Dialing it in
As previously blogged, the 2024 maple syrup season has begun:
https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/02/start-of-maple-season-2024.html
Here is a picture of the maple syrup resulting from boil sessions 2, 3 and 4:
The first try (not pictured, already eaten) was under boiled with a sugar concentration below 58 and above 32 (I don't have a measurement tool for the range from 32 to 58). The ideal maple syrup concentration is 66 percent.
The next 3 trials were over boiled with sugar concentrations of 71, 68 and 68. On the last boil I got the dreaded flip-off of the still breaker. I worry about the longevity of these bimetallic parts.
So I'll keep trying to adjust my boil times to ideally create the 66 reading. The finished syrup sugar level depends on sap temperature, sap sugar concentration and boil time. The sap temperature is usually "fridge temp", the concentration varies and the boil time is the main item that can be adjusted.
Of course it would be easier to under boil and then do a finish boil later but that's just more work and seems to result in more "sugar sand" (crystallized sucrose) at the bottom of the jar.
Hopefully I can develop enough data to pinpoint a good boil time for finished maple syrup given a starting sap concentration BEFORE the end of the 2024 maple season.
As a first try here is a spreadsheet of the expected number of ounces of syrup from 4 liters of sap - I catch the distilled sap in a pitcher which has crude graduations at the 128 oz level so a little guestimation may be needed when monitoring the output.
Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm
https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/02/start-of-maple-season-2024.html
Here is a picture of the maple syrup resulting from boil sessions 2, 3 and 4:
The first try (not pictured, already eaten) was under boiled with a sugar concentration below 58 and above 32 (I don't have a measurement tool for the range from 32 to 58). The ideal maple syrup concentration is 66 percent.
The next 3 trials were over boiled with sugar concentrations of 71, 68 and 68. On the last boil I got the dreaded flip-off of the still breaker. I worry about the longevity of these bimetallic parts.
So I'll keep trying to adjust my boil times to ideally create the 66 reading. The finished syrup sugar level depends on sap temperature, sap sugar concentration and boil time. The sap temperature is usually "fridge temp", the concentration varies and the boil time is the main item that can be adjusted.
Of course it would be easier to under boil and then do a finish boil later but that's just more work and seems to result in more "sugar sand" (crystallized sucrose) at the bottom of the jar.
Hopefully I can develop enough data to pinpoint a good boil time for finished maple syrup given a starting sap concentration BEFORE the end of the 2024 maple season.
As a first try here is a spreadsheet of the expected number of ounces of syrup from 4 liters of sap - I catch the distilled sap in a pitcher which has crude graduations at the 128 oz level so a little guestimation may be needed when monitoring the output.
Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm
