How to use a Syrup Hydrometer

[lew]

Maple hill sugarhouse was absolutely right about keeping an extra hydrometer in the sugarhouse. You don't break it until you use it, and if it breaks when you're boiling, then you're#@?$@% out of luck. When you get your extra hydrometer, put both of them in syrup at the same time and check to see that they read the same. Often times they will read a little different. You can then adjust your numbers from your "known" hydrometer readings to your new hydrometer readings. This may seem like unnecesary work, but 1/2 degree brix or baume too light and you don't have syrup, or if it is too heavy, you are giving away money. We bought out a sugaring operation years ago that had some extra hyrometers. I started looking through the boxes and one sap hyrometer said "buy" and another said "sell". Just to see what was going on I put both in a bucket of sap and one read 1.5 degrees brix higher than the other one. After that I have always check my hydrometers against the one that is working well for me and have found some inconsistencies.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[MASSEY JACK]

A salesperson told me you should take your new hydrometer and stand it next to the box it came in and mark on the box where both red lines are. This is to be able to check later on to see if the paper has slipped inside the hydrometer. Sounds like a good idea to me...


Jack

[brookledge]

As Kevin said it is important to check and ajust density just before canning if you check it at the time of draw off and then let it run through cloth filters you would be suprised at how much more water evaporates. I have a 16X24 canner and when I take the cover off there is always alot of water droplets on the cover.
Even hydrometers that are not accurate any more can still be used as long as you have a new one to use to mark the old one. You can either count the lines that it is off or use a perminate marker and mark a new hot line.
Keith

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[sweetwoodmaple]

I end up double checking my hydrometer with a refractometer.

My refractometer came with a calibration block at 70.5 Brix, so I can check it's calibration every so often as well.

Between the three (evaporator thermometer, hydrometer, refractometer), I figure that I should be able catch a problem with one of them and get it corrected.

Brian

[MASSEY JACK]

well, I think I will buy another hydrometer before season starts. Where can I get mine tested? Can the equipment dealers do it? Bascom's,Lapierre???

Last year was my first year and I know that I made a lot of heavy syrup. I drew off into a wool cone filter and it was not covered so the evaporation kept going. Then I would heat it up later on to bottle it. Also, I did not keep the hydrometer cup hanging over the pan to keep it warm but I did fill it and dump it and then refill it before taking a reading to help preheat it. This year I will be drawing onto a flat filter rack that has a cover so I can stop the moisture loss. I also think I will draw off a little earlier and finish it in a finishing rig to make it more accurate. I would like to draw,filter,and can in one shot so I don't have to reheat it. One of the grading classes I attended said you risk losing a color grade every time you reheat it. I'm not sure I can manage all that and running the evaporator at the same time though.

Jack

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jack,

They key is "they say" you could "risk" losing a grade. I don't usually see this happening as I reheat all the time. 8O

[MASSEY JACK]

That was from Mr Mackres, a State of Vermont Maple Inspector. He put on a Maple Grading seminar at the NYS Maple conference on grading syrup.

Jack

[maple flats]

I agree with Jack. I have talked with a few old time maplers and have heard the same. Maybe you don't lose a full grade but if you were leaning towards the next darker grade you would be at it upon reheating. Last year I made a higher % of lighter grade syrup and believe I did it because I had fewer but longer boils instead of 4 or 5 hrs and then shut down to reheat and add more sap. In 03 and 04 I would run a boil even if I only had 3 hrs between bus runs (I drive school bus) and then resume boiling after work until all sap was in the pan. Then I would shut down and resume on the next day of flow in the same method. In 05 I did not boil more than 1x/day and often went 2-3 days if temps permitted. In this manner I made lighter syrup. I really think it had to do with the # of times any given drop of sap was reheated before it reached the proper density. I plan to do the same way in 06.