Boiled past syrup - fixing it makes it worse?

Hello all,

I know many a backyard sugarer has over-cooked their syrup and I'm not unique in this regard, but I'm trying to find out if trying to fix the screwup will make it worse.

Yesterday we boiled 68 gallons of sap down to about 1.5 gallons of syrup (actually more like 1.15G, because we overcooked it) - we have a two pan cinderblock evaporator setup, and we finish it on the stove in a lobster pot where it's easier to control temp.

Well when we were letting our outside fire die down in order to dump our haul into our pot, we apparently overcooked it. When my wife brought it inside and floated the hydrometer, it was almost to the "cold test" line, which is about 66 brix, as opposed to the normal "hot test" line around 59 brix. My wife asked me if we should add water, and of course i said "no -let's bottle it" - it wasn't overly thick or hard.... yet...

this morning, we had a partial bottle that we put in the fridge overnight, and when we went to pour it, it was *super* thick. Barely pour-able. I'm going to experiment and see if the non-refrigerated bottles are the same, but my basic question is:

give what I've told you about the nature of my screwup: 66 brix vs 59 brix - how crazy an idea is it to try to empty the bottled syrup (it's in 8 and 12oz glass bottles), add water, and re-bottle?

good idea? terrible idea? one of the worst ideas of all time?

many thanks for all of your expertise

Sounds like a good idea to me. If it were me and it's that hard to pour, I'd pour it back out into your 'lobster pot', SLOWLY warm it back up to temp while adding small amounts of sap or distilled water to it to get it to the right brix. Then re-bottle.

If it were just a little past and still poured good, I'd just leave it. When for personal use I tend to error on the side of a LITTLE past syrup. It may leave some sugar crystals in the bottom of the jar but I'd rather have that than not done enough syrup and risk spoilage. I've never gotten it as far as you described where it's hard to pour though.

Adding any good potable water is fine, just do it slowly. Don't try to do it in the bottles, add just 1/4 cup, mix and heat, when it gets up to temperature try testing the density, Adjust as necessary.
As long as you didn't burn it, the only thing is that it will be darker than if you had pulled it off sooner, but dark is still good, in fact it's my most asked for grade. If it's very dark, you may prefer using it in cooking, however over the years I've got 4 regulars who prefer very dark for every day use. Before the new grading system, they always wanted grade B.

I have done something similar in the past. I just diluted it with some distilled water slowly after bringing it to the cold test temp. Once you get it set, bring to bottling temp and re bottle. Bringing it to boil to read the hot test will require re filtering. If for personal use you may not care about re filtering.

Also, you mentioned letting the syrup cool on the block arch then bringing it inside to check the brix. At what temp were you checking it? I believe the hydrometer hot test is 211. Your brix reading may be off because of this temperature difference.

I've attached two photos that I found useful but not sure where the links are. Attachment 22303Attachment 22304

If it was scorched, the burnt smell/taste cannot be corrected. If not, it is fine to add a little water and reheat. You'll need to check density again (correcting for temperature) and probably refilter if heated above 190 deg F.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wannabe

Sounds like a good idea to me. If it were me and it's that hard to pour, I'd pour it back out into your 'lobster pot', SLOWLY warm it back up to temp while adding small amounts of sap or distilled water to it to get it to the right brix. Then re-bottle.

If it were just a little past and still poured good, I'd just leave it. When for personal use I tend to error on the side of a LITTLE past syrup. It may leave some sugar crystals in the bottom of the jar but I'd rather have that than not done enough syrup and risk spoilage. I've never gotten it as far as you described where it's hard to pour though.

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i have, on rare occasions in the past, had some sugar crystals... not lately though. I'm still hopeful that this batch will be ok if it's not in the fridge, although the partial bottle in the fridge wasn't up to standards - fine for personal use but we mostly give it away to friends!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maple flats

Adding any good potable water is fine, just do it slowly. Don't try to do it in the bottles, add just 1/4 cup, mix and heat, when it gets up to temperature try testing the density, Adjust as necessary.
As long as you didn't burn it, the only thing is that it will be darker than if you had pulled it off sooner, but dark is still good, in fact it's my most asked for grade. If it's very dark, you may prefer using it in cooking, however over the years I've got 4 regulars who prefer very dark for every day use. Before the new grading system, they always wanted grade B.

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thanks for the insights!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NhShaun

I have done something similar in the past. I just diluted it with some distilled water slowly after bringing it to the cold test temp. Once you get it set, bring to bottling temp and re bottle. Bringing it to boil to read the hot test will require re filtering. If for personal use you may not care about re filtering.

Also, you mentioned letting the syrup cool on the block arch then bringing it inside to check the brix. At what temp were you checking it? I believe the hydrometer hot test is 211. Your brix reading may be off because of this temperature difference.

I've attached two photos that I found useful but not sure where the links are. Attachment 22303Attachment 22304

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yeah, it's not that it cooled - it was still bubbling when we pulled it off - it's just that we let the fire die down from RAGING INFERNO to glowing embers so that we don't burn ourselves when we pull it off. We reheated it inside to do the hydrometer hot test

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins

If it was scorched, the burnt smell/taste cannot be correct. If not, it is fine to add a little water and reheat. You'll need to check density again (correcting for temperature) and probably refilter if heated above 190 deg F.

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not scorched! so that's the good news! thanks for your insight.

Lots of people "overcook" their syrup on the evaporator a little and then correct while bottling. Not sure why you think that would "make the problem worse".

The moral of the story is you should have listened to your wife. LOL.

Gabe