Dark syrup from clear sap?

[jray]

A fellow sugar maker down the road from me is baffled by the fact that despite catching sap in clean buckets and cooking it promptly in a clean evaporator, the rendered syrup is quite dark. He says it tastes fine, though, not bitter or strong. These folks have been making maple for 30 plus years and have never this happen before. We're in the first of the run here in So. Indiana and what I've made so far has been light amber. Getting the same report from others as well. Any ideas as to what's causing my friend's dilemma?

Thanks,

Jray

[DrTimPerkins]

What's the sugar content?

[Galena]

FWIW...often my first batch or two is nice and light, but sometimes I get an Amber batch instead. Eventually a Light batch will turn up, last year it happened with batch #4 being the expected Light colour and #1-3 being Amber. Like Dr Tim has suggested, sugar content is probably a factor.

[jray]

My first batch of sap tested 2.2 and the second at 2.0. I would assume his would be about the same

[GeneralStark]

Any ideas as to what's causing my friend's dilemma?

Thanks,

Jray

Hard saying not knowing... Lots of factors that impact syrup color... sugar content, sap collection, storage and processing techniques, etc...

If you can give us some sense of how they process their sap to syrup and if anything has changed in their process from past years then perhaps we can provide some thoughts on what caused this unusual dark syrup.