Duffy's Lane Maple and Honey by Jen and Brent Roberts 15271 Duffy's Lane, Caledon, Ontario |
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A review of the process of making maple syrup |
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 The BIG deal about making maple syrup is to get rid of water. The sap that comes out of the maple trees has about 2% sugars content. On average it take 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. AND It must be very, very carefully controlled and measured in the final stages or if it's too thin it is not legal maple syrup and can ferment, or if it's too thick, the sugars will start to crystallize out and make rock hard crystals in the bottle. To visualize the project, think about boiling 10 full 4 quart pots of water on the stove and only keep the last quart.. We have been making maple syrup on a small scale since moving to Caledon a few years ago. Our friends that we shared the syrup with raved about it so we decided to try to make a little more this year. Below is a picture of our new maple syrup evaporator that was made just outside Quebec City.
. Visitors will be welcomed when the sap starts to flow. Normally the season is from about March 15th to April 15 but it is totally weather dependent. We will post notices here the day we are start to make syrup. Check back here if you want to visit and see it happening. If any of you use Reverse Osmosis water at home, we will be making tons of it this this coming season. Bring your container and we'll fill it. On a normal day we start collecting sap from the buckets around noon and start boiling a little later. When the flow hits peak we often need to boil from 7:00 AM till midnight. We will have syrup for sale in sizes from 50ml to 4L. Various containers and prices are posted here If you would like to reserve some, or come up to visit, please give us a call at 905 - 880 - 7876 If you can't make it here, we can ship, or arrange pick up at my day job near Dixie Rd and 401. To find us on Google maps click here. You can then click on the Satellite view and zoom in to see the long driveway and the sugar shack to the right of the house, just above the pool. To get here: (see map below) To get here from the city come up 427 to Hwy 7 Take Hwy 7 west about 2 Km to the first stoplight, which is Hwy 50. Come north on Hwy 50 right through Bolton to Castlederg Side Road (stoplight) and turn left (west) to Duffy's Lane Come north about 1/2 Km to 15271. |
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The Sugar Shack is the small building near the right edge of this picture. This is a view of our home taken from the road. A small pond is under the trees in the foreground. The stand of maples and beech trees can be seen behind the house. If you go to maps.google.com and put in 15249 Duffy's Lane, Bolton, Ontario the marker will point to the end of the long driveway where this shot was taken from. Its not the correct address number or town, but that's the state of the art on google today. Then switch to the satellite view. Here is a copy of the google views |
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The maple woods seen from the back deck of the house mid winter. |
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There are about 25 buckets on trees in this picture. Firewood for the evaporator is in the foreground. Snow is just about all gone but ice is still on the pond. Life is a little easier now because the Gator can get back to the woods. In 2005 we tapped 54 trees. In 2006 we tapped about 80 trees. We needed a larger more efficient evaporator to expand in 2007. Neighbours let us tap their trees. In '08 we got up to more than 200 taps. In 2009 we had trees tapped for buckets and 160 for a new pipeline system. |
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My wife collecting maple sap early in the season with snow still on the ground. The best syrup comes from the early run. The collection jug can be seen just beyond our dog. While the snow is on the ground these have to be carried to a snowmobile for transfer to the Sugar Shack by the house. For the 2009 season we will be installing a bit of tubing to collet from about 150 more trees. |
| The next 4 pictures are of a new pipeline system we installed in February ( brrrrr ) of 2009. Click on any picture to see a larger view that makes it a bit easier to see the pipeline as it winds off into the maples. We have about 160 trees connected. The pipeline is over 1 km long. In the picture to the left you can see the 1000 Litre central collection tank. Under the green tarp is a generator to power a vacuum pump. With about 20 to 22" of vacuum the system will roughly double the amount of sap collected compared to a bucket system. The sap is virtually clear and collection is a lot easier in the heart of this bush Our thanks to our neighbours Christine and Larry Scott of allowing us to tap their bush. |
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This view is to the south taken from near the tank, which is located at the lowest point, so all the views are slightly uphill. |
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This view is the north east. |
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and this view is to the north. |
