Champlain Valley Fair -- Oops!

[Andy VT]

I entered some syrup at the fair this year (my third year of maple syrup making, 2 taps, then 9 taps, then 30)
I was pretty sure I had correct density, no off flavor, and no mold, so I thought I'd at least have "acceptable" syrup.
So I was surprised to find I was rejected, though I didn't know why yet (still waiting for the letter), but I did figure it out.
Rather embarrassing.
Somehow I thought the target was between 66.0 and 66.9 brix. At this point I am not sure exactly what convinced me of this.
Apparently 66.0 is the legal minimum everywhere except Vermont and New Hampshire?
But in Vermont 66.9 is the minimum, and everywhere the maximum is 68.9?
Man, that's a bummer, but it will not happen again!
At the least the target is larger than I thought... will feel like hitting a barn now!

Am I clear and correct on the correct density range now? Is everyone else clear?

[Pdiamond]

I finish mine to 66.9 every year. That is using my Murphy Cup and hydrometer that goes with it.

[Andy VT]

How did you decide 66.9 is what you want, versus 67.5 or 68.0 or 68.9 etc?

[Pdiamond]

That is the marked amount on the Murphy cup for the perfect density for the syrup you are testing. If your syrup is not up to that density you keep boiling until it reaches that point. If you go over that density point you can reduce the density with hot sap or distilled water. Look up the Murphy cup on the Smoky Lake maple website.

[Andy VT]

It does appear that Smoky Lake is calling 66.9 brix the "finish line", so I see where you're getting that. Now that I know that 66.9 is the legal minimum in Vermont , I won't dare stop at 66.9 anymore, just in case a judge (or worse, a customer) measures it at 66.8 and rejects it. Somewhere between 67 and 68 will be my stopping point from here out. Jury is out whether I'll pick an exact number and always go to the nearest tenth place. Actually pretty sure no. The family is being tolerant of my maple addiction but that level of fussing might put them over the edge!
(I previously thought 66.9 was the max. Still not sure where I was getting that but I can definitely see why I was confused... the sources seem to be all confused)

[Kh7722]

66.7 is ideal. If selling by the pound higher brix is ok. Selling gallons, aim for lower you will be losing money anything above 67.0.

[30AcreWoods]

I'm in NH. Since we started back in 2016, we have always hit VT density...and we won blue ribbons this year in NH, so for me that proves the logic, and allows me to sell in VT.

[Kh7722]

Give it time. The world will know that vermont is not the standard for all things maple. Other states will be the leader and set the standard soon enough

[BAP]

66.7 is ideal. If selling by the pound higher brix is ok. Selling gallons, aim for lower you will be losing money anything above 67.0.
So you want to make a watery product and cheat your customers to make more money? The reason standards are in place is to prevent that and make sure all producers sell uniform products.

[Andy VT]

I may finally have the answer to my friend now in Pennsylvania as to why the syrup isn't the same. She is originally from New York, but maybe the syrup she used to get there was at VT/NH density? Hard to say, just a theory, but a plausible/possible one. At least if anyone asks me if Vermont maple syrup is better, I can look them square in the eye and with full confidence say "yes"! (I might not mention that NH has the same standard). :-P

I am totally game for meeting the Vermont standard from here out, now that I know about it. I do think it will be better syrup. I'm not trying to make money. Syrup is not what I'd be doing if that were my goal! (though if I can figure out how to at least be in the black, that would be cool. Nothing on the horizon yet though!)

[Kh7722]

Haha!
Think what you want buddy. Grand champion winner here of the most difficult contest in the nation and currently run the competition. Your assumption of others is childish and ignorant. To be proper legal maple syrup needs to be 66.0 or higher with ideal like I said is 66.7-67.0.



So you want to make a watery product and cheat your customers to make more money? The reason standards are in place is to prevent that and make sure all producers sell uniform products.

