off flavor question

[Brian Ledoux]

Hello,
In trying to figure out the best way to use our 19" x 36" lapierre evapoarator this weekend, my brother and I thought that we would switch from keeping the level at 1.5 inches of sap in the pan to 4 inches of sap. We added the 4 inches of sap to the pan after having boiled 2 days straight at the lower level. We were very disappointed when the syrup was done as it had a pretty noticeable bitterish taste to it. Everyone who tried it noticed the flavor. Prior batches with the same setup turned out great.

I think the problem is that the nitre and brownish colored foam residue that appears on the sides of the evaporator pan walls got slightly burned and then when we added the extra volume it leached/dissolved into the sap. Does that make sense? Would that cause an off flavor? Needless to say it's pretty sad when 1/3 what you produce in a year is junk. Huge dissappointment.

[C.Wilcox]

Brian,

Did you change anything else about your setup other than the depth of the sap in the pan? Storage container, buckets, store the sap longer, rain in the sap, wash the pan prior to boiling, was there a change in the weather/temp during the time you collected the sap for the last boil? Sap quality can change over the course of the season and you may have ended up with some bitter sap which boiled down to bitter syrup. If the cause was a weather shift that resulted in poor quality sap there's really nothing you can do about it. You can only work with what you're given. You're definitely doing the right thing by going back through and evaluating all the parts of the process to see if you can identify any possible causes that you can control.

[PerryW]

In general, running 4" deep may darken your syrup, but should not give it a bitter taste.

[maplwrks]

What did it smell like when you were boiling it? Did it smell a little like chocolate? My fear with this warm weather is metabolism.

[halladaymaple]

Do yourself a favor, clean the pans after every boil. I use vinegar to soak overnight and a little elbow grease to get rid of any niter, THROUGHLY rinse the pans after your done. If you have any burnt syrup in the pan - the taste will transfer into the next batch or batches of syrup you produce. Once you notice that burnt smell or color - Stop what your doing, dump that batch, clean the pan and start again. Sorry to give you the bad news on that when you only make so little. ALso check your filer and throughtly clean that after running any suspious syrup throught it, it will transfer off taste as well.

good luck
DArrell

[Haynes Forest Products]

Once again its the IF IT AINT BROKE dont fix it. I think its the burnt niter from the sides. I burnt syrup in the finisher I made and all the syrup was trashed most of the years production:mad: It had the bitter taste and smokey flavor

[Brian Ledoux]

The consensus seems to be burnt nitre in pan causing problems. The off taste did have a smoky/burnt flavor to it, if I had to say what it was. I also did have one half bucket that had some yellowish colored sap too. Maybe that had something to do with it. I won't use any yellow sap ever again and even though it will be a hassle, I will have to wash my pan everyday and see if that helps. I appreciate everyone's feedback!

[maple flats]

most maplers find 1" to 1.5 " depth works best. I do 3/4" in my back pan and 1" in the syrup pan. Some even go 2" but 4 is just too much in most cases. You likely burnt something on the side of the pansd and it spoiled the batch. A second cause might be buddy syrup, if you tapped any soft maples they butd earlier than sugars, lood for buds opening. They will cause a bitter taste and it doesnot take many taps with buddy sap to spoil a much larger batch of good. If the buds aren't open you likely just burnt it.

[3rdgen.maple]

Couple suggestions. From experience if you take that batch of syrup with the off flavor and put it in a food grade pail and let it age for a bit it will rid itself of most the bad taste if it is not that extreme. Do not ask me how but I have done it a few times in the past and for some reason it works. Also you can use it up in other things such as bbq sauce, maple mustard etc. so it does not go to complete waste.
As far as the off flavor goes It might be some burning crud off the pans. Do a complete cleanup. Get that niter off the bottom of the syrup pan and make sure there is no burnt spots under that crud. The other thing that bit me in the behind once (with a warm spell like we are having now) I failed to keep the sap filter cleaned daily and it gave the sap an off flavor and in return made some awful tasting syrup. Check your holding tanks for bacteria built up on them and keep them clean often as well. This warm weather can raise heck and cleaning everything often will help alot.

[JohnsSugarShack]

Brian, I sold my half pint to my cousin 3 years ago and he's been making great syrup with it. But this year he had the same problem you just described. He'd made a couple batches with no problems and then he ended up with a batch that had a burnt flavor to it. The only thing we could figure was that he had nitre built up on his pan. So he drained and cleaned the pan but he told me there was very little nitre on the pan, but I don't think it takes that much to give an off flavor, I too just cleaned my syrup pan before I boiled last night just to be on the safe side. After the cleaning his syrup came out good. He did tell me that he was flooding his pan with 4-5 inches of sap when he shuts down for the night and then has to boil for quit a while before he could draw off again and was struggling to get up to temp. So I thought he might be cooking the sugars to long causing the burnt flavor. Not quit sure but his problem is fixed now. Hope all goes well.

[KenWP]

I had a batch last year that tasted terrible so I put it all in one container and stored it. She who must be obeyed opened it up to use since I sold almost all the other syrup and it's not to bad now. Seems the longer it's been open the better it tastes. For cooking it is perfect but I have put it on pancakes and found it edible.

[Brian Ledoux]

I'll hold off on throwing it out just yet and see if it gets better after some time. I really appreciate the feedback! thanks!