Less than. Last year, but still happy.

I was gifted some homemade maple syrup and when i opened it there was foam on top, is it safe? No odd smell or coloring to it

I bought a Smokey lake vacuum filter this year hoping my filtering would be far less frustrating but the only difference is I’m frustrated and spent a butt load of money to be frustrated. Does anyone have any good filtering advice? It is by far the only thing I dislike about sugaring.

Posting on behalf of my dad what has been tapping the trees in backyard for the past 20 years. As it says in the title, we are wondering why the last batch that he prepped this year so much darker? These bottles all came from the same trees, this year, and were prepared the same way. I'm curious if the color difference was caused some small difference in temperature when it was boiled or the sap itself. Apologies if this is a naive/silly question Reddit, I super appreciate your help!!

I have a few jars that were boiled down to much and have turned to a hard sugary lump Is there a way I can reconstitute them back to a liquid state?

My last batch is lighter than the one before it. Interesting.

Eastern Ontario 490 Litres 130ish US gallons

Eastern Ontario. Collected in the morning when it was cooler as a river was flowing here yesterday afternoon. 350L

I've got 25 taps on the go and I boil on a 55gal drum conversion kit with the top cut out. There is so much sap this year, I can't keep up.

I've started looking into RO systems. I made an impulse buy and got this membrane. Can anyone tell me if this pump will work with it? I'm not looking to set filtration records or anything, I just want to cut my boiling time.

Thanks.

Looking for some feedback on my first year experience boiling in my sugar shack.

Some basics:

12' x 16' shack, forced air evaporator 20" x 20" finish pan & 20" x 20" drop flue & 6" x 20" sap warm up pan

(2) doors on my cupola at about 24" tall x 60" long

(4) small windows on the side walls of the shack.

Inside of shack is currently unfinished--2" x 6" framing

What I am experiencing:

• I need to have my side wall windows open when I boil to keep from getting "fogged out". I thought with the cupola door (or doors) being open the steam would rise and things would be ok, but I'm not seeing this--too foggy inside, unsafe conditions. Fogging is especially significant when I start my boils and the outside temperature is below 32 degrees F. If my windows are closed I have a foggy mess, when I open the windows, it clears things up to an acceptable level, however as the cold outside air enters through the windows I get a lot of condensation build up. The condensation makes sense--cold air meets hot moist air and voilà

• I often have snow on my roof and I am seeing condensation on the underside of my 5/8" plywood roof sheathing. Topside roof sheathing is covered with tar paper/roofing felt and asphalt shingles. I guess this makes sense too. Cold snowy roof and hot moist air on the underside equals condensation.

I'm assuming what I am describing above is all typical., but this is my first experience boiling indoors.

Question:

Would it make sense to insulate the underside of the roof before I finish with pine planking? Does anybody do this, or is it a waste of time and I should quit worrying about the water on my roof sheathing? Wet roofs just make me nervous.

Today (Thursday), we collected about 1.1 gallons per tap.

Central NH.

I am boiling 2 pans of sap and notice a slight yeast smell in the steam. Is it ok?

Was boiling yesterday and finally finished my last batch. It’s about 2 gallons. I was done boiling and had to step away, so I came back to heat it back up to filter and accidentally overcooked it. Using a Murphy cup, says I should be at 60.5-61 brix, but I was closer to 62 on the hydrometer. Noticed after I filtered a little while later there was some small amounts of sugar type substance around the pan. I did bottle one jar and haven’t noticed anything after storing in the fridge. Is there a problem with being 1-2 brix over?

Does anyone use whiskey bottles to store their maple syrup in long term? I have crown royal bottles and some absolute vodka bottles I was thinking of using. Just wondering if anyone else liked to recycle in this way and if you could reuse the caps too or if you knew where to get new ones?

I'm having a hard time getting my syrup to 65.9 brix. I have a Milwaukee digital refractometer and I've been following the CDL temperature adjustment chart but the syrup keeps coming out light. Should I be bringing my sap up to 65.9 brix at a boil or should I be adjusting the temp? I'm not entirely sure given I am using a refractometer and not a hydrometer. Basically I guess what I am asking is, does temperature matter when you are using a digital refractometer and what should the target Brix reading be at boiling temperatures.

We added these 2 gravity lines because the trees camera left and camera right are usually under water in the spring. Turns out this year the melt is (again) so quick the gravity collection buckets are in a river :(

We added these 2 gravity lines because the trees camera left and camera right are usually under water in the spring. Turns out this year the melt is (again) so quick the gravity collection buckets are in a river :(

1st year tapper here!

I got about 7 gallons from one tree and was excited to get my 3 cups of maple syrup! Began boiling today and failed miserably almost burning the house down 🤣😭😭😭

I have 3 other maple trees on the property, but is it too late to tap now?

I boiled some syrup and it came out a little light (~60Brix). When I reheat and get closer to the proper target do I have to filter again? Also at sea level what brig target should I hit with hot boiling syrup?

Central NH.

Cold morning.

Looking for some recipes. First year making maple gold.