Syrup Density

[Al]

When I pull off my finished syrup I check it with my hydrometer. If I get it on the red line at hot test is it the correct density? If it turns to syrup at 219 will it still be close enough? What about if your boiling point is 210?
Trying to get this down and couldn't readily find anything on the net.
Thanks

[syrupmaker]

Al....The hydrometer is usually an accurate tool. If it's red lined, it's syrup.
The hydrometer does not care about boiling points, air pressures, etc. The hydrometer measures % of sugar in the syrup and at 69.? it's syrup.

Rick

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[Al]

Yep, you have it down to a science. I pull at 6-7 off my evaporator and then put in my turkey finisher /filter rig and check with my hydro at that point. Finish there and put it into my coffee pot filterer/bottler to reheat if needed and bottle. :D Not your standard system but works well for this dabbler of the arts.
Off note: Went to my Mom's yesterday to replot some pants for her and she ambushed me with a gallon of Dad's syrup(unknown to him) to make candy and sugar. :D She's pretty sly about that!! :D Boy did we have fun! :D She's never used a thermometer to make maple candy. Just a cup of water. Stirred that maple sugar for about an hour. It came out perfect and ready to be put in the blender. It's days like that make you appreciate life! :D Oh yea, my Dad didn't complain to much about using his syrup after his 3rd piece of maple candy. 8O :D

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[WF MASON]

With marketing like it has become, an example would be making us believe we 'like' chicken wings , when we used to kill the chickens ourselfs , after the head was off the wings were next !! Or paying a buck for that pretty pint of spring water, oh, by the way , that spring is 600' down. Getting back to marketing , couldn't a sugar maker take the syrup 2 or 3 brix over , call it 'EXTRA-THICK', and tac on $2or 3 bucks ??Remember, we 'like ' chicken wings now.

[Al]

My family was picking on me so much about sugaring that I went out and had a business card made up. :D It has my sugarhouse on it. On one side it says "Small traditional sugar house" and on the other side it says"Big Maple taste." The traditional gets the tourist attention and the big maple taste gets the rest. Of course never had a tourist stop in unless you count the family from New York. I'll never claim to make a fancy on my rig but I can claim to make a great tasting syrup. :D All ready have orders for syrup for next year. :D Of course the cards are just a joke and I hardly ever use them except to give someone my phone number. An I am small and have reached my limit at 115 taps. :D Still need some more shiney equipment thou. :lol:

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Bill,

They say if you go more than 1 degrees brix over the stanard syrup density, it will crystalize in the containers if it sets for a little while. I have made thick syrup in the past and have always found this is the case.
:D

[WF MASON]

I did know that , I've done myself, just a thought..

[RUSTYBUCKET]

Whenever we finish off our syrup and start to bottle, its guaranteed that we always have a small amount left over. We pour this into a jar and add successive leftovers to it as the season progresses. Whats interesting is that after this jar sits for a while, it starts to crystalize. I've gone back and checked the other bottles but they are fine. Any ideas why this happens??

Thinking along the lines of WF's comment about marketing, I like the look of the crystals in the jars. Maybe the jars with crystals could be marketed like the worm in the bottle.... :)


Russ

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jeremy,

Excellent point. I don't normally drain my finisher either and just leave a few ounces in there. It will crystalize fast since it continues to gradully evaporate even with a lid on, but it doesn't hurt anything at all since it will turn back to syrup the next boil. :D

[WF MASON]

Nice hood Brandon, a monster, all one pc over both pans, I see the frame is aluminum is the hood aluminum or stainless.? The armish do good work and live their lives by gods rules, thats not a bad thing in this day and age.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Bill,

The frame is a very heavy gauge aluminum and everything else is 304 stainless. The entire hood without the stack weighs probably around 60 lbs and the drip pan is about 10 lbs as it is made out of 18 ga stainless. It is not very shiny as it is covered with a heavy film of dust from driving on some of the dirt roads where he lives. Stainless always has an oily film on it and the dust stuck to it bad and I didn't have time to wash it before taking pics. :lol:

I like the Amish a lot as my dealer is Amish. They are very honest and I think they charge too low prices sometimes and I always tell them to charge me plenty because I don't want to short them.

If anyone else is interested in a hood system, I can give you info to contact him. Jim(mapleman3) might be coming down next year to get one for his evaporator so he could possible pick up another 1 or 2 for a transport fee. The amish that made mine is in PA and he is only around 20 years old. Seems really smart and does TREMENDOUS WORK. :D Probably would be around $ 350 for a 2x6 hood system like mine and aprox $ 75 for stack. :D

[RUSTYBUCKET]

The way we run our evaporator is to start drawing off the front pan at 6 degrees above BP of water. We draw off into a stainless milk jug and cap it till we finish the entire batch. The contents of the jug go into a 20QT stock pot and its finished off on a propane burner using a hydrometer.

Since we only make about 3-5 gallons of syrup per boil, the syrup doesn't sit around exposed to the air for any great length of time. Once it red lines on the hydrometer, we give it one last filtering and then can it.

Each round of finishing starts with all cleaned pots and filters. Even after doing this for a number of years, its still a learning process.


Russ

[mapleman3]

and always will be :wink: