Cooking Maple Sap

Took my first stab at tapping maples last season,shooting for a gallon of syrup just for family use, but ended a bit short, as I started tapping too late. All trees tapped were sugar maples in the yard. The syrup turned out very, very sweet, dark brown in color, with a crystalized layer forming on each of the 12 oz. bottles. Being a novice, i thought that maybe I cooked it too long or too hot, in effect ending up with too much of a sugar concentration, hence the crystalization. Also last year, kept adding sap to the cauldron as it cooked down, to end up with one batch of syrup.
This year, started collecting a week ago, and ended up cooking down my first batch on Saturday. Tried to keep it to a low boil, and finished it off in the kitchen on a low simmer. End result, a lighter amber color,still very, very sweet, but still seeing some crystalization at the bottom of the jars as it cooled.
So wondering what I might change up to prevent the crystalization, or is that to be expected in all home brews? collecting more sap this week, so can change procedures if I’m doing something wrong.
Any experts out there?

I think from my reading you have to boil everyday or bugs start growing and protein gives you crystals. I did a little drive down here yesterday and saw a few buckets out. Really surprised me…..

Seems early to me also for maple syrup but then again the temps are about right.

Not sure how to solve that issue. Have done my fair share of collecting sap and dumping it in the boiler but never got into the final production part.

Its been my understanding that the sap should not be brought to a boil at all but kept at a constant temperatyre just under the boiling point. It will be hot enough to brown the sugars in the sap but not hot enough to start the crystalization process to begin.

Just out of curiosity, did you filter the sap thru cheese cloth after boiling it down?

When boiling sap, typically when you add more raw sap to the boiling pot, you “kill” the boil because the raw sap is much cooler. Over the course of making syrup, the more times you kill the boil, the darker the finished product will be. Try to preheat your raw sap somewhat before you add to the boil, or try to boil as much sap as you can at once in a batch.

As for the crystals in your jar- we’ve all done it, boiled it down too far. get a candy thermometer, and calibrate it by putting it in boiling water, then remember that temp.. Yeah, yeah- we all know that water boils at 212, but your thermometer might not read 212. The reason you need to calibrate it is because finished syrup boils at 7 degrees above water. If your thermometer reads 212 in water, your syrup will be done at 219. As soon as your temp gets where it needs to be, I try to get it off the heat and bottled as soon as possible. Whatever you bottle in, make sure they are sterile, so mold doesn’t form at the top.

I’m just a backyard hack, so what I say sure isn’t gospel, but I’ve been doing it for years, and learned most of these lessons the hard way. I have countless batches ruined!!!

Good luck- pm me if you need more info.
JB

I have 15 acres of woods that is predominantly maple. How many trees does one need to tap to get enough sap to make a couple quarts of syrup? Have been considering giving syrup making a try.

I seen a program awhile back and I think they said 20 to 1. That many acres of Maples and youd have dozens of gallons of syrup. Each day the sap rises in a tree and then goes back down twards darkness, then back up again the next day until the temps stay above freezing. I seen some information on how many gallons of sap certain trees have going through it everyday and its alot so id bet maples are one of them. I cut a 9″ limb off one of my soft maples last spring and the sap just ran out of the cut, not a slow drip at all.

We have done this off & on for a coupleof years.I found that a five gallon pailof sap will produce between a pint and a quart of syrup Which matches what was said in another reply:5 gallons = 20 quarts 20:1 It kind of varied, depending on the day, and the humidity in the air. But it was pretty close. I made a collector that I will put on the site when I get home. It is a little more user friendly than the conventional rigs.

Finman is pretty right on. I’ve been doing this for years, only tap three large maples and get 15-20 pints a year. I boil (yes, rolling boil, not simmer!) for a few days, consolidated pot, finish inside. Imho the color change is more related to the timing in the run, i.e. later sap seems to be a darker color. Sap to syrup is around 50:1, sometimes less for a good sugar maple. I have one tree that will give 5-7 gallons a day on a good day, below freezing at night, above during the day. Curious how the run will be affected by the weather this year, will know more in the next few weeks.

I have a buddy who makes maple syrup every year.
He doesn’t just make a couple quarts, more like a dozen cases filled with quart jars and another half dozen filled with pint size jars. It’s quite the operation and kind of cool to watch.
He swears by the 40-1 ratio.
Another words, 40 gallons of sap = 1 gallon of maple syrup.

Thanks for all the great tips, guys…going to give the thermometer tip a try when I boil my next batch this weekend. Last year, I did kill the boil; this year, I did not. also, last year, tapped the end of the season, and this year the start.