[BAP]

Haha!
Think what you want buddy. Grand champion winner here of the most difficult contest in the nation and currently run the competition. Your assumption of others is childish and ignorant. To be proper legal maple syrup needs to be 66.0 or higher with ideal like I said is 66.7-67.0.
Well, you may call me childish but your response in calling me childish says a lot about your integrity or lack there of when someone points out something about not cheating on quality. Obviously you are easily offended like many of the younger generation. Too bad for you. After making syrup for 50 years, I know how to make good syrup, what good syrup tastes like and what consumers like. If your market likes something different and you make what they like then great for you. Just don’t try to force that upon producers in other regions where they are making great products following standards set by the state that they are producing in. Obviously you don’t know much about how the maple world works around the country. Every state and Canada have their own set of regulations that producers must abide by in order to sell products to consumers.

[Andy VT]

Well, I submitted my syrup at the Champlain Valley Fair again today! I made sure to meet the Vermont standard (66.9 minimum) this time! I opened two of my pint jars of "rich" of the same batch and decanted them into one pint jar, and same with my favorite dark batch of the year. I tested the density of the rich with a hydrometer but was running out of time so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for the dark! I mean, it should be good, I checked it when I made it. We'll see! I'll post my results even if they're bad.

Sure is easier now that I know hot-packing is not required for the contest.

I didn't have any light from 2024, though I only ran out of it a few weeks from a light batch from 2023. I only have one neighbor who wants light. I'll have to make sure to start 2025 with a very small batch to make sure it comes out light so I have something for her and perhaps for next year's fair.

If anyone in the area wants to submit you can still do so tomorrow morning.

[maple flats]

I'm in NY and since I believe I'm vcompeting with Vermont's reputation, I've always used 66.9 and I do it using a Murphy cup and Smoky Lakes gold hydrometer. That hydrometer has a red line on both the scale inside the stem and another on the glass. As long as those both line up you know it's accurate.
However, if you get any hydrometer tested and it's accurate you can simply record the distance of the red line down in the stem from the very top and recheck that measurement at least once a year plus anytime the hydrometer might get dropped into the test cup. That's generally how a hydrometer gets off, the hydrometer hits the bottom in the hydrometer cup and the paper scale can move ever so slightly, then it happenes a few more times and the paper scale could have moved 1/8th of an inch or more, and it can't even come close to telling you the density of the syrup.

[Andy VT]

Wonder if you can knock the paper back the other way! (probably not, and probably not worth trying!)
But my problem last year was more embarrassing than an out-of-calibration hydrometer. I mistakenly thought 66.0 was the minimum and 66.9 was the maximum (I think because I keep hearing about people always going for 66.9 and thinking that must mean 67.0 is out of spec). Nailed it, was at 66.7 last year, which of course was DQ'd... straight to the bottom shelf with all the moldy entrants. Now I know its 66.9 to 68.9 and I feel like I could drive a truck through that, though in fact I might be flirting with the high end now. Didn't have any crystals though, so hopefully not. I think I measured roughly 68 yesterday by quick measure on the one batch (wow you have to give it some time to stop sinking when it's cold!), and didn't measure the other one.

Hoping for useful flavor feedback more than I'm hoping to win! Well, sort of. Winning would be cool.

[Andy VT]

Well, shoot, I was thin again!
A lot of improvements in an already great contest though... Now you get full flavor and other feedback even if you missed density. Great people from Proctor and from the sugarmakers association which I keep meaning to join and will at first chance.

Here's what I got:
My "amber rich" was good for color and clarity and flavor, but missed on density at 66.3 brix. Jeez. I think it must be my hydrometer but I'll be doing a study on that for sure. I measured 68 brix on my way to submit, and it was at room temperature from the basement. I didn't measure the temp, but it seemed no matter the temp (I think 60F min, 75 max) 68 should be somewhere in the spec, but nope!

My "Dark" submission was also good for color and clarity, but was 66.4 brix, still too thin. But it missed on flavor as well, as I thought it might, and it was for "sour sap" which is super helpful as I wasn't sure if it was that or buddy or metabolism or burnt or something else. It still tastes pretty good; must be somewhat mild I would think. I've even brought it to neighbors to say "I actually don't like it, what do you think?" and they've all loved it. But I don't want off flavors. It also says "metallic... very slight". No clue where this would be coming from, but since it was slight I think I'll focus more on the sour sap.

