Just make murder illegal

You’re doing just fine! Lots of the big operations don’t clean all year and they leave the pans sweet all season long. Ends up degrading color a lot by the end of the year. Lots of mineral deposits and cleaning at the end. No real need to boil right away either as long as you keep the sap well refrigerated. We keep our holding tank buried in snow. We sugar at our camp and can only get up once or twice a week. Most of the product being medium to dark is normal, it’s what makes the light runs so exciting. They are rare and usually get one or two shots at it per year and is a good incentive to get out and tap early!

We have a decent sized setup in Stewartstown with a few hundred trees filling a 200gal holding tank. Tap nice and early, and some of the first runs in the past ended up being almost clear. Very light color and taste great We also are much more strict about cleanliness than most producers, which I believe plays a role. Clean evaporator entirely after every run for instance. Cheers

Pure sap from early season runs, look up maple syrup grade chart. They all have the same sugar contents and are all “done”. Must reach a certain density when tested on a hydrometer. Boil too long get crystallization in the bottles, too little and get mold.

He’s wrong your are right. Hydrometer says when it’s done. Color comes from impurities which are more present later in the year both in the tree and in the lines. Plenty of studies on this. There are grades of syrup based on it.

We don’t like the wee wee s anyway lol