The Perfect Boil

Sometimes it happens, just dumb luck, last night I boiled 4 liters of maple sap and this morning I had about 7 oz. of maple syrup !

The 4 liters of sap was 3.7% sugar.  How do I know ?  I used the longer of the two refractomers pictured:

It is a 0 to 10% unit so it has better resolution than the 0 to 32% one that I purchased first.

The 7 oz. of syrup is 66.5% sugar which is close enough to the goal of 66% to qualify a syrup to me :)  How do I know ?  I used the shorter of the two refractometers to measure the syrup.  

The percentages mentioned above are by mass, finished syrup is more like 87% sugar by volume.  So that's why a lot of care is needed when boiling the sap at the end, there isn't that much water left by volume.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm