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How many buckets do you require? Around here used aluminum sap buckets are selling for Canadian $4.50 (U.S. $ 3.59). A road trip might be worthwhile for you....

Thanks for this information. I just looked at Hanna's web site and, as you say, they state a +/-4% accuracy. I've had my two sample cuvettes of syrup and the calibration cuvette sitting upright in a...

The producer who gave us the mother originally suggested 140 degrees Fahrenheit but we have been going to 170 degrees to insure the bottles are sterilized and that seems to work well.

We don't sell any maple vinegar but we do make enough for ourselves and the occasional gift. We started quite few years ago by getting some "mother" from another producer and adding that to a few...

Don't forget that refractometers should be calibrated occasionally especially if they have been banged or dropped. Calibrating oil is available from the various maple equipment suppliers but if you...

Hi Tweegs,
I've given quite a lot of thought to your problem but can't come up with any obvious solution. I'm guessing some kind of contamination of the syrup was causing the foaming. How do you...

[QUOTE=Tweegs;335587]We bottled up 15 gallons yesterday. 5 gallons medium, 10 gallons dark./QUOTE]

In what kind of container and under what kind of conditions was your syrup stored between the...

Yes, CharlieVT, I think that makes perfect sense. To maximise the syrup quality, minimize the depth of sap in one's pans. Within reason of course. I keep enough depth in the front pan to insure the...

I think the syrup you bottled a couple of years ago was way too thick and now that the excess sugar has come out the remaining syrup should measure around 66.5 degrees Brix.

My experience has been that to get an accurate reading of either syrup or sap using a refractometer the liquid should be at room temperature. For syrup I have been using a Reichert refractometer

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Thank you very much Nate and VTnewguy for your kind comments. Thanks too Nate for expanding on your thoughts on sugar content and back pan cleaning. I now understand what you were getting at.

To clean the inside of the flues I use a variety of brushes as seen in the attached photo. The two on the right are commercially available and work well for the sides of the flues but the bristles...

I cleaned my flue pan yesterday after emptying the sap that had been in there since the end of the season. I always fill the pan right to the brim at the end of the season and let it sit for at least...

Hi Mark,
What are you using to check the sugar content of your syrup? If the syrup is too "thin" sometimes the nitre or sugar sand is not fully precipitated out of the syrup and passes with the...

For decades now I have been filling up my 3'x8' back pan (3'x12' arch) with sap at the end of the season and leaving it until the end of July or the start of August. I then empty it and with some...

To: Dr. Tim Perkins,

Once again thanks for the quick reply. I hadn't noticed before that you are one of the editors of the Maple Syrup Producers Manual so I'll take this opportunity to thank you...

Thanks for the quick reply. I should have mentioned that my syrup samples have been kept in the closed cuvettes in the closed case of the Checker i.e. not exposed to air and in the dark. The second...

So the Hanna engineer is saying that cool water is a different colour than warm water? Yikes! What about warm syrup as opposed to cool syrup?
Not wanting to buy an expensive new wheel for my...

Hi Mark,
I have been keeping detailed records since 1976 and this past season was by far the best for me in terms of quantity of syrup per tap. The quality was excellent too. I broke my personal...

Hello Spud and Mark,
Thank you very much for the kind welcomes.

I've just joined this Forum but I've been sugaring for forty years. I'm down now to 750 taps, all with aluminum buckets, and gather the sap with a tractor. I've got a 3'x12' Lightning evaporator with...