? about Sugarin'for Sugarmaker or Youare

[PhilNH5]

? about Sugarin\'for Sugarmaker or Youare

Sugarmaker and/or Youare,
Both of you provided me with a lot of useful help and info on my last 2 posts about sugarin'. Now I have one more and it may be the final one.
Yesterday we boiled down 10 gals of sap. Got 1 pint exactly which is a lower ratio than the other 3 boildowns. And the sugar is much much darker than the other lots. Still tastes great. In fact it is a little "heartier" than the other batches. I like it this way.
Now for the question - Does this mean my season is over? I have heard the term "buddy" used to signify the end of the season. But this tastes better, not worst. I don't want to spend a day boiling down to get funny tasting syrup. But on the other hand I admit to being greedy and would like to get as much good tasting syrup as possible.

Any and all thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.
Phil

 

[Youare]

Re: ? about Sugarin\'for Sugarmaker or Youare

As the season progress, or maybe as the season comes closer to the end you will notice that the syrup becomes darker. Along with the color change the taste does get more robust, more maple flavor. The first runs of sap in the early part of the season produces a lighter color and flavor product.

You will notice that the buds on the trees have started to increase in size and are beginning to take on a slight red shade. The sap is not as sweet as it was before, the sugar content is not the same as it was in the beginning so it is going to take more sap to make a given amount of syrup.

I have also noticed the longer it takes to boil down sap to syrup the darker the product will be. You should also notice more stuff in your filter as you strain the syrup, this all signals the end is in sight.

Keep boiling until you do not like the results. You should notice that the sap is not a clear as it was in the beginning, should be getting a little yellow in color, cloudy, and maybe a slight odor to it. My guess this is the last week of sugar'n.

From what I have heard around this was a better year than most expected given the strange weather we have had.

Hope this helps.

Randy

 

[sugarmaker]

Re: ? about Sugarin\'for Sugarmaker or Youare

Phil,

I can't add much to what Randy said; he's right on. As for as backyard sugaring goes, just keep making it till either the syrup isn't "Grade A Yummy", or till you are sick of the whole thing and you pull out your taps.

I find a cold snap will freshen the sap back up even if it's started to run colored/cloudy. 16F yesterday and snowstorm here today means I'm still bullish on this season!

Dave

 

[PhilNH5]

Re: ? about Sugarin\'for Sugarmaker or Youare

Randy and Dave,
Thank you both for yet more useful information. I think I will go for another week. Right now it is snowing. They are expecting maybe 3 inches.

We had a blast this weekend. Sat out by the fire for a full 5 hours. It was a beautiful day. We cooked hot dogs on a stick and had a can of beans heating in the coals of the fire. My neighbor came over. Took note of all that plus the fact that I was wearing a flannel shirt and said I was practically a New Hampshire native.
A high compliment indeed.

Anyway I will see what I can collect in the next week and boil it down on saturday. Then I will pull the taps and call it a season.

Thanks again.

 

[EdKing]

Re: ? about Sugarin\'for Sugarmaker or Youare

Randy, I have a question. About how much sap will a tree yield ? The reason I am asking is I brew a clone beer of Canadian Maple Wheat beer, and you use maple syrup as one of the ingredients. I want to use maple sap instead of water to give it a little extra kick. I use about 7 gallons of water for a batch of beer and wondered how many trees I would have to tap, and for how long to get the required amount.

Ed King

 

[Youare]

Re: ? about Sugarin\'for Sugarmaker or Youare

<font color=blue>About how much sap will a tree yield ?</font color=blue>

I'd say about two taps on one good days run, three will more than get you 7 gallons of sap. What do you need to get the <font color=blue>little extra kick</font color=blue> out of the brew? If a little extra sugar is what you are looking for then you may get 2% to 4% sugar content depending on more things than you care to here about.

As far as flavor goes I doubt the sap will add much. But it is an intresting idea. Black birch trees also give sap, however there is not much taste to it. I know some old timers who made sap beer come to think of it, boy did they get feeling good one day after consuming a wee bit of that stuff.

Next morning there were after a little bit of the hair of the dog that bit them./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Randy

 

[EdKing]

Re: ? about Sugarin\'for Sugarmaker or Youare

It's actually just an experiment I wanted to try. If brewed correctly the beer is about 9% alcohol. Has a real smooth taste and a kick that creeps up on you /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif. We sometimes call it Maple Bang, as we have to use a special airlock or it blows the lid off of the fermenter /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif. All in all one of my favorite home brews. I like the idea of the black birch beer, I'll have to try to find a recipe to try it out.
Thanks for the info

Ed King

 

[sugarmaker]

Re: ? about Sugarin\'for Sugarmaker or Youare

Ed,

You'll get about 2 to 4 gallons of sap out of a tap on a warm, sunny day following a freezing night.

I supplied some sap a few years back for a friend who brewed a maple beer. The beer had no noticable maple taste (but the ones he gave me didn't collect any dust just the same). The following year he tried it with some syrup instead and got a nice subtle maple flavor.

Good luck -- it sounds like a worthwhile experiment!

Dave

 

[Chuck52]

Re: ? about Sugarin\'for Sugarmaker or Youare

Ed,

Care to post a recipe? I'm about to get back to brewing after a year lost to moving/remodelling. My Grolsch bottles are all empty. They look so sad. I like the 9% aspect. Much more worthy of my time than the wimpy honey wheats. I just got a note about hop rhizomes and I'm trying to figure where to plant some.

Chuck

 

[EdKing]

Re: ? about Sugarin\'for Sugarmaker or Youare

Chuck,

I'll post the recipe as soon as I figure out where my wife hid my beer books when she packed up all my beer stuff in preperation of remodeling the room I used to brew in. Sometimes that woman drives me crazy with her constant rearranging of the house.

Ed King