Eastern Ontario 2022

[ir3333]

for those of you that sell a bit of syrup what do you find is preferred ... light, medium or dark?

[Galena]

for those of you that sell a bit of syrup what do you find is preferred ... light, medium or dark?

The few times I have sold it, Amber is by far and away preferred; most people want syrup that looks and tastes like maple syrup.

Some ol' timers swear by Light, but I always warn them that my Light doesn't taste much like maple, it has more of a vanilla/marshmallow flavour. Only my eldest brother and I prefer late-season Dark, which usually starts to go towards brown sugar and molasses after batch 5.

[ir3333]

i have found the same..amber by far.

[Galena]

i have found the same..amber by far.

The Amber category is always the biggest one at fairs I've entered (Spencerville, Carp, Richmond so far) as again it seems the most *typical* (looks like maple and tastes like maple) syrup. You don't really see much Light on most grocery store shelves, though you might see some Dark. Quite curious to see how my only really good Delicate/Light batch will do, if I am able to enter it anywhere this year.

Wondering if Bruce Leggett, with his massive amounts of syrup knowledge and experience entering fairs, will chime in?

[jungmaria]

Did my calculations over again today and it’s 36:1 not 44:1! Oops. That’s a bit better but still not in your league.
**** about the nitre. What a pain.

@ jungmaria ah I see. The bulk of my trees are mature sugar maples, 3 of them are bush sugars (one of them now has 2 spiles, the other 2 one each) and this year a red is in the mix, which may be affecting things. My biggest sugar is off the line this year as it had surgery in January. Doesn't stop it from dripping sap on me though if I walk close by! I wouldn't mind knowing the sugar content, esp of the 3 bush maples, but I think it kinda ruins the fun ;-)

If I ever do get a sugar measuring thingy then I'll check the content of my trees sometime, but nowadays ago by what I get once I finish hotpacking. Just bottled up a sold 5l of #3, and there's a bit more - probably another .25l - slowly filtering out. 160l of sap/ 5.25l syrup so this batch's ratio at just over 30:1.

[jungmaria]

Thanks, I likely should. I never figured I needed to know, but that’s a good point about not boiling below 1%. Just a waste of time and wood.

I also use it
to check when the sap levels drop below 1% sugar. I won't boil sap that low.

[jungmaria]

Lots of people seem to want the dark, they think it’s ‘stronger’ or something, but I’m all about the Amber.

for those of you that sell a bit of syrup what do you find is preferred ... light, medium or dark?

[paulslund]

So bottled up the syrup from my first boil and yielded 13.9L from the 470L boil for a ratio of 33.8:1, which is a bit lower than I thought it was going to be but still a very respectable ratio, considering Silver maples constitute about 3/4 of my taps.. I think my second boil might be even better (but I've clearly overestimated my other batch so I won't get ahead of myself).

@Galena, sometimes there is always just a bit of the fine niter that can get through the filters.. I'm currently using the 5 micron Orlon filter with 2 prefilters and there always seems to be some very fine stuff that needs to settle.. I keep my jars in the oven set at 170 to avoid cooling down too fast and I waited until the syrup was down to 185 before running through the filters (into a semi-insulated coffee percolator that I use for pouring into jars). I may try the 1 micron filter next year (or if I run out of jars and need to freeze nearup for later processing). If your syrup is 186 I didn't think it would form more nitre even sitting on a well insulated surface.. unless it was actually higher than 190-195 perhaps.. have you calibrated your thermometer?

[Galena]

...@Galena, sometimes there is always just a bit of the fine niter that can get through the filters.. I'm currently using the 5 micron Orlon filter with 2 prefilters and there always seems to be some very fine stuff that needs to settle.. I keep my jars in the oven set at 170 to avoid cooling down too fast and I waited until the syrup was down to 185 before running through the filters (into a semi-insulated coffee percolator that I use for pouring into jars). I may try the 1 micron filter next year (or if I run out of jars and need to freeze nearup for later processing). If your syrup is 186 I didn't think it would form more nitre even sitting on a well insulated surface.. unless it was actually higher than 190-195 perhaps.. have you calibrated your thermometer?

Paul, this is the first time ever that I have had nitre form once hotpacked, and the only thing I did differently was have the pot sitting directly on my wooden kitchen counter as opposed to staying on the burner or, as today, on a cooling rack placed next to that burner.

Yesterday, I poured off the clear syrup from each jar and left residual syrup and nitre in the bottoms, then collected all that together and filtered it through my ever-popular and actually pretty good coffee filter and clothespin setup :-)

Today I heated the jars at 190 for 10 min (probably even longer) then turned the heat off; residual heat in the oven would have kept them around 170 like you say. Meanwhile, I slowly reheated the syrup, which I kept covered overnight in the fridge, back UP to 185; the second my therm (a professional food-industry grade digital therm, a Taylor) read 185.4, I took it off the burner, put it on a heavy duty cooling rack and hotpacked again. No way is that therm off; I'm still willing to bet that that 2' thick slab of ash that is my countertops was responsible for retaining heat. Again, Maillard's reaction.

Just finished hotpacking again, will let you know in a couple hours. Meanwhile this exact same process has left me with 2 batches of perfectly clear hotpacked syrup, nitre free, safely stashed away.

ETA: Just checked and that syrup, along with the other 2 batches, is crystal clear. No nitre at all.

[ir3333]

i see some of you bottle during the season. Once I have finished collecting and boiling sap I
clean and sterilize all equipment, pails, reservoirs, taps and put it all in storage until next year.
Once that is all complete i bottle everything at once.