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How long can I store sap? Sap is a highly perishable product. This article explains what happens as it is stored, and how to avoid problems.
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How long can I store sap? Sap is a highly perishable product. This article explains what happens as it is stored, and how to avoid problems.
Filtering syrup in small batches is a huge pain. Any advice on how to make it easier?
What causes syrup to be light or dark at different parts of the season?
Q1: I’m considering switching from a flat pan to a larger pan with continuous flow, and keep hearing about the gradient. What is a gradient and why is it important? Q2: After a warm spell that made the sap stop running, a hard freeze made it start again so I collected and boiled. The syrup had an off-flavor. Why?
We regularly get questions from maple producers about which defoamers are the best to use. Of course, the answer is…it depends.
The typical trend over a sugaring season is for syrup to start out light in color and get progressively darker, eventually ending up with very dark (and strong or off-tasting) syrup at the end. While there can be some temporary excursions up and down in syrup light transmittance, the natural progression is from light syrup early on to dark syrup near the finish. However, occasionally a syrup producer finds that right as the season is concluding the syrup color goes up dramatically and wonder why this happens.
Concentrating sap with reverse osmosis (RO) substantially increases the efficiency and profitability of processing maple sap into syrup by reducing the amount of fuel and time required to complete concentration to syrup density in the evaporator, with gains proportional to the level of sap pre-concentration. Because most flavor development in maple syrup occurs through nonenzymatic browning reactions as sap is processed with heat in the evaporator, it has often been speculated that reduced evaporator processing time resulting from the use of RO might also result in perceptible impacts on syrup flavor. However, a series of controlled experiments conducted at the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center using the same sap processed to different levels with RO determined that concentrating sap up to 21.5% prior to boiling in standard maple evaporators had no substantive effects on syrup composition or flavor.
Common problems with sugaring equipment and how to avoid them.
How and why to code your products for traceability.
Manual with chapters on setting up sap collection systems, sugarhouse management, selling maple products, finances, and more.