Is the maple syrup your using from end of season or when?
Is the maple syrup your using from end of season or when?
It is possible that the Syrup you are using just won't make good sugar, its happened to me with some real Dark crude I was experimenting with to make sugar. Otherwise as other people have said 265 has worked every time. I used to make it but hand but after doing a 15lb order bye hand I said enough is enough and bought a heavy duty kitchen Aid mixer. At some point I'd like to get a commercial mixer because the kitchen Aid gets kinda grumpy on 3qt cream bathches.
Nate Hutchins
Nate & Kate's Maple
2022 1000 taps?
3x10 Intensofire
20x36 sugarhouse
CDL 600gph RO
A wife and 2 kids.
265°-270°F works for me too.
I know I've had batches with dark syrup that I've boiled to those temps but I wind up with this gummy mess that eventually hardens but it never comes out right.
Question for the group - I wind up with a lot of hard balls or "rocks" of sugar that I need to reprocess some how. It's probably about 40-50% of my batches. My question is, how much do you guys get? I'm trying to figure out if that is normal or if it's a result of the syrup I'm using or my mixer.
About 300 taps
2'x6' air tight arch
Semi complete 12'x24' sugarhouse in Somers, CT
My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CapturedNature
My eBook: Making Maple Syrup in your Backyard
I've only made it 2 times each a 1/2 gallon batch. I only had maybe a cup of "crunchies" as I call them. Some were like rock candy, some just hard clumps of sugar that I could crush to grains. Been following this thread, as we really like the sugar and looking for others errors so I can avoid them. First time I tried I let it go to far, it overshot my temp really quick and burned. I was just glad I was cooking it outside. I think I still have the burned pan with the burnt sugar in it as a reminder to not walk away from anything maple.
backyard hobbyist
Mason 2x3 w/AUF
2020 - added small vacuum and gravity 5/16 tubing and sap sacks
N 42* 18' 31."
W 79* 34' 15."
https://www.saptapapps.com/map/31868...-aab748a6394e/
ok that being said. so I don't keep make mistakes. I've only made two batches in my life both were the same result. Not great.
I use a kitchen aid pro series 8 qt.
I went to 265° .
What speed should I go. first time I was on low second I was on 3. Same result. Not sure if its important.
It got to the graniey peanut butter stage again but mixed for a good10-15 minutes with no more change .
So on the cookie sheet it went and in the oven for 10 minutes at 200° back in the bowl then I had the nicest maple brown sugar you ever saw bit it wouldn't dry so 5 more minutes in the oven .then back in the bowl and tadaa sugar.
Do I need to go to 270°.
Lastly will that soft brown sugar keep without turning into a brick. Or needing refrigerated.
25 years sugaring
2018 191taps. Made 80 gallons
Two taps to a 5 gallon bucket roadside trees.
A retired dad to hump buckets and do most of the boiling the great wife that let's me spend lots of time and money.
New Smokey lake 2×6 raised flue SSR on my own version of the silverplate arch.
2019 new hood and new preheater concept that worked great.
306 taps roadside trees
Sounds to me like your thermometer is out of calibration. Are you letting is cool slightly before mixing? I only ask because I was just reading the section on granulated sugar from the Maple Confections Notebook.
Last edited by Chickenman; 01-15-2019 at 07:34 PM.
backyard hobbyist
Mason 2x3 w/AUF
2020 - added small vacuum and gravity 5/16 tubing and sap sacks
N 42* 18' 31."
W 79* 34' 15."
https://www.saptapapps.com/map/31868...-aab748a6394e/
https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs....ion-tz3j4x.pdf
If you have not seen this, I hope the link works.
backyard hobbyist
Mason 2x3 w/AUF
2020 - added small vacuum and gravity 5/16 tubing and sap sacks
N 42* 18' 31."
W 79* 34' 15."
https://www.saptapapps.com/map/31868...-aab748a6394e/
25 years sugaring
2018 191taps. Made 80 gallons
Two taps to a 5 gallon bucket roadside trees.
A retired dad to hump buckets and do most of the boiling the great wife that let's me spend lots of time and money.
New Smokey lake 2×6 raised flue SSR on my own version of the silverplate arch.
2019 new hood and new preheater concept that worked great.
306 taps roadside trees
I always run the machine on lowest setting for speed. Another thing i will stop the mixer several times and use spatula to scrap down to bottom of bowl to make sure no syrup is left sitting and not getting mixed up. Have you ever tested the invert sugar level of your syrup? Once i used some very dark syrup and it never changed to granulated sugar in mixer, it was just a big glob of goo. I then tested the syrup and the invert sugar level was between a 6 and 7. Thats only time the syrup would never turn into granulated sugar. I take my syrup up to 260 degrees and once the temp is reached dump syrup in mixer. Once your done making sugar in mixer you can spread it out on cookie sheet and put in oven on low temp to take any remaining moisture out. Once its dry put it in air tight container and it will last a very long time.