Central Ontario Tapping

[Run Forest Run!]

Hi MSM. I've had more trouble with the filtering this year than in other years too. After the first batch of ridiculously sluggish filtering, I waved the white flag and and am now letting the batches settle out in large bottles and will decant the clear stuff off in a day or two and then gently reheat to 180F for a final bottling. I don't know why this year is causing filtering problems, but I've decided to not even bother fighting with it. The syrup I've made so far is settling out just perfectly in the jars and I'm confident that what I'll eventually bottle will be crystal clear and delicious.

BTW, my sugar content greatly increased last week so my second batch was much quicker and easier to make than my first batch. I suspect you'll find the same thing with your next run of sap - once these frigid temperatures ease up a little.

[MustardSeedMum]

Karen, I was hoping it was just me, really. Then there'd be some hope that maybe I was just having equipment failure - like maybe I need a new prefilter or something.
I was even thinking I'd go the jelly bag route, if it was a problem with my thick wool filter.

The other thing I'm struggling with is figuring out when to finish. Use my hydrotherm or my thermometer? I was boiling to 219/220 but my hydrotherm would say it's not quite ready. But I'm getting the sheeting and my finished product looks really thick going by my hydrotherm.

If I am on the thick side, then maybe my sugar content is a lot better in my sap than I'm calculating it to be.

I say filtering is the thing I love the least with sugaring. Maybe someone can come out with a marketing scheme where we can all sell unfiltered maple syrup and tout it as a health product. Charge more too since it's all natural. Oh wait, I think there was a guy on kijiji last year or the year before who was doing that. Wonder if he's on there again this year.

[Run Forest Run!]

MSM, I defaulted to the hydrotherm. I like to take the syrup a little thick and then thin it down when cool to the exact brix that I want. There's a lot less drama thinning down cool syrup than trying to get things exact when boiling hot. My syrup was acting strange this year when I tried to filter. It gooped up really quickly - that's the technical term. lol I ended up dumping it back into the pot with only three bottles successfully and properly filtered. I've resigned myself to decanting this year. If future batches behave more like the batches of previous years I might try to filter them like I always have done, but until then I'm not going to stress myself out fighting with it.

If your finished syrup is thick according to your hydrotherm, then it is. Trust that over what your thermometer tells you. Like I said, I really prefer to boil my syrup a little thick and then thin it the next morning. Once it's reheated, settled and bottled it's perfect.

[Jerome]

Are you using the prefilter liners in your filter? I suspend my filter in the caner to keep it warm it helps a lot with flow. Then again I have not tried to filter this year so I don't know how bad the niter is.

[Run Forest Run!]

Yes Jerome, that's how I've done it in the past but the syrup is ceasing up quickly this year. Sugaring always seems to be a moving target, so I just go with the flow.

[daverobitaille]

Filtering..... Always a misery. However this year seams to be the easiest year since I make syrup. It always depends on the year and many, many factors. I use a pre filter before finishing and an Orlon filter when done. This year I am able to filter 3 full gallons before the filter is to clogged up. In the past I was doing about 2 at the most.

[Run Forest Run!]

Taps on the south side of the trees have just started to drip after being frozen solid since the end of last week. Here's hoping.

[Run Forest Run!]

I collected up my frozen bucketsicles yesterday in anticipation of a sap run today. I'd need the space in the buckets if it lets loose. What has melted off from that ice so far is registering off the scale of my refractometer - somewhere in the 11% sugar range. OMG. I'm going to let the ice melt down until a lot more of the locked in sugar has been released then get rid of the watery icy bits.

[MustardSeedMum]

I collected up my frozen bucketsicles yesterday in anticipation of a sap run today. I'd need the space in the buckets if it lets loose. What has melted off from that ice so far is registering off the scale of my refractometer - somewhere in the 11% sugar range. OMG. I'm going to let the ice melt down until a lot more of the locked in sugar has been released then get rid of the watery icy bits.

WOWIE! That makes up for the first week doesn't it?!
Makes me wonder about my frozen sap that's been sitting in the buckets since Saturday.
I used about 4L of it the other day to mix in with a little syrup that I was cleaning off my filters. Was surprised that it didn't reduce as much as I thought it would.

[MustardSeedMum]

While I bemoan the lack of sap today, here's a question for you regarding grading of maple syrup.
Here I have the same batch of syrup (my 2nd batch from the past week) in 2 different sized bottles - 125ml (¼ pint) and 500ml (1 pint)

photo-2.jpg

How would you grade this? Light? And if I didn't have the smaller bottle as a comparison, wouldn't I be grading incorrectly?