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The Gator on the back deck with 16 of jugs of sap, about 80 gallons Boiled down this will make about 2 gallons syrup. The stand of maples can be seen in the background. |
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Boiling on the back deck. This was the 3rd step. The first year we boiled in the kitchen. The second year we boiled on a turkey frier on the deck. This is the small evaporator we used in '06 and '07. It had a flat bottom and was not very efficient. It has found a new home near Brantford now. The new evaporator was installed in our Sugar Shack, which was really the pump and filter house for the pool. Now we are out of the wind, rain, snow etc. |
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The smaller pan on top preheats the sap, which trickles slowly into the main pan underneath for boiling. The trick is to either match the trickle to the boil and top up the preheater with 5 gallons every 45 minutes or ... This rig boils down about 5 to 7 gallons per hour depending on how good the wood is and how often you stoke the fire. Adding a blower to the lower front door just about doubles the throughput. Extra sections of stove pipe have been added for better draft. We added more stack in the second season. You can imagine what the inside of a small sugar shack would be like with all this steam and no ventilation. |
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This picture shows our new in full boil. The smaller front pan, called the syrup pan, is open and you can see the huge amount of steam. It has dividers like a maze so the syrup flows through, gradually increasing in density and boiling temperature when it is drawn off. The rear pan is fully enclosed with inspection ports on each side. This is where the heavy duty boiling is done. The roof of the sugar shack has 3 stacks, 2 for steam and the smoke stack. |
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This shows the taps on the side of the front pan of the big evaporator. The bucket is collecting nearly finished syrup that will be transferred to the finish pan in the picture below. |
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This was my wife's kitchen. So.... the syrup gets put into the white drums according to batches and colour grades. Behind the drum is the filter, also shown in the next picture down. This filter removes the sediment from the evaporator. It is much like the lime you get in a kettle. From the filter the syrup is pumped to the tank on the stove were we re-heat it to 185 degrees. We then re-filter and pump it to the "canner" which is a large water jacketed tank, like a double boiler, where the syrup is held at 185 degrees until it is put in the bottles. A few maple leaf bottles are on the filling table of the canner. |
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Here is our new machine for filtering maple syrup. Part of the natural process of boiling the syrup causes some calcium to perciptiate out in a very fine granular state. To remvove this filtering on a device to capture 1 micron particles is necessary to remove it, otherwise it will settle out when bottled. |
GRADING  This is a grading kit used to compare the colour of maple syrup. Generally the finest grades come earliest in the season. Storage methods, boiling time and other factors also effect the grade. So far this year, 2009, we have bottled some light and medium. We think we have some amber in the sugar shack but we cannot grade it accurately until after final filtering. |
This is the type of kit used to grade maple syrup. There are 4 grades in Canada. Canada #1 Extra Light (AA): The very lightest colour in the colourimeter test set. The syrup has a mild maple flavour, free of any objectionable taste, colour, odour or fermentation. Canada #1 Light (A) The next lightest colour. As above but the syrup has a little more maple flavour. Canada #1 Medium (B) A bit darker. The syrup has a stronger very good, characteristic maple flavour. Canada #2 Amber (C) Darker again than above. This grade has a much more pronounced maple flavour. This is general sold as "cooking and baking syrup" Canada #3 Dark (D) Even darker and not shown in the grading kit. This syrup has a very strong maple flavour. It is still free of any objectionable odour or taste but may have a trace of carmel, "buddy" or "sappy" taste. It is general sold for commercial use. |
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And after all the hours of cutting wood, spitting it, drying a year before you need it, tapping the trees, collecting sap, and boiling sap you still need to bring it inside to the stove to finish it to exactly the right density. Too much boiling and the sugar comes out as rock hard large crystal. Too little and it just isn't legal maple syrup. |
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The newest addition to our equipment, to be put to work in 2010, an Airablo Reverse Osmosis system. This one is made in Quebec specifically for processing maple sap. This should remove about 75% of the water from the sap before we start boiling and will be much much faster than the system we used the last 2 years. Hopefully on days with big sap flows we will find our beds and midnight instead of 2:30AM |
| Brix / Temperature Correction Chart as Excel sheet
Brix / Temperature Correction Chart as pdf |
