Maple Syrup Finally!

Looking at the busy schedule, the forecast, and the alignment of the planets all pointed to last night for Greg to finish what he started from Saturday's boil. The aligning of the planets may or may not have been part of the decision to finish the four gallons of sweet maple concentrate down to the finished product.

With all the equipment at hand and the concentrated sap boiling and the digital thermometer reading 214 and holding and holding and holding. It's been a year since I've done the process and forgot just how long it takes to evaporate to the magic 7.1 degrees above boiling water to reach the desired syrup consistency we all try to acheive. The thermometer is set at 218 to alert me that the sap is getting close to becoming syrup. Assuming water is boiling at 212 F the actual temp for syrup would be 219.1 F

In the sugaring and brewing world there are instruments to measure densities. A syrup hydrometer is the tool of choice for this part of the operation. The hydrometer comes calibrated and there are couple of indicating lines to show when the correct brix or density is reached. Brix is sugar content of an aqueous solution. Once the syrup is close, the hydrometer cup is filled with hot syrup, the hydrometer is carefully placed into the cup and it will "float" and a visual check is taken to see where the brix is currently reading on the scale. Once 59 brix is reached, the syrup has reached the correct density.

After about one and half hours the syrup reached the magic point and is bottled. At this point the official and "correct way" would be to filter the hot syrup through a series of filters to remove all the niter or "sugar sand" which is the natural by product of residual minerals that are left behind. I filter along the way while boiling with pre filters which are much thinner than the final felt filter which collect plenty of the niter. Being such a small backyard producer I skip the modern method of filtering and let gravity help me out. From the hot syrup off the burner I directly bottle and allow to cool and then store the bottled syrup away for a while. By letting the syrup rest the minerals settle to the bottom of the container. Once it's time to package the liquid gold I carefully pour off the now crystal clear syrup into a stove top pan and heat to 185 F. This will sterilize the syrup for bottling. Into the decorative bottles and jugs goes the syrup, adding a nice label and wallah- A nice very personal gift of specialty product is ready for the anxious consumer.

Now the cleanup and looking ahead to the next boiling day. Ugg, I keep convincing myself that I love the long hours standing by the evaporater for hours on end in the cold. Can't wait for this Saturday's forecasted high of barely 15 degrees. Oh the joy...

First Boil February 6, 2016

My head filled with checklists, running through the whole process of boiling. Did I forget anything? Paper towels, lighter, buckets, filters, on and on. Everything is in order, phew. Damn, the hose water is frozen up good. Had to wait until mid day for that. Ok, so now the wood pile. Yep the one that's covered in snow. At least my leaky green tarp kept the wood dry for the most part. Clean containers-damn again. I had to get water from the inside to clean up before the sap went in. Yep all 80 gallons.

Filled with firebox with some aged newspaper, twigs all set up nice like a little tepee, some bigger stuff right up to the forearm sized logs. Lit her up closed the door and went to get more wood from the pile. Came back to check and I snuffed the fired out. Choked. Repeat this time with the door open and she was ripping in no time. Something like 8 hours later the boil  was done.

 

Now at least I'm much more prepared for the 2nd boil. Though I still have to clean the pans that have been soaking with mix of water and vinegar. The top edges of the pans are loaded up good with burnt sugar. As the boil goes on the sap becomes more concentrated and with  the rapid boil some sap splashes up and gets cooked onto the pans.

Sap Collecting

The trees have been very generous early on. To date there are 14 taps in and from only three days of sap collecting the trees have given up over 50 gallons. In my book that is a high rate of flow. Now if the sugar percent in the sap is around 2% or 40:1 ratio that should yield over one gallon of finished syrup. That will be nice for a few days work.

The weather is forecasted to gradually get cold towards the middle of February which will probably slow the sap flow down somewhat. After that from the last week in February through the first couple of weeks in March it looks to be ideal throughout the period for good sap flow.

Better stock up on waffles and pancakes mix! Actually maple syrup drizzled over the best vanilla ice cream you can get your hands on is such an amazing treat. I'll post some other ways to use this gold elixir of the north.