I tap sugar maples, and my first batch this year was about 27 gallons of sap, to get seven 12-ounce bottles of syrup, which is about a 41:1 ratio if I did my math right. But considering that it seems that I should have quit boiling sooner, which would have resulted in more syrup, the ratio would likely have been less than 40:1.
will keep better tabs on the next batch.
Been getting about a gallon a day per tap on the better trees, on days when it’s running good, with three of the bigger trees double-tapped. so with ten taps doesn’t take long to get 35 to 40 gallons of sap for the one gallon or so of syrup.
Fun stuff, and the end product is well worth the effort.

The ratio of sap to syrup is never a constant. Yes, the typical ratio is 40:1, it can sometimes be 35 or even 30:1, it all depends on the sugar content in the sap. The average is about 3-5% sugar, I’ve seen it as high as 13% sugar. A sap hydrometer, will tell you sugar content and thus help figure out your ratio.

Another thing I forgot to mention about color. The earlier runs of sap usually are a lighter finished product and later runs or batches a darker color due also due to bacteria in the sap. Warmer outside temps means more bacteria in your sap. It’s normally cooler in the start of the season, so your sap will keep longer. Sap is like milk- it WILL spoil if it gets too warm…

We ran the sap thru a coffee filter before the final in-kitchen simmering. Last year, used a cheesecloth. The FW dug out the candy thermometer, so will do the temp monitoring on the upcoming batch.
Also, just a small tip for covering the buckets while they’re collecting, to help keep unwanted stuff out.
Walmart sells shower caps, 3 for 2 bucks, that work well over smaller pails and 5 gallon buckets too. I run a small tube from the tap into a duct-tape reinforced slot i make in the shower cap, to stick the tube thru. Stiff enough to collect an inch or two of snow without caving in.
The FW got me to eat oatmeal this morning, as a change up to bacon and bacon, by convincing me how good it’d be with that fresh syrup…it was.

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The ratio of sap to syrup is never a constant. Yes, the typical ratio is 40:1, it can sometimes be 35 or even 30:1, it all depends on the sugar content in the sap. The average is about 3-5% sugar, I’ve seen it as high as 13% sugar. A sap hydrometer, will tell you sugar content and thus help figure out your ratio.

Another thing I forgot to mention about color. The earlier runs of sap usually are a lighter finished product and later runs or batches a darker color due also due to bacteria in the sap. Warmer outside temps means more bacteria in your sap. It’s normally cooler in the start of the season, so your sap will keep longer. Sap is like milk- it WILL spoil if it gets too warm…

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I ran all this info passed my friend who does this and he confirmed all of it.
Good info!
Not that I doubted you, but there does seem to be some misinformation out there as well so it never hurts to double check.

He also uses a sap hydrometer to check sugar content!

I’ve always wanted to do this but unfortunately, I don’t have the time or the property with sugar maples available. Stuff sure does taste great though!

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We ran the sap thru a coffee filter before the final in-kitchen simmering. Last year, used a cheesecloth. The FW dug out the candy thermometer, so will do the temp monitoring on the upcoming batch.
Also, just a small tip for covering the buckets while they’re collecting, to help keep unwanted stuff out.
Walmart sells shower caps, 3 for 2 bucks, that work well over smaller pails and 5 gallon buckets too. I run a small tube from the tap into a duct-tape reinforced slot i make in the shower cap, to stick the tube thru. Stiff enough to collect an inch or two of snow without caving in.
The FW got me to eat oatmeal this morning, as a change up to bacon and bacon, by convincing me how good it’d be with that fresh syrup…it was.

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I started using Rubbermaid totes with the lids on for gathering sap. I also run tygon tube from the the tap, but I drill a hole in the side of the tote, close to the top. The hole is just a shade smaller than the tubing so it’s a snug fit.

Water and crud stays out- the good stuff stays in!! They stack nice in the offseason too!

Joel, I do know that you don’t need just the sugar maple tree for sap. The nature center here on the edge of town has a class for anyone that wants to come, about making maple syrup. They tap soft maples, hard maples and even box alders. I know they cook down alot of sap in the spring and from what they have said is you can use quite a few diffrent types of trees because its not just sugar maples that produce the sugars. Our rivers bottms are thick with soft maples and hard maples on the hill sides.

Birch trees can also be tapped!!!

I did tap a birch last year, and got about a half gallon in 4 days. Also tapped 3 red maples, but they too, were slow leakers. With the sugar maples running strong this year, and being that I still have 6 or so untapped, didn’t go to the other trees.

I should have said it’s more a time issue than anything for me. I can’t force myself to stop fishing and do something else.

I was just watching KTTC TV Rochester. They had a maple syrup segment (showing the results of warm weather.) the bucket set-up is what I have used with great results for 4 years.

Well, cooked off my third and last batch of the season, on saturday. Ended up just short of three gallons for home use and for family/friends (very good friends). Used a thermometer to check the syrup until it reached 7 degrees higher than the initial boiling point, as recommended by a poster, and worked great. No more crystallizing on the last two batches. Thanks for the tip. Buckets and taps cleaned and put away till next year.