Question about sediment and flavor of syrup

[HAHA I 1]

We finished our first batch of syrup (first ever!!) yesterday. After canning 11 pints and letting them seal and sit over night, we noticed that there is a sediment of some kind in the bottom of the jars. Here is a little breakdown of our process:

1) boil sap on an outdoor fire box made from an old file cabinet until it is about 20:1 reduction
2) bring indoors and filter through coffee filters
3) boil to 219 F while stirring
4) can into jars while hot

Could it be some actual sugar? Is it normal? Pardon my noobie-ness on this.

Also, the flavor is not as strong as I had anticipated. My wife says it is fine, but some of the other real maple syrup I have bought in the past tastes more maple-y. Is it just variation in the sap? I am collecting from 10 sugar maples and 2 red maples. Even with all these "concerns," it was great on pancakes last night!

I appreciate the input!

Matt M.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Its sugar sand, because you brought it back up over 190 degrees after filtering it (because you had to to make syrup), filtering again before you Can should take care of the sugar sand. I had this same problem when i first started, its a quick fix for next batches. If you're not going to sell it don't worry too much. If you are just tell them its part of the natural process, its completely harmless

[HAHA I 1]

Cool. I appreciate the feedback. Any thoughts on the taste? Could it be just an early-in-the-season thing?

[Mac_Muz]

I am new here too, but I use simple methods not making much myself. It is for fun on my end, and I have never sold a thimble full.

Right now I am working out all the details and hope to spend less than 25 dollars for everything I need. All my old home made tools for doing this have been scattered to the 4 winds so to speak.

SO, what I do to finish off is bring near syrup from the barrel stove evaporator into the house in a lobster pot.

I don't know if filtering as i drain the pan helps, but it gets twiggs and other things that seem to fall into my open pan, possible star dust for all I know because my rigs are mobile on skis. But it gets filtered coming from the pan anyway.

In the house I boil off the near gallon as I have counted 5 gallon buckets added to the barrel stove, and boil it adding untill apx 40 gallons of sap have been reduced to just over 1 gallon.

In the house when I test, i use a spoon, and look at the spoon for what is termed an "apron", which is a stickey gob that forms a drip on the spoon, but won't really drip in this life time. You can see it is a thicker syrup, perhaps past syrup if you are a pro.

With yet another lobster pan I filter again what is syrup at this point, and heat that to apx 185 for canning.

I still get "sand" but just a trace.

I think it is a good idea to get the sand out, as to me it has a chalk like taste.

I believe in general early sap produces lighter colored syrup, and as the season runs you get darker grades. When I buy syrup, or a maker better than me offers me any i always choose choose dark ambers and in grade b, which to my tastes is the best and seems to have the strongest maple flavor.

Even with what little I make in clear glass jars i can see some difference.

The most I have ever made is a piddly 11 gallons and I thought that was going to kill me.

[maple flats]

What was the grade? If it was light the flavor will be more delicate, if it was dark the flavor will be more robust.

[HHM-07]

HAHA11
How much sap did you start with?? i doubt 12 trees would give you enough sap for 11 pints unless you had several pick ups. it may not be syrup that you are canning. you may want to pick up a hydrometer, Good luck

Dick

[maplehound]

yea i would get a hydrometer and test with that. Also get yourself a better filter than just a coffee filter. But hey if you are just making for yourself, just let it be a bit cloudy and it will settle over time.

[Brent]

we used coffee filters our first year and it didn't seem to matter how many times we filtered, a few weeks later we had lots of sediment on the bottom. You can use it without a problem if you pour off carefully at the pancake table.

[brookledge]

coffee filters will always let sediment through. It's not going to kill you though. But if you are looking to filter better a felt cone or flat felt aren't that much money and then you can rig up a way of holding the filters.
As for drawing off without knowing if it is syrup yet, If it is under boiled it can ferment and get moldy. if it is over boiled it will crystalize
Keith

[mfchef54]

being sort of new also I think you may have under boiled. the thing About syrup is that it is 7 degree f over boiling. so if water boils at 212 degrees f your fine. I have boiled three times this year so far and boiling water has been between 214 and 215 f. at first I thought it was my thermometer but my backup confirmed the temp. so trying to find out what boiling is may help. I would also recommend buying some maple filters and a hydrometer and cup.
good luck

[SeanD]

Another easy option is to let the sediment settle out in a container for about a week or so after it has been finished. Small amounts can go in 3L wine jugs (emptied and cleaned of course) and for large amounts you can use a 5 gal. glass carboy that home brewers use. For that matter a food grade plastic bucket would work.

Once all the junk has settled down to the bottom, carefully siphon off the clear syrup, bring it back up to 180 and can it. The home brew shops also have these great siphoning canes and clips that raise the sucking end up off of the bottom so you don't have to sit there and hold it up off of the sediment.

[HAHA I 1]

I had many draws off the trees. I ended up with about 75 gallons of sap to boil down to the 11 pints. It is an amber color, but I do not have a grading method yet.

Can any of you recommend some suppliers for things like spiles, filters, grading scales, etc? I am having a little difficulty finding a good place to go. Thanks again for all the guidance, as I hope to elevate from newbie to amature soon.

Matt M.

[Russell Lampron]

HAHA,

Contact The Maple Guys for supplies. They are the ones who sponsor this site and get anything you want from spiles and filters to evaporators and RO machines.

Russ

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Sounds like you are right as far as how much syrup you should have. If anything, the syrup is likely on the heavy side if you only got 11 pints out of 75 gallon of sap.

[royalmaple]

You'll have better luck with the apron if you use a metal spatula. Spoons will be pretty hard since they all funnel the syrup to a point at the tip of a spoon.

Try a metal spatula and you might find you are taking it too far. Or pick up a hydrometer from maple guys and a hydrometer cup.

[twigbender]

I agree with the post on letting your syrup settle for a while instead of using the coffee filters. This process is called decanting. We use a felt filter with prefilters after drawing off and again before bottling. However, we have decanted before we bought our filter and it worked very, very well. Ihave a stainless steel milker bucket that works quite nicely. No sugar sand in the bottom of the bottles at all, as long as you are careful when you draw off the clean syrup.

And yes, I would buy a hydrometer and cup (you can make a cup quite easily yourself) to test the syrup with. Saves a lot of headache and just plain guessing! Good luck! It sounds like one more poor soul is about to get bit with the bug -- enjoy!!

[Salmoneye]

Back in the day, we drew off the entire season into barrels and never filtered...A month of cool settling and then siphon off, reheat and can (in real metal cans)...

Today I have a stainless DeLaval milk can with a felt cone...I run 3 pellon pre-filters and draw off...As one gets sanded up, I will pull it and keep on drawing...I can do 2-3 gallons like this before I have to change felts...

I dump the can directly into the canner and package from there in plastic and glass and have not had any problems with nitre since I started this method...

[Justin Turco]

"I would also recommend buying some maple filters and a hydrometer and cup."

He's right. These are the things you need. Not too expensive and will make your job so much easier. Get a "cone filter" and some cone "prefilters".