Off flavor question
Did a quick boil this afternoon and made 15 gallons of amber rich, actually it was almost golden but I graded it as amber. As I was pouring off into my press tank I cought a wiff of the steam and it seemed to have almost a nutty smell. I took a sample as I always do and tasted it. It is sweet and has a good maple flavor but has a nutty almost kind of fruity tast on the back side and a small amount of after test. I rinsed out my front pans on Wednesday and cleaned my float boxes but have not cleaned my flue pan. I looked things over tonight after everything cooled off, I do have a lot of brown sludgy foam it the back corners of the pan and of course the usual crap stuck to the flues. So I guess my question is where is this flavor coming from. Sap was less then 2 days old, crystal clear and my sugar has been running between 2.5% and 3.2%. It was run thru the R/O but only brought up to 8.5% due to a time restraint. The R/O is clean, I do a soap wash and rinse cycle after every use and is rinsed with a minimum of 300 gallons of permeate. I really need to get this figured out asap, I have bulk customers waiting for product and I sure dont want to disappoint anyone. Thanks in advance.......i am doing a complete acid wash on all the pans tomorrow. Josh
24x56 heavy timber post and beam sugar house. 2013 CDL 2.5x8 deluxe airtight raised flue 750 taps on vacuum. CDL reverse osmosis, Wes Fab 7" full bank press. Eastern Maine CDL sales rep.