sugar content

[partsrus1974]

Whats a good average sugar content?I checked mine last night its 2.75% witch i think is pretty good,is it?

[jrthe3]

i say that ok i checked mine it was a hair over 2%

[markct]

yea i checked mine today and my heart sank when i found it was about 1.7 percent, but i wasnt figuring it would be real high since i got a lot of woods trees and red maples, but hey its what i got and it still makes syrup, with a great flavor so far!

[Big maple]

Our sap has gone up and down every year since we started checking it. It has been at 3.2 and the worst year we had .8 also if you have large bulk tanks and check it after it sets for a day the sugar seems to settle the stuff out of the valve has a higher content than the stuff out of thescuttle hole. This year we are between 1.7 and 1.8 .

[KenWP]

How sweet does maple sap taste. I have to use sugar twin for my coffee because sugars not sweet enough for me so I am a poor judge of taste.

[johnallin]

I've not seen anything over 1.8% yet this year, with most of it at 1.5%.

I hope it gets better, the half pint is slow enough and doesn't need anything to add to the drama.

[MEDIC4949]

Last Week Mine Was 1.7 And Sat Night It Went Up To 2.0 Never Checked Sap Before This Yr. 700 Plus Taps On 1 Line Into Sugar House

[partsrus1974]

This is my first year checking the sugar content to,I been boiling for 3 years.Figured it could'nt hurt to have another gadget to play with!!

[danno]

I've got all sugar maples in a maple grove - no field or road side trees. My trees have been running 1.5 to 2.

[little league]

I bought a sap refractometer this year and have been checking my trees they are consistantly testing 3%. I found a few that were at 4% my highest tree tested at 7%. Who needs and RO with test like that.
I wonder if I could clone the 5-7 % trees?

[KenWP]

If I ever get enough sap to float a hydrometer I will try and test my trees. I am tapping 4 kinds and I can tell by taste that some are better then others. Boxelder seems to taste like woody water.

[MaplePancakeMan]

I've got a consistent 3% this year with some up to 4%

[pennslytucky]

i have one that tests over 5% every year. it will turn into a few hundred this june :)... most reports i hear are 2% or a little less...

[danno]

i have one that tests over 5% every year. it will turn into a few hundred this june :)... most reports i hear are 2% or a little less...

Mother nature's RO - Nice!

[jtcinv]

I've been thinking about getting a refractometer, but know nothing about them. Looks like you need one calibrated to lower levels (sap) and one for higher levels (syrup).

I am admittedly a bit of a gadget head. If I bought one of the cheap Chinese models on eBay, would it be reliable? Anyone use one to tell when their syrup is finished (currently I use the boiling water plus 7 degree method)?

Thanks and good luck to everyone this season.

Jeff

[Smitty]

I started using a syrup refractometer about seven years ago,just a thermometer before that. i seem to be keeping a more consitant accurate syrup now. every once in awhile i would get a batch that would mold over in time, but not since i have been using the refractometer, its a whole lot more accurate, and fun to play with.

[MaplePancakeMan]

jtc... I Bought one of each of the cheap ones on Ebay. they are automatic temperature compensating so thats great. Brought it over to a sugarer who has one of the high end models we tested the same sap, exactly the same. He sure was pissed when i showed him how cheap they were!

[Dennis H.]

I bought one of each, sap & syrup, off of ebay. Very nice.

Actually the syrup one was form a company in California so it was a few dollars more, but at that time I couldn't find a syrup on any where else.

The sap refractometer is calirated for 0-10 brix, it is calibrated using distailled water.
The syrup is 45-85 brix it is calibrated using a special fluid. There was a little vial of the fluid with the refractometer.

They both are ATC, automatic temp compensation. All that means is that once calibrated to a certain ambent temp it will automatically adjust for slight changes in temp, maybe 10-15 degrees.

For the price I would go for it. I was worried about getting something from HongKong but it went great and arrived in 1 week.

[gator330]

2.2 every time this year. I can live with that!!!

[sugarin4fun]

Mine are all black and/or sugar maples, they usually run between 2.2-3.8% with the larger ones putting out the higher sugar content. After all this rain it is closer to 1.8-2.2%, anything less that 1.5% gets poured on the ground. I don't have the time (2-1/2 x 4' evap) or firewood to boil off that much water.

[briduhunt]

I just teasted my silver maple yard trees and got 2% sugar. So I tapped another 20 trees. Now just waiting on the sap run.

[Lyle]

I've got all woods trees and about 1/3 silvers to 2/3 sugars. Last year I ran about 2.2%. This year it's 1.7 or a little under.

[jtcinv]

Thanks for the refractometer advice everyone!
Jeff

[Amber Gold]

This is my first year tapping. Started the year at 1.8%, following it fell to 1.4%, not it's 1.2%. Is this how my trees are normally going to run or is this a seasonal fluctuation? I'm not liking this 1.2% stuff. If I can expect to get 1.2% again next year I'm going to put more consideration into getting an RO.

[Dill]

Josh I was talking to someone today about your problem. Could you be running too much vacuum? Have you tried shutting it off for a day and testing the sugar?

[Amber Gold]

I'm keeping the vacuum right around 18". I was running 15" last week due to a vacuum leak and was still pulling in 1.4%. My woods trees on buckets were doing 1.7% when I was getting 1.4% on tubing so they were marginally better.

Earlier this week I shut my line off that had all my reds on and still got the same sugar content so the few reds I have aren't a problem. If I turn vacuum off I'll lose about 150 trees.