Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[woodchuck]

Things kicked in for me around 2:00 this afternoon. Ran steady, not crazy, until 9:00 tonight. Sugar came up from a pre-freeze of 1.6 to a 1.8. Ive struggled with SC this year. Bucket volume was low. A good day on buckets can move my total sugar up .4 ish.
Sap is still clear and buds seem to be on hold.

[wiam]

We made 18 gallons tonight. Total of 344 so far

[Meuphrat]

Having a great season down here in southern VT. Almost at .5gal/tap. Tapped out 1/24. Caught first sap 1/31. Made some early syrup then shut down for 2nd week feb. Been going strong since. Watched the weather almost take us right to the edge then got this stretch of nice freeze and thaw. Crazy thing happening tho. We are making really light syrup again after making a lot of dark. Has a bit of a strong flavor not bad but not fancy flavor. Almost like what you'd see off of a steam boiler. Boiling on an old leader special drop flue wood fired. Grade went lighter for some folks around us but not this light. I guess I would be curious if anyone has insight into what about the trees and weather effect color and flavor. I understand that as buds progress flavor gets stronger but would the cold keep the grade light while buds still progress?

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

made another 12 gal last night, went from really dark to getting a little lighter probably back to medium amber. up towards 170/180 now should break 200 by this weekend, Gravity started to run again yesterday. chased vac leak for hours saturday. FYI vac leak finder doesnt pick up dead trees and leaks in tress, sap sucker up to 24"

[smokeyamber]

Things woke up here in Central Vt, buckets were 1/3 full on most and a couple were 1/2, figured with the wind and cold it would not have done anything... trees proved me wrong. Time to flush the vinegar soaking pan and get ready to fire up again. This is the first season I have actually cleaned the pan and taken a break in the middle of the season. Nice to have a few gallons in the bank before this run...today is looking good as well with some sun to thaw things out. Looks like I will be boiling on Easter

[tcross]

slow trickle here in the kingdom yesterday afternoon... trees woke up in time for it to freeze up again. it was sort of amusing... I have a couple buckets for shts and giggles and they were dripping steadily after my vacuum shut off... they are in the middle of the yard however. hoping today will be better.

[DrTimPerkins]

Having a great season down here in southern VT. Almost at .5gal/tap. Tapped out 1/24. Caught first sap 1/31. Made some early syrup then shut down for 2nd week feb. Been going strong since. .... Grade went lighter for some folks around us but not this light. I guess I would be curious if anyone has insight into what about the trees and weather effect color and flavor. I understand that as buds progress flavor gets stronger but would the cold keep the grade light while buds still progress?

Good to hear that your season is going well.

Buds don't really affect flavor....until they do....meaning that when it turns buddy, the season is basically done. Almost like a switch, although sometimes there is a little "pre-bud" and sometimes (rarely) a real cold snap can cause the a slight buddy off-flavor to recede temporarily. This is caused by a change in the amino acid composition in the sap due to bud development. Active buds release a suite of amino acids into the sap.....which make the sap taste terrible. They do this only at and after budbreak. Any "pre-bud" flavor is due to some trees in the system having started to bud, but most have not. Usually it's just a short time period before they all pop.

Regular flavor development in syrup is fairly complex, however it is the microbes in the system converting sucrose to invert sugar, and the combination with various amino and organic acids in sap that results in darker color/stronger flavor (one of the most common organic acids is malic acid....the compound which also gives apples their tartness....malic acid is a major constituent of niter -- calcium malate). More microbes when it is warm, thus darker syrup. When you have a cold snap, you kill off some of the microbes, therefore less sucrose inversion so the grade comes back up. In rare circumstances, near the very end, the sap pH can get so low that the color can lighten due to reduced "alkaline degradation" during boiling. That'll make light syrup with a not so great flavor.

[DrTimPerkins]

The trees want to run....but at least here up on the hill they're just teasing us. Sunday and Monday afternoons we had a bit of sap come in for a few hours late each afternoon until the sun went down. All our tanks about 1/3 full. Not enough to boil or concentrate yet. We'll wait until tomorrow afternoon and decide. However it looks like great weather coming for late in the week.

[GeneralStark]

Ran real hard yesterday afternoon here as well. Went over 1 gpt from small runs over the weekend and yesterday's gusher. It looks like my refractometer is off despite continuous calibrating. I guess it pays to buy a good one. My sap hydrometer is showing sugar at 1.3 so it doesn't seem like the freeze has brought it back so I guess Dr Tim's hypothesis has not been correct for all of us.

I suspect it is going to run well again today as it has already hit 35 here. Will boil tonight and see where we are at for flavor and grade. Our red maples definitely have some swollen buds but nothing too dramatic. We are just under 200 for the season so far and I am hoping to go at least thru this week.

[madmapler]

My sugar hasn't gone up at all either as of yet. It's been around 1.0 for awhile now. Color has become almost AR. and the sap is running strong and clear.