[fredthecat]

took about 4 hours in total. not nearly as much active work and cleanup as a batch of beer. however, here you can get great quality maple syrup for about $7 per 500ml bottle. the rectangular kettle is made for high evaporation. one tree gave 4.5 gallons over the course of maybe 10 days, and a lot was leaked onto the ground from the spigot. the sap itself has a just just barely detectable sweetness, people say something like 1 to 3% sugar. you could mash beer in it i guess? i dont know the pH.

taste is pretty good, i was worried about it being odd or sour. no sourness, much more woody than the store stuff, no smokiness, which you can taste if you get country maple syrup that was cooked with a wood fire. lighter colour than the store stuff.

would i do it again? likely not, barring some desire to make a very specific maple syrup or if i somehow was able to. but even then i can probably buy whatever variety i want for less than the cost of the propane.

[pete b]

Nice.
I have not boiled down for syrup yet, and maybe never will. I have used raw sap instead of water in maple mead though.
I think making maple syrup is one of those things you do once and realize how much work it is and appreciate why small scale crafts people have to charge what they do for the finished product. Someone near me makes terrific maple syrup on a wood fired system and I am happy to buy it.

[erockrph]

It's a good thing that I have no maple trees on my property, because I would definitely have bought all the equipment, made it once, then decided that it's not worth it.

It's pretty cool, though. It must have smelled pretty awesome cooking up.

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[pete b]

It's a good thing that I have no maple trees on my property, because I would definitely have bought all the equipment, made it once, then decided that it's not worth it.

It's pretty cool, though. It must have smelled pretty awesome cooking up.

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Ha, same here. We own 25 acres of mostly woods in New England and have hardly any sugar maples and none that are easy to get to. I do want to tap birches one of these days, but on a limited basis.

[fredthecat]

because its a concentrated sugar syrup boiled for hours i think its more forgiving sanitationwise than beer. i saw someone online have a setup of

-cinder blocks arrange in a square fort shape
-wood logs burning
-rectangular metal cafeteria serving trays to boil the sap in

you could easily make it with just these items. besides a 3 dollar plastic bucket from home depot to collect the sap.


but again, it was just a mix of 4 or 5 hours of passive work / you are very limited in size of end product. ie. if you had 10 gallons of sap you would end up with maybe 1 litre of syrup / how much syrup can you consume anyway?

in korea they take the sap and simply drink it as a sort of health-water. that is an idea there, but it really wont have much taste at all. the sap itself tastes nothing like maple flavour or maple syrup.


in fact i just had the notion - could you make maple syrup from - soaking sterilized maple wood in water for a few days - adding table sugar then boiling it? apparently maple syrup is 99% sucrose regarding its sugars content.

[mdyer909]

Nice.
I have not boiled down for syrup yet, and maybe never will. I have used raw sap instead of water in maple mead though.
I think making maple syrup is one of those things you do once and realize how much work it is and appreciate why small scale crafts people have to charge what they do for the finished product. Someone near me makes terrific maple syrup on a wood fired system and I am happy to buy it.

Ha!  I’ve done it once on the stove top and gave up after that.  I have made a couple of porter style beers with sap as brew water, but there was zero maple flavor.  Last night I made a couple of bourbon old fashions with just a tiny bit of maple syrup instead of sugar.  They were pretty good.

[pete b]

because its a concentrated sugar syrup boiled for hours i think its more forgiving sanitationwise than beer. i saw someone online have a setup of

-cinder blocks arrange in a square fort shape
-wood logs burning
-rectangular metal cafeteria serving trays to boil the sap in

you could easily make it with just these items. besides a 3 dollar plastic bucket from home depot to collect the sap.


but again, it was just a mix of 4 or 5 hours of passive work / you are very limited in size of end product. ie. if you had 10 gallons of sap you would end up with maybe 1 litre of syrup / how much syrup can you consume anyway?

in korea they take the sap and simply drink it as a sort of health-water. that is an idea there, but it really wont have much taste at all. the sap itself tastes nothing like maple flavour or maple syrup.


in fact i just had the notion - could you make maple syrup from - soaking sterilized maple wood in water for a few days - adding table sugar then boiling it? apparently maple syrup is 99% sucrose regarding its sugars content.

I love drinking the sap, it has a nice light maple flavor. I have actually kegged sap and served carbed. Very refreshing. There are some companies selling cabonated sap and I pick one up now and then.