When is it too much

[Brent]

As I posted under evaporators above, yesterday I traveled to a small maple suppliers shop in the middle of no-where in central Ontario. The fellows name is Dick O'brien. He is the past president of the Ontario Maple Producers Assoc.

During the conversation one of the 2,200 things we talked about was using an RO. He told me the story of a fellow that had a streak of winning something like 8 of 10 years top prize at the Royal Canadian Winter Fair for the best syrup in Ontario. Dick's wife was one the judges. He kept up the streak until ...
he put in an RO, where upon he fell right off the leader board.

Dick's position, like I had suspected, that some considerable part of the flavor or good syrup comes from the input of a bit of carmelization. In his own shop he only runs the RO to about 4%. Says it makes better tasting stuff than at 8%.

But he does love using 1/2 the oil.

Food for thought and comments.

[hookhill]

Glen Goodrich in Cabot, Vt makes 10,000+ gallons a year using a ro and steamaway. He is always winning ribbons. He does use a bubbler and maybe that helps with the flavor.

[Dave Y]

But, he also say you can cocentrate to much anything past 11or 12 percent will make a noticable differnce in flavor. according to Goodrich

[ennismaple]

We haven't noticed a difference since we got our RO. Our flavour always gets top marks in competitions - both before and after. We only concentrate to about 8%. Maybe the guy he's talking about has concentrated too much?

[Maplepro]

Here’s my experience with an R/O they are wonderful things if used right this is my own personal experience my uncle had an R/O took his sap to 8-12% the syrup was S**t my grandfather talked him into only taking it down 4%-5% his syrup is much better tasting. Remember the maple flavor comes from the boiling the less boiling yes the lighter the syrup but also the less taste you get. I would recommend a bigger evaporator before buying an R/O but that’s just my thoughts and yes I used to have an R/O and I will probably have one in the next couple of years because my new 6X16 won’t handle the 15-20k taps we will have in the coming years.

[802maple]

Here I go again,as alot of you know I have concentrated to 24 percent. The question is does it effect the flavor. Well it sure does, if I were making syrup to sell retail I wouldn't go to that much concentration especially in the lighter syrups. My experience being someone that would throw GRADE "B" out to the hogs, it makes that a flavor that I can stand as it makes the flavor lighter. What is the magic number, I can't answer that. I know I have made some excellent flavored syrups from 14 percent. The lighter syrups just ends up sweet with little maple flavor, the packers love it, and as long as it all goes to the packers and syrup can be made for less than a quart of oil per gallon I can't see any big changes here. If you want to sell retail though don't follow my lead.

[Brent]

802

If the thoughts this guy I met yesterday and my thoughts are correct and that is that the syrup would traditionally need a certain amount of time in the pan to take up some carmelized flavour, and you really want the high speed processing for your commercial stuff, I wonder if you could cook the S*^T out of some small batches and get concentrated carmel flavour and cut that into your larger volumes and end up with a blend that would get a better price because it had better flavour.

[Russell Lampron]

I have been using my RO for 3 seasons and have always made great tasting syrup. When I first started using it I was fussy about keeping the output at 8%. Now I just adjust the concentrate flow rate to .5 gallons per minute and take what I get. Sometimes it is as high as 12% and my syrup still taste great.

Someone that is having problems at 8% is probably doing something else wrong and blaming it on the RO.

Russ

[802maple]

Brent, Even though the syrup that we have made was not to the standards that I like maple for retail, the packers have always liked it. If it is fancy in color and is not a off flavor they pay the same for it as if it were prize winning syrup. I think that if you were to cook the s^*t out of some you would then start picking up other flavors such as burnt sugars in suspension. I couldn't agree with Russ more, if they are having a flavor problem with 8% sap they had better take a look at their whole operation. The syrup under high concentration doesn't have a off flavor just a little light in flavor. As I said before I have made 12-14 % sap into syrup that I would be proud to put into any contest.

[hard maple]

Does anyone know if wood or oil fired evaporators play a role in flavor??
If so ,how much?

[802maple]

I don't think so as I have won best of show with both.

[maplwrks]

I concentrate to 17 -22%---I notice more of a flavor issue with my light syrup. The bulk of my syrup I make is Med A or Dark A and I don't see any flavor issue with these at all. I have won Best Of Show at Addison Co. Fair with 22% sap/syrup in the past. Like Beanie said, the packers like the high concentrate syrup! With fuel oil prices at the level that they are at now, I think more producers will be pushing the concentrate level higher. Just my thoughts. Mike

[Brent]

Thanks for all the comments. The consensus seems to be that it really makes little difference. This is somewhat a relief because I have put some money on the table and ordered the components for my experimental small producer RO.