Question on Syrup color
During season I packaged most of my syrup in large containers (a few 5 gallon pails but mostly 55 gallon drums). All were packed at 180-190 degrees. I am now finding when opening them that the syrup is grading around 10 points darker (using Hannah meter) than it did when I filled the containers. Is this normal?
We've had light go to medium and medium go to dark. Doesn't ALWAYS change grade which I can't explain but it is normal for it to darken up some in storage.
As I understand it, the quicker you cool the syrup the less degrading it has. Packing in 55 gal barrels poses problems cooling them fast, but a cool mist sprayed on the barrel will help some.
This is why some packers use cold water in a trough to help cool the syrup, but even then the water needs to be kept cold.
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
Store you syrup in as cool as place as you can. I store mine at 50° in both plastic and stainless and have no loss in grade after as many as 16 months
Does the flavor change? Does it become more robust?
Occasionally I have syrup darken in storage. I had some last season that went into 5 gallon plastic jugs as golden and was amber when I canned it. Most of my syrup was golden so it was nice to have it darken a little.
Russ
"Red Roof Maples" Where the term "boiling soda" was first introduced to the maple world!
1930 Ford Model AA Doodlebug tractor
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In general, I believe you will find that the darker the syrup is when you put it in a barrel, the higher the chance of it coming out darker than original when you take it out.
shrunken producer, from 8,000 taps to 4,000 to 5800 to 9500 to 11,000 vac
5x16 woodchip fired evaporator with 5x10 max flue and 5x6 revolution front pan
CDL 20+ RO
Double 10"filterpress
sp-11, bb2, airtech L63, L160, L230 vac pumps
CDL low profile electric releaser
MES 8000 electric releaser
CDL 4000 tap mechanical releaser
Generally not. Color changes in storage due to temperature and/or oxidation. Flavor doesn't change (at least enough to be noticeable).Originally Posted by neil2fish
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
We have had this happen as well but can't explain it. Barrels are sold and we keep a bunch of pails for bottling so my experience is with those. We opened a 2016 Amber pail 3 weeks ago and it was still very light. Almost would have passed for Golden. Then back in November we opened a 2017 Amber pail and it had turned to the Dark. So I can't help explain it or why but it does happen and is normal. Our pails were all stored together in the corner of our shack. I will say that the flavor does not appear to change. The Dark syrup still tasted like Amber. If it had been a little closer to Amber than it was I would have called it that even if slightly over.
If it does darken to another grade, legally you need to label it by color as long as there is no off taste. If there is an off taste, it either becomes commercial or maybe you can process it into a product that gets rid of the off taste. Many say sugar can be made from syrup with a slight off taste and the sugar tastes good, I never tried it.
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
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