may be letting the syrup level get too shallow in the pan, althiugh not less than 1” and I thought that would be plenty.