Is there a buddy detector

[Brent]

I'm just about ready to cry. Yesterday we filtered and bottled another 5 gallons of syrup that ended up having a buddy flavor. So we've had our year's take reduced to 20 gallons of good stuff and 15 gallon of YUK.

Is they any simple way to tell if the sap is buddy before you go all the way to syrup??

I was watching the tree buds and they are only now beginning to look fat and swollen .... a whole 7 to 10 since we collected and boiled this witches brew. The sap was still running clear. We dumped all the buckets on the trees after the rain storm. What else can we do ???

[Sugarmaker]

Brent,
Sell it for bulk!

Chris

[maple flats]

Look for buds that have opened. I use a good pair of binoculars, a decent spotting scope on a tripod would work even better. I do have 2 trees that I use, they are on the edge of my sugarhouse woodlot, facing south and they warm first, thus they bud first. One of them has a branch that is only about 8' off the ground and on the south side, out into an open field, this is the one I go by. However, you can still sell buddy syrup bulk to Bascom, likely most others, there IS a market for it.

[gmcooper]

Brent,

The buddy sap will usually smell. Sometimes really bad sometimes just kind of "off".
I have never made buddy syrup that didn't stink when boiling it. I had a large tank of sap one year that was borderline to begin with and that am when I started boiling sap was ok. By noon it was really bad. Stunk the whole sugarhouse up. Syrup went from strong but ok maple flavor to absolutly horrid over less than 4 hours boiling.
Mark

[danno]

I once tried boiling a 1/2 gallon on the stove to check for buddiness - but it did not work - to my benefit.

I still don't really know what buddy syrup smells/tastes like. What came off the stove was very light and perfumee. I was going to stop boiling but others convinced me to keep boiling and sell as wholesale. I kept boiling and what came off the evap. was very dark but had good flavor - until the end. It did not taste great at the end but I still don't think it was buddy? Kind of a cardboard smell.

[royalmaple]

Definately a distinct smell, like old socks being boiled or bait shop.

And when you taste it cold, you pick it up more, but gives you a bite at the end of your taste. Kinda like an electric shock, ziiiiizzzt, ziiiiiizt.

And can make you twitch your head and squint an eye at the same time. Then you know you have made some quality product. I need to make up a custom grading kit, and put my own labels on it.

[Jim Powell]

Royal,

You are spot on, for what mine tasted like last year. Esp the "ziiiiizzzt" part!!

[ronr]

Had a big run here last Monday and Tuesday weather just right. I thought it was ok, didn't notice any buds on the trees and the sap tasted fine. BIG disappointment when I started boiling it. The steam smelled yuk, like royalmaple said, old socks or something. Put a bit of half boiled into a pan and finished it, man did it taste bad. Sure hated to dump all that sap!

[royalmaple]

Don't dump it, that is syrup my friend. All by the pound in bulk.

I call that Grade "B", that is my Bascom's grade.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

You have lots of buddies on the Trader! LOL!