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When watching videos on line it appears that the steam boiling evaporators produce on average very light syrup, mostly all golden delicate? I was told recently that if you further process it, example let say you bought a barrel to make maple candy, when heating to candy making temperature the syrup will darken up? Anyone experiencing that or is that just a rumor to keep producers from going to steam evaporation?
Mark 220 Maple
All syrup slightly darkens every time you reheat it.
There is an interesting video where the producer uses custom steam kettles to produce syrup, through process control they are able to make syrup with the desired light transmittance and the correct brix, just set it and out comes the desired product.
Here is a link to the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu2eRBz_So4
I think the part relevant to this conversation begins at around 14:50 mark
That's correct, reheating any syrup makes it darker, the longer you take to reach the desired temperature the darker it gets.
That's why I try to store syrup in barrels that are at the lighter end of any grade, so that as it's reheated to pack it I'll still have the grade I want. I made a mistake once regarding that, (I put a batch of 68% light transmission [LT]syrup in my water jacketed bottler and bottled some, it came out as 57% LT but I still had about 6 gal left in the bottler, and I had to leave. I failed to shgut off the WJ bottler,. I returned the next day, checked density and added a little distilled water to get it to the density I wanted (66.9%) and I checked the grade, it was in the low 40's LT, I hads made about 6 gal of Amber into Dark by that mistake.)
Since that time , when I open a barrel to repack, I do re filter it, where as I used to heat it to 190-200 in my finisher, I now only heat it to 170, then I filter it into the WJ bottler. Once there I heat it to 185+/- 2 degrees F retest density and grade and bottle it, if I ever need to leave, with syrup still in the bottler I shut it off. When I return to finish bottling I still need to verify density and grade and it always needs some distilled water and it's a little darker, but doing it this way i only get a slight decrease it LT and I'm still in the grade I wanted.
If you want to learn more about this or anything maple related, buy a copy of The North American Maple Producer's Manual or to get it free, download it. It's available at no charge, only the print version costs you.
That's correct, reheating any syrup makes it darker, the longer you take to reach the desired temperature the darker it gets.
That's why I try to store syrup in barrels that are at the lighter end of any grade, so that as it's reheated to pack it I'll still have the grade I want. I made a mistake once regarding that, (I put a batch of 68% light transmission [LT]syrup in my water jacketed bottler and bottled some, it came out as 57% LT but I still had about 6 gal left in the bottler, and I had to leave. I failed to shgut off the WJ bottler,. I returned the next day, checked density and added a little distilled water to get it to the density I wanted (66.9%) and I checked the grade, it was in the low 40's LT, I hads made about 6 gal of Amber into Dark by that mistake.)
Since that time , when I open a barrel to repack, I do re filter it, where as I used to heat it to 190-200 in my finisher, I now only heat it to 170, then I filter it into the WJ bottler. Once there I heat it to 185+/- 2 degrees F retest density and grade and bottle it, if I ever need to leave, with syrup still in the bottler I shut it off. When I return to finish bottling I still need to verify density and grade and it always needs some distilled water and it's a little darker, but doing it this way i only get a slight decrease it LT and I'm still in the grade I wanted.
If you want to learn more about this or anything maple related, buy a copy of The North American Maple Producer's Manual or to get it free, download it. It's available at no charge, only the print version costs you.
Not really what you asked about, but here goes...I'm a hobbyist who makes about 20-25 gallons per year in 3 steam kettles powered by a wood fired boiler. The two main advantages are: 1. I use about a 30% less wood than a conventional rig because the boiler in more efficient at transferring heat, and 2. It is impossible to scorch the syrup as the pressure in the steam jacket around the kettles is about 25 psi which is around 260F/127C. Much hotter than this increases the boil-over potential greatly. Other than that, I just like fooling around with steam. I have a vertical engine that powers a dynamo and a steam pump that I use to return the condensate from the kettles (not from sap evaporation) back to the to the boiler
Jray - I would really like to see a video of this in action. My grandfather was a steam engine buff, and I haven't thought about it in years. They have several that are demonstrated at a park near us every summer, but we are usually up north.
The third main advantage would be you could have a steam whistle, that you could blow when you draw off...please tell me you have a steam whistle!Quote:
Originally Posted by jray