I have 2 Questions about boiling
1) Can you boil "Too hard"
2) Does 2 part boil effect product? i.e. Boil off most water, refrigerate 2-3 days and then finish, filter, and can.

I tried my hand at syrup making for first time last year. I gathered approximately 150 gallons of sap and generated 3 gallons of syrup. I am using a block arch with steamer serving trays (full size 6" deep). I canned in mason jars after filtering with several layers of "Tap my trees" brand filters. Everything turned out wonderful.

This year I have good wood (last year I used bigger logs not fully seasoned resulting in slow boils) and am able to achieve very hot fires. At times I get a violent boil although there are several inches of sap in pan. Additionally I have been boiling to close to finish and refrigerating for couple of days prior to finishing. I have been getting a suspension in my syrup that I didn't have last year. I am assuming this is referred to as niter. After a couple of days it does settle to the bottom of jars. I haven't changed anything (including trees tapped) from last year with the exception of these 2 things. I canned 1st batch by gravity filter and decided to step up and build a vacuum filter. I had same results with both. Any insight would be appreciated.

Wife says I am becoming obsessed with this maple syrup production, I told her that everybody here has pretty much done the same!