Finding sugar content

[Jerome]

Is there some formula to find out the sugar percentage of my sap from taking the amount boiled to produce syrup? I don't have a refractormeter.

[Clan Delaney]

Yes there is. It's called the "Rule of 86". It's a rule of thumb derived from a lot of complex calculations and boiled down to a simple formula:

86 / sugar percentage = sap-syrup ratio

or

86 / sap-syrup ratio = sugar percentage

I used this just last night:

26.7 gallons of sap boiled / .63 gallons of finished syrup = 42.3 sap-syrup ratio

86 / 42.3 = 2.03% sugar in the sap.

[Jerome]

thanks
It looks like my trees are putting out 5.5%

[maple flats]

I sure wish mine were getting 5.5%. That is indeed great if you are boiling to the proper density to do the calculations. There are new trees that get that and a little more but I have not heard of any natural trees running that high.

[Jerome]

they are road side trees