Red Coloration of Syrup?

We've had a few batches this year that have come out with a red hue. When I put them in the line-up of our grade kit, it's hard to tell what to grade the syrup because it's not what I would call darker than grade B, but it is definitely more red. Has anyone run into this? I'm wondering:

1. How do you determine the grade of a syrup that is off-color?
2. What might be causing our syrup to be red?

We do have a variety of types of maple, including a number of soft maples, tapped. I'm wondering if this could be playing into it?

it is your soft maples,pulled spiles on our reds and sivers last week there all budding out.boiled yesterday for the first time sense pulling them and its the best weve made thus far PULL THEM!!!!

The red color is caused by the red maples. I have the same problem when grading as you do. I try to look for a difference in the amount of light being transfered through the syrup rather than the color. It is hard to compare amber to red.

Spiledriver why pull them? If it still taste good there is nothing wrong with the red syrup.

i tap about 80 percent red maples and they make a great flavored syrup with a redish hue to it. just the nature of the trees, they flow great on vac but do bud out a bit earlier but it is what i have for now so i can complain! made 105 gal this year before the buds came

Mine came out the same last night. Incredible buttery flavor, almost like drinking a werthers! But it was very red in color. I stamped it all B and will make sure it finds its way to friends. It is the best tasting syrup I've made all year

Curious about the red.
Although I tapped two red maples, I only got sap from the sugar maples and still made some very red syrup. Looks like I added wine....
Tastes great though!

last time i waiting to the last minute to pull on reds i made really funky tasteing buddy syrup,you can leave them in aslong as you want i guess,i have no problem with tapping them.i run 1/3 reds 1/3 silvers and 1/3 sugars

Its not from the red maples if it was can someone explain how the past 2 days I have been making syrup with a redish hue and all the sap has come from my sugar maples? I have about 200 reds on buckets and havent seen any redish syrup off them ever and when I say ever I mean years. This is the first time I have seen this at my place. Past 2 days all my sap has come from the vac system and not a single red is on it.

The last two years I have noticed more red color also. The later in the season, the redder. Early on I get some nice light ambers though. Not sure of my tree species, although early this season I was averaging 2 3/4% to 3% sap and later when it dropped I still had 2% to 2 1/4%.

Early
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...ch2_single.jpg


Later
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...2011_batch.jpg

What I actually found this year when some one asked me about it and asked how to grade it. I found don't shine into direct light when grading because the red color throws of the process. To actually see if its lighter or darker we held kit down a ways from the light and you could immediately see the red colored syrup was lighter than what we were grading against. It turned out to be dark amber not B. With shinning direct into light it looked darker than D.A.

It is hard to grade it. I have to look at it about 10 times before i make my decision what grade it is. On another note the sugar sand is here and on top of that the sugar content droped down between 1.1% -1.5%. Ouch!!! But still making med. to dark amber.

I'm guessing every five years or so, I make some syrup with a reddish tint.

Usually later in the season.

I have not tapped any red maples (except a few over the past two years).

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Originally Posted by Randy Brutkoski

It is hard to grade it. I have to look at it about 10 times before i make my decision what grade it is. On another note the sugar sand is here and on top of that the sugar content droped down between 1.1% -1.5%. Ouch!!! But still making med. to dark amber.

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im still up around 2.8 Randy or my refrac. is broke

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Originally Posted by Randy Brutkoski

It is hard to grade it. I have to look at it about 10 times before i make my decision what grade it is.

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It won't matter what grade you think it is. The packer will decide for you.

i just finished off some sryup and let it go to long while i was eating diner and it went past on my hydrometer by approx. 2 -2 1/2 brix. it is very dark and strong. it does not taste bad but probably too strong for most. i realize that boilng "kettle style" will almost always result in dark syrup but was wondering if this batch is better off for cooking. i can probably give this away for cooking. also how far is too far past on a hydrometer if you happen to go too far. i boil on a concrete arch with a small pan about 15"x 33"x 6" and its 1/8"thick, i boil add,boil add etc. then at the end of the day take it off and finish on my turkey fryer.i also am having a hard time getting the finished syrup to filter through my cone filter even after i pre-filter, any thoughts.
i have 2x4 mason with blower and mason finisher ordered but will not have in time for my season, i can not wait ,i am not liking 10 hour boils in the snow or rain to get 3/4" to 1 gallon!! but hell what else can you do western new york in march too warm to ice fish too cold to trout fish and still too early for food plots!!

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Originally Posted by bowtie

how far is too far past on a hydrometer if you happen to go too far.

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You could always reheat with a little fresh sap and test again until you're back to syrup. Or take it a little further and make some candy. Lot's of people prefer the darker grades as long as it doesn't have any off flavors from scorching, etc.

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Originally Posted by 3rdgen.maple

Its not from the red maples if it was can someone explain how the past 2 days I have been making syrup with a redish hue and all the sap has come from my sugar maples? I have about 200 reds on buckets and havent seen any redish syrup off them ever and when I say ever I mean years. This is the first time I have seen this at my place. Past 2 days all my sap has come from the vac system and not a single red is on it.

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is it possable that the syrup left in your pan wasnt the source of the red color.

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Originally Posted by Rossell's Sugar Camp

is it possable that the syrup left in your pan wasnt the source of the red color.

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Good question and one I had to think about a bit but its not possible. Why is that you ask? Well because I made the ever mistake of making charcoal in my syrup pan and had to drain and clean everything and start fresh and all I have is vac sap from sugar maples. I did have a crew collect a few hundred gallons of sap that day and it was in a overflow holding tank outside the sugarhouse and before I pumped it the sugarhouse it looked pretty yellow and a test of sugar content in it sent that back on the ground. .7 not worth the wood. Rainwater..

I notice the red color, too. Great taste, but hard to grade. I had trouble with B and Dark Amber. I would like to start using my colorimeter to measure light instead of color. I'm curious if the meter picks up the wavelength differently through red syrup.

we also had some reddish looking stuff after we filtered. it came out fine

Always seem to have redish tint later in season,even when tapping all sugars.I always seem to have trouble grading do to color variation,just try to compare light transparency.This year I tapped 20% reds and sorry I didn't do it years ago, the flavor is unbelievable. This season has been great so far only problem is having to cut more wood to keep running, and lower sugar content.

Here's a pic of what I made last night. How's this in comparison?

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Originally Posted by runnin'saps

We've had a few batches this year that have come out with a red hue. When I put them in the line-up of our grade kit, it's hard to tell what to grade the syrup because it's not what I would call darker than grade B, but it is definitely more red. Has anyone run into this? I'm wondering:

1. How do you determine the grade of a syrup that is off-color?
2. What might be causing our syrup to be red?

We do have a variety of types of maple, including a number of soft maples, tapped. I'm wondering if this could be playing into it?

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Someone else posted the link to an old UVM research article on buddy sap that I just read. There is mention of reddish syrup produced from sap contaminated with certain strains of bacteria.

http://cdi.uvm.edu/collections/item/bulletin151&page=19

Possibly an explanation especially if it shows up later in the season when taps have been in a while.

I read something today speaking of grading (NY?) regarding taste as a determining factor, where they gave an example if a light colored syrup tasted like a dark amber, then it would be graded a dark amber?!? Perhaps relevant to batch blending judgements, where the final batch is a dark amber?

We had a run 2nd week of Feb, that made some nice light amber. The next weeks run was all converted to 2 150 gallon sapburgs. The syrup from the thawed sapburgs made light syrup but with a marked red tint. I don't know if it was the freezing, bacteria, or the trees response to the wierd cold flow of sap.