Hello all,
I've kicked this idea around the last few years, usually around tapping time, but then summer comes along and I forget all about it. So needless to say I was totally unprepared to start again this year. So glad I found this site...I knew nothing about any part of tapping trees, how long you could store the sap, sugar content, boiling and finishing syrup..none of it. But after reading here the last few weeks, I decided to go for it last week. I have 10 hard maples tapped and it was running enough last week to get about 20 gal by last Saturday. Since I started collecting on Monday, some of it was 5 days old so I figured I'd better try making some syrup. So with a borrowed turkey fryer I started boiling, not knowing what kind of gph to expect or if my one tank of propane would even last long enough to do it all. I had no way to test the sap, but I figured it just HAD to be around 2%, since they were sugar maples, lol. Well it took 12 hours in that fryer to get the 20 gals down to about one gal of "almost syrup, and nearly all of the propane. I bring it in the house to finish, thinking I just need to reduce by half to get the half gallon of syrup I was expecting out of 20 gals of 2% sap. Had no hydrometer..just a fairly new candy thermometer. I put the syrup on one burner and a pot of water on another burner to see what temp water boiled on this day and elevation. Thermometer reads 207 in rapidly boiling water. Ok this thing is a piece of crap, I say, but don't panic, just add 7 degrees to that and stop at 214. So it boils and boils, I stir and watch the thermometer rise painfully slow and my syrup level drop painfully fast. Bubbles are tiny, it's foaming up and wants to climb the pan so I rub a little butter on the inside and it calms down. I can see now I'm down to about an inch of syrup and I'm still at 213*. Stupid thermometer. That's it, this has to be done I say and remove what little is left to my waiting filter. I'm surprised it even went through but it did. 2 measly pints of overly done syrup. It pours like honey once it cooled. But the flavor is amazing and it's the best dang syrup I've ever had! Most expensive too I could have bought about 3 gallons of syrup for what I spent so far for those 2 pints. But can't wait to do it again!