Bottles

[Amber Gold]

I’m going to be heading up to Bascom’s next month to pick up misc. items I need for maple season. This will be my first year producing syrup for retail and am planning on 300 taps next season, so about 100+/- gallons of syrup. I live on a major road with plenty of traffic and have family, friends, coworkers that’d be interested in it. For my first year about how much should I figure I can retail and the remainder bulk? What size containers (pints, qts, half gals, gals) should I get and how many? I was also going to get the 5 gal bulk containers. How many of those should I get? How many of those should I use to bulk syrup for canning later in the year as my bottles run out and how much should I sell as bulk to Bascom’s/Maple Grove/etc.? Is it worthwhile bottling in glass if I don’t have a filter press? I don’t have a filtering mechanism yet and not sure what I’ll find/end up with before next season.

Thanks

[MaplePancakeMan]

I would shy away from glass unless you get the filtering down, its really disheartening to see a layer of sand in the bottom.

The benefit of bottles is they don't go bad! so get as many as you can afford. I prefer pints and thats all i bottle in, but quarts are good too. The larger sizes just didn't seem to move quite so much.(thats all dependent on area)

Syrup looks amazing in glass, and really draws attention to its quality. You could always pick up a case and try it out. If it works well then by all means do it.


Since i only bottle in pints i bottled up 150 of them (tried to do equally between light med and dark) and then packed the rest up for retail later. I didn't end up having enough for bulk with 200 taps

[hurryhill]

Hi Josh,

A couple of suggestions for you in the 'if-the-shoe-fits" dept.

You NEED TO FILTER YOUR SYRUP. Get 2 new felt filters, a dozen "paper" filters, rinse them 3x in gentle cycle of washing machine (run one cycle of cold water through machine to rid it of residue soap), air dry and then find a container (ss from a used cooking supply place?) to filter into. Use 4 papers in felt and remove as they sand up and get dirty. Filter syrup at proper brix and hot and filters and papers should be damp. Wash papers and felts in very hot water - never use soap. They will last forever if you take care of them. I do not have a filter press and use only felts and papers and make decent syrup, clear and of good quality.

FYI Syrup will "filter" itself in a large container if left long enough. Old timers did it this way, but you sacrifice the bottom inch or so of syrup.

Store your syrup in the 5 gal plastic containers in a freezer. Chest freezers can be purchased used for cheap and syrup stores very well in them and they stack. IF you wash them with very hot water only and air dry them, they will last forever. This way, you can pack later, and NOT SELL wholesale.

Everyone likes quarts generally and pints and 1/2 pints are nice for gifts. Have a few gallons and 1/2 gallons on hand and as people buy from you over the years, convince them to buy them and take out what they need and then put the remainder in the freezer for later.

Join a local syrup association, go visit sugarhouses, and purchase a copy of the Maple Syrup Producer's manual and read it - it is a great and ONLY reference you'll need to begin.

After you get the syrup making process down consider value-added products as they'll pay for your new hobby!! Good luck.

Jan Woods
Edinboro PA

[Amber Gold]

Thank you both for all the advice. I have purchased the manual and it's a great reference, although I haven't gotten all the way through.

I'd obviously like to retail as much as I can because that's where the money is made, but until word gets out and I start getting repeat customers, I'm not sure how much I'd be able to sell retail. My intention with the 5 gal. containers was to pack them for bottling later on in the year and/or selling remaining syrup that hasn't sold.

I have used the settling method of filtering syrup and it does work fairly well if you're only making 1-2 gallons.

Do either of you find that glass bottles or plastic jugs sell better?

What percentages (approximate) of each size container do you sell? I'd imagine that not much of the 1/2 and 1 gal containers would go, but wasn't sure on the smaller sizes.

Thanks

[royalmaple]

Josh-

I'd get some of the blue syrup jugs hold 5-6 gallons each. Hot pack them and store your syrup in them. Reheat and hot pack as you need it 5 gallons at a time. Personally I like the plastic jugs, they aren't as fancy as glass but they are much less expensive and most of the people I sell retail syrup to are just consumers, so all they want is the syrup in a container that doesn't leak. And they really don't want to spend more to cover the cost of glass.

If you want to try sedimentation for filtering. I got some drums, just fill the drum up with your syrup and pump off the top. You'd be surprised how well even the late season syrup will filter just in a couple of weeks. Then you could pump off the drum and fill up 5 gallon jugs. You won't really lose anything cause you take the bottom of the barrel and heat that and filter that stuff in your paper and felt filters, so just the crud is left.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

i have found that pints and quarts are the best sellers

RICH

[Russell Lampron]

I sell almost as many 1/2 gallons as I do quarts and the gallons have sold a lot better this year. For my sales quarts sell the best followed by 1/2 gallons, pints, gallons, small tin log cabins and then 1/2 pints. When I first started out pints were by a large margin the best sellers. Once I built a customer base the larger sizes started to take off and that trend continues. I don't package in glass yet and don't have many people asking for it. I do get quite a few request for candy but because of shelf life issues I usually end up eating most of it myself.

[Father & Son]

Another option for bulk packaging is 2 1/2 gallon plastic containers. I buy mine from Mann Lake a bee keeping supplier. You can hot or cold pack in them and then into the chest freezer and they are a little easier to handle.

Jim