Tapping red maples

[farmerEd]

Any of you guys tap your red maples? I know they are not the preferred tree, but are they good enough to warrant the effort?

I tapped first time last year about 100 sugar maples, and made about 13.5 gallons on my Leader half-pint (that was a lot of boiling...). Anyway, this year I want to expand to more trees and a bigger setup. Red maple trees I have a lot of.......

Opinions?

farmerEd

[mapleman3]

yes we do !! look under the " sugar content " post

[themapleking]

About 15% of my taps are reds. The lines go by them so tap em.
Reds seem to have a little sweeter taste than sugars. So the two syrups together make an great tasting syrup. My 2 cents.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Kinda wondering if the maple trader guys that have a lot of taps in red maple if they noticed at the end of the season when you start making Dark Amber syrup is your syrup showing a more Reddish Hue to the color Rather then a more brownish?(Mapleman3 U See??)I noticed that-and can say the flavor certainly has a different taste more of what i call a nip in it.(Almost like you bit into a twig). I notice that when i used to tap mostly red maples many moons ago. The season sure comes to a more abrupt end with red maples as they bud out wicked fast/sometimes in a day or two..Kevin

[mapleman3]

Yes I believe it did have a red hue to it, I didn't get to bud stage though due to the fact my 100 reds are in a wetland and as soon as the ice melted the sugar content droped down too far to boil... so then I rely on the rest of my sugars for the end of the season.. so I never really got to a bad taste.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

It's not a bad taste-You can hardly notice it.Probably most other people would not even no it was in there.It's just a minute taste in the syrup.But you can certainly see the color difference..Kevin

[MaineMapleDave]

I have one sugar maple and the rest are all reds. The syrup tends to be darker than with the sugar maples, but the taste is good.

The reds do bud out pretty fast, so the season comes to an abrupt end, usually about a week before the sugar maples.