Bad Hydrometer?

[Jay]

I have been taking my syrup off at 220 degrees, my water has been boiling at 212, the thing is when I test in my syrup hydrometer it does not even come off the bottom. Now, the syrup hydrometer is very old could something have screwed it up? I know I need a new hydrometer but I am about done for the year. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance,Jay

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jay,

Definitely better invest in a hydrometer. Maybe the one you have is for cold syrup test only. 8O

[maplehound]

I always have a hard time determining when the water is boiling. There is a difrence between a boil and a simmer. I always check my syrup when I draw it off and this year I had a couple days that I drew at over 222 degrees, and the next day drew at 219-220. I can never understand the difrence. I am sure that berometer shouldn't make that much difrence. Most scales dont show that water should boil at 215.
Best advice I have is Ignore the Temp. that your sap starts to boil it will only confuse you.
Ron

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

What I do is that I set my thermometers the first boil of the season when I get the raw sap boiling good in the syrup pan and then I don't touch them the rest of the season. Unless you have an auto drawoff or are anal about it, I have great success with this and have done the same thing the past two years and it works great. I always test mine with an hydrometer after filtering and before canning, so it doesn't matter too much as long as it is close. :)

[maplehound]

I have had my draw off temp. cahnge by as much as a full deg. in the course of one day. Especially if we have a storm front move through.
I would be cautious going by the same temp all season.
ron

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yes, I'm the anal one who unscrews my thermometer every boil and dips it into the flue pan right were the sap comes in. If the back pan had somewhat fresh sap, I set at zero on the thermometer. If it is somewhat dark (despite the fresh sap coming in), I set at 1 degree over. Doing this requires a good set of insulated gloves and a high tolerance for pain from the steam! 8O :D

I have to draw at 9 deg over all the time using this method. I believe my thermometer shaft gets steam heating and therefore is 2 degrees over where it should be.

Brian

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I don't have any problem whatever not adjusting my thermometer daily. Seems like a big waste of time to me. I have a 16 x 24 canning and finishing unit and I filter into it and reheat it and test it with hydrometer. Either way, I adjust the density and can it. It is normally a little too heavy as I normally draw off around 8. I found it is easier to thin it a little vs having to boil off some of it to thicken it.

By the way, I forgot to set my thermometers this year at the start of the season, so they were going from where they were set from the start of the previous season. Like I said, it is whatever works best for you and this is what works best for me. :D I like where Leader places their thermometers the best as I feel I get a very accurate reading and the entire thermometer stem is immersed in syrup, but it would be a real pain to take them off each day and adjust and try to keep the syrup from leaking onto the arch some.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Brandon,

What do you do with the thermometer if you have to reverse in the middle of a boil? Do you have two thermometers?

Brian

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Brian,

I usually reverse about every three hundred gallon or every boil, whichever comes first. I have a thermometer on both sides of the evaporator. I think it is best to have one on both sides as you can monitor temp on both sides all the time! :D

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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