Quote Originally Posted by MapleSaint View Post
Hey Russ. It is always a pleasure to read your post. I was wondering why the syrup won’t lighting up. Here has been dark and very dark. You always have some helpful information in your post. Hope the 1000 gal runs come for you on you last journey.
This year I think that the dark syrup is because of the small sap runs and not being able to boil every day. Over the weekend I put 1365 gallons of sap through the RO and the highest concentration percentage was 9%. By yesterday afternoon I it was coming out of the draw off lighter than I has been all season. It wasn't light enough to bring my syrup up a grade but got me into the mid dark range. The first draw off yesterday was the darkest I've seen it this season. The sap in the flue pan was a lot lighter colored at the end of the boil yesterday too. I'm hoping for a good run today to follow up yesterday's good run in hopes that I can finally make some amber.

Last season I think it was because of the low sugar content. It was rare to see it higher than 1.2% and it was usually below 1%. This season, other than the first run it's been running between 1.5 and 1.8% which until last season is pretty much normal for my trees.