#1 reason for delicious but Less Maple-y maple syrup

[On the ledge]

The trees give you what trees give you !

[DrTimPerkins]

... I was a little offended for a minute by Dr. Tim and Brian with equating light syrup coming from a superior producer with a clean and quality operation. Again, that sounded a little rough to those of us who make very little light syrup but run a pretty tight ship otherwise.

Steve...that was not my intention and if you re-read what I wrote, I said that light syrup was "historically" thought to be higher quality. I think there is a lot less of that sentiment these days.

There are a lot of factors that go into the color and flavor of syrup and it is certainly a very complex thing. The biggest things are sap quality (so storage temperature and conditions before being boiled) and evaporator configuration and operation.

We've had evaporators at UVM PMRC that despite any action we took, we simply could not make light syrup. Once we changed evaporators, our syrup immediately was lighter. Some things can't easily be explained.

In any case, dark syrup or light syrup -- all are good as long as they are proper density, free of sediment/turbidity, and have no off-flavors.

My one pet peeve about some descriptions of darker syrup is when people say they like the "smokey" flavor. Smoke is not a natural flavor in maple syrup -- it is an off-flavor. Some people may get used to it and like it (which is normal if that is what you are used to having), but it technically is an off-flavor that should not be present.

[christopherh]

[QUOTE=DrTimPerkins;415167]

We've had evaporators at UVM PMRC that despite any action we took, we simply could not make light syrup. Once we changed evaporators, our syrup immediately was lighter. Some things can't easily be explained.

I’ve always wondered which is actually better. A longer flue pan and shorter syrup pan or vise versa? All the manufacturers give us alot of options these days.

[Bucket Head]

Dr. Tim,

No worries, we are good. I knew it wasn't a disparagement. I really wasn't ready to call the site owner, a team of attorneys, the news networks and my congressmen to register a complaint. Nobody listens to me anyway...

Seriously, in all my years doing this, I never have made any true light syrup. At first, I was thinking, "What the heck?". But I stopped losing sleep over it many years ago and got over it!

Steve

[4Walls]

This whole thing has got me thinking about a little experiment. I want to try to make white, no cook maple syrup. The plan is to run a small amount through the RO up to about 50% sugar. Maybe have a few litres concentrated to that point. Then load that into the freeze dryer to reduce it down to syrup or sugar state. I am curious how much change in colour and taste come through without cooking. Will update once experiment complete.

[Galena]

This whole thing has got me thinking about a little experiment. I want to try to make white, no cook maple syrup. The plan is to run a small amount through the RO up to about 50% sugar. Maybe have a few litres concentrated to that point. Then load that into the freeze dryer to reduce it down to syrup or sugar state. I am curious how much change in colour and taste come through without cooking. Will update once experiment complete.

Sounds interesting!

[Bucket Head]

Give it a try. But there won't be much color or flavor to it. It will be sweet. But without the heat, there will be no Maillard reaction taking place. Putting heat to a sugar molecule basically ruins it, but the byproduct is the brown color and flavor. So it's a nice trade off, lol.

Steve

[ecolbeck]

I’ve always wondered which is actually better. A longer flue pan and shorter syrup pan or vise versa? All the manufacturers give us alot of options these days.

My understanding, from what I've read on these forums, is that evaporator configurations are designed to go with the anticipated strength of concentrate you intend to use with it. The stronger the concentrate, the greater the ratio of syrup to flue pan. Sap of higher concentrations needs more time in the pan to develop flavor, so a larger syrup pan is needed along with other adjustments such as greater sap depth.

[maple flats]

Steve, I'm with you, while I have made light syrup, by far most has been amber or dark. I consider that good, when I made golden, I packed it in my best glass and it didn't sell. Was it the syrup color or the added cost of glass, I'll never know. However I ended up blending it to get Amber or Dark and it sold. The last time I ever had a request for Golden (actually when it was called light amber was my first year ever hosting a maple weekend, back about 2008 or so.
I now sell only Amber and Dark, if any very dark is made, it becomes bourbon barrel aged maple syrup, more often dark is used because I rarely end up with very dark syrup.
From now on my syrup will only be made from taps on my own property around the sugarhouse, in the past I had 2 leases about 5 and 7 miles away. They took so much of my effort that I didn't even tap my own trees. That was mostly because those 2 leases were in the 600-750 taps size bushes and both had vacuum. My trees at that time would have had no vacuum, I sinply didn't invest in vacuum because at that time I only had about 180 taps worth of sugar maples. Then as I lost my help as they graduated college I sold the leases and added vacuum in my own woods around the sugarhouse, initially only sugar maples but once they maxed out at about 225, I gradually added reds and only a very few silvers and I got up to about 375 I think the last year before I sold the 3x8 evaporator. Now I've ordered a 2x6 and will be converting it to oil fired, my bush has now grown enough that if I tap the max, I'll be at or near 425, about 250 sugars, 5 or 6 silvers and the rest reds.