Maple Syrup season!

[spencer rifle]

I do the same as phylo - boil outside, finish inside. Adds humidity, good smells, but no sticky that we've noticed. I use a big enough pot that it doesn't splatter all over. And when it gets close, I just stand there and watch it. You don't have long once it's ready.

If you don't like your wallpaper, do all your boiling inside.

 

[TAB30-06]

Humidity I am fine with……. I can put the pot on the wood stove I have been hesitant because everyone has said it will be a sticky disaster

Once Its boils down to fitting in a medium sauce pan I finish it on the stove also. Never have any problems with mess. Wife would never let me hear the end of it.

 

[spencer rifle]

One more pint…

 

[three50seven]

Working on the 2nd batch for this year with good buddy and fellow Ingo'er Dekeshooter. We made 2 pints last weekend, hoping to get about twice that this week.

 

[Leadeye]

Every year I'm impressed with you guys who collect and boil sap.

 

[phylodog]

Every year I'm impressed with you guys who collect and boil sap.

You should give it a go. It's not difficult but is very rewarding to pull food, especially something as heavenly as maple syrup from your land.

 

[dekeshooter]

Working on the 2nd batch for this year with good buddy and fellow Ingo'er Dekeshooter. We made 2 pints last weekend, hoping to get about twice that this week.

He called it. Production was doubled between last weekend and this weekend.

This is my first year collecting sap and making syrup. I’m already searching for more trees to tap for next season. I have a good mentor in three50seven and I’m looking forward to expanding in 2025.

 

[phylodog]

I'm still very much a newb to making my own and far from being a connoisseur of syrup but I'm curious about something. Is all real maple syrup the same? It all gets boiled down to the same sugar content so I wouldn't think one would taste sweeter than any other my intuition isn't 100%. Can there be a flavor difference depending on region of the country, soil type, position of a tree (north vs south facing slope)? Nothing but sugar maples just to keep things simple.

 

[AndreusMaximus]

I'm still very much a newb to making my own and far from being a connoisseur of syrup but I'm curious about something. Is all real maple syrup the same? It all gets boiled down to the same sugar content so I wouldn't think one would taste sweeter than any other my intuition isn't 100%. Can there be a flavor difference depending on region of the country, soil type, position of a tree (north vs south facing slope)? Nothing but sugar maples just to keep things simple.

Absolutely there can be a difference. All the factors you listed (region, soil, amount of sun a tree gets) affect what/how much a tree produces. Even if it has the same sugar content*, the sugar is what gives it sweetness, but the flavor comes from a lot of other minerals/ingredients, and in my experience, that flavor can vary even from the beginning to the end of the season. I'm not sciencey enough to tell you exactly what the other ingredients are, or which factors actually produce a noticeable difference, but I can definitely tell you there is a difference.

Around here, we generally notice two flavors that ebb and flow in the maple syrup, and we call them "caramel" and "vanilla", because that's what they taste closest to to us. I forget off the top of my head, but my FIL could tell you which flavor you're more likely to get depending on temperature, and how close to the beginning/end of the season your run was. Personally, I like the "caramel" flavored stuff a bit better, but some of the family prefer the "vanilla". Though it's all good, of course, and none of us would turn down any of it on our pancakes.

*To add further differences, it's actually not even true that all maple syrup is boiled to the exact same sugar content. I think the number I've heard most often is to boil it to 218 degrees, but we've gotten lazy a couple times and stopped at 216 or 217, which produces a noticeably runnier syrup. Conversely, my dad really likes the thicker stuff, so when he does a batch he usually aims to boil until the batch reaches 220 degrees. I've had maple syrup from the store (yes, they do sell the real stuff in stores, but it's ghastly expensive. And watch out for stuff that claims to be real, but is actually a 50/50 mix of real maple syrup and corn syrup!) that I'm pretty sure had to have been boiled to a lower temperature than standard based on how runny it was, but it's been quite a while since I've had store-bought maple syrup, so I could be remembering wrong.

Finally, I was intrigued when @spencer rifle told me that he notices a difference in color depending on how long the batch was processed. We'd never picked up on such a correlation, and now I'm wondering if the length of processing time can affect the flavor as well as the color?

Of course, we've also done batches with a poor setup that allowed smoke and soot from the fire to get into the syrup, so you end up with that lovely smoked flavor in your syrup. But I don't really count that.

Anyways, ramble over.

 

[three50seven]

I think this is my 6th or 7th season making syrup. Up until this year, I always just went by the temp and how it looked. This year I broke down and bought a hydrometer. It really take the guess work out of it and helps produce a more consistent product.

 

[Leadeye]

Anybody heard of boiling sap under a vacuum? I've got some pressure tanks sitting around I might set up for this.

 

[phylodog]

Anybody heard of boiling sap under a vacuum? I've got some pressure tanks sitting around I might set up for this.

Can't say that I have. I've watched a couple videos on the filtration setups people use but at my scale I don't see it as practical. Off to Youtube....

 

[TAB30-06]

Looks like I’m going to be working a night shift.

 

[cg21]

Season is done for me pulled my taps too warm flies are starting the invade.

 

[AndreusMaximus]

Yep, trees are starting to bud, too. Our last boiling was on Saturday.

 

[snorko]

Anybody heard of boiling sap under a vacuum? I've got some pressure tanks sitting around I might set up for this.

Do we need to merge with the freeze dryer thread?

Wait, seriously, I am not that smart but would that work for small batches?

 

[dekeshooter]

I boiled my last batch on Saturday. Much darker product than my earlier cooks. The flavor is much more bold than the first couple of batches. I learned a lot in this my first season of syrup making and I’m looking forward to increasing my output next spring.