When to stop tapping help????!

[Kilroy]

Joe,
I sent you a pm.
I'm in Andover & have a hydrometer & Murphy Compensation Cup.
Let me know if you want to get together to check your syrup.

[pennslytucky]

dip a spoon in your syrup and hold it up sideways. syrup should hang off the edge in a bit of a sheet instead of just drip like water. this is an old timers way of finishing syrup. i still do it on every batch and rarely bother with using the tools unless i have to be exact. if you do it a while and really pay attention, it is suprisingly close to correct.

[Joeyhowe]

Wow thanks for all the input guys. You all are very helpful. Do you think it would be a bad idea to mix my watery syrup in with my next batch when I do the final boil to condense it more?

[craig101]

no it's not a bad idea to mix the watery syrup with your next batch. it's a good idea actually.

I don't follow the 7 degree's above the boiling point of water method, it's not accurate for me. 7 degrees above is when i start testing the syrup/sap with my hydrometer for the proper brix reading. i've never had a batch finish at 219 before. one batch took until 224 before i had the proper brix reading. and yes it's a good digital thermometer and i tested it with boiling water beforehand. usually 221 is when i get the correct brix reading.

3 of my taps is on a silver with pretty swollen buds, i'll keep that sap seperate and boil a small amount on the stove and see if its bad. I have 5 other taps, one silver and 4 sugar/red, those all look good still.

[Joeyhowe]

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna finish boiling down my last of my good sap (40gal) then I'll start playing around with the other sap from the trees that are budding. Like you said there pretty swolen but not starting to open as of yesterday. If it's bad then oh well at least I got two gallons on my first year I'm pretty happy with that. Next year I'll be set up a lot better and tap about 25 more trees.

[Joeyhowe]

Well tree buds were open and sap was foggy and smelt funny. Looks like it's time to hang it up got 15 gallons left to boil down then the seasons done for me. Good luck to all those north of me who get to take advantage of this cold front moving through. image.jpg