For sour sap, I'm thinking through the potential causes. I use cake frosting buckets from the supermarket as sap buckets at the trees, and at 2/3 season many do start to show a little bit of pink bacteria in the bottom. Maybe this type of bucket is prone to this and maybe one just must clean them out at least once per season or not use them. Another factor is that I sometimes went 3 days without collecting/boiling (but never longer), and although I'm a batch boiler I left sap in the pan for up to 3 days, outdoors, covered. On sunny days this worried me a bit. Also, although I'm a batch boiler I'm sort of continuous flow as well, in that my 2x3 pan is where I boil first, and I continuously add to it and continuously drain it into a hotel pan for further boiling. I never actually drained the 2x3. Maybe I need to be a more pure "batcher" as long as I have an undivided sap pan. And then it is also true that I kept the "nearup" in the fridge for a while sometimes before finishing it on the kitchen stove, although I'm pretty sure the off flavor was present before that fridge storage.

I am interested in any thoughts!

Back to the hydrometer... it seems like if the paper slid down, I'd end up with thicker syrup; am I thinking about that right? It may be that I'm just rushing it too much and not truly getting an accurate temperature measurement. I'm using a Murphy Cup but maybe I've still got to let it stabilize a bit more.... and of course I've got to make sure the cup is calibrated too. Also my non-Murphy cup is really tiny and maybe some kind of capillary action was keepign the hydrometer from sinking as much. Or, at room temp, it was viscous enough that I needed to give it 5 more minutes to fully sink.

[maple flats]

No, if the paper slides down it reads higher than it really is. The higher density numbers are lower on the hydrometer stem thus if the paper slides you show higher than it really is.
Two ways around that. Get a Smoky Lake gold hydrometer with a red line on the paper and the glass and they must line up, or get your hydrometer or a new one tested and then record the exact distance of the red line below the top of the hydrometer stem, then record it where you can refer back to the reading. Then if the hydrometer drops too hard into the test cup you will see that the red line moved. I haven't heard of anyone getting the red line to move back to where it should be, but it might be worth a try once you know where it should be.

[Pdiamond]

I always make sure to warm up my murphy cup with syrup before taking an actual reading.

[maple flats]

I also warm the Murphy cup, I fill it with hot syrup, then dump it back in with the rest, and repeat at least once more, most times 2x more, on the 3rd or 4th filling I gently lower the hydrometer in the cup then compare the readings, what Murphy says and what the hydrometer reads. I adjust as needed until they both agree or the density is .1 or .2 thicker. If more than that I add distilled water which I always keep on hand. I far prefer that to adding sap, however I do sometimes add permeate.
As a rule I boil to slightly over density, then bring it back down using distilled water, that takes far less time than getting it thicker.
I have a lid on my bottler, and on very rare occasion I test the sdensity and it's slightly thin, like .1 or maybe .2. In that case I dump condensate off from the underside of the lid. Once or twice doing that brings the density up quite well, but again, I far prefer needing to bring the density down a little. Yes, 68.3 is acceptable, but my thinning adds distilled water at $1.29 a gal currently makes that volume of water into syrup at far more per gallon. While I don't even sell gallons, I do sell lots of half gallons and all sizes from there on down to half pints. I don't do smaller except for wedding favors when ordered. As a matter of fact my youngest daughter filled 50ML maple leaf bottles as her wedding favors back about 16 yrs ago. She insisted she fill them herself, which she did.

[ennismaple]

I've helped "manage" the judging for a local competition for the past two years with a different, experienced judge each year. What I've learned is thicker syrup scores better. The standardized IMSI judging has 30 marks for density - with full marks between 66.5 Brix and 67.5 Brix. You only lose 5 marks from 67.5 to 68 Brix. Best flavour in the class gets 40 marks with every spot below 5 points less (35 for 2nd, 30 for 3rd and so on...) so flavour is often the deciding factor when it comes to who wins and who misses the podium. Thicker syrups are almost always judged higher for flavour. My goal is to aim for 67.3 when entering a contest and be right in the middle of the colour class. To decide between 2 entries I'll pick the one that may be off a little on density but has superior flavour.