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Message: <blockquote data-quote="guywhofishes" data-source="post: 484610" data-attributes="member: 337">That’s 20 gal from two trees we tapped last Friday. They usually put out twice that during the season of a week or two.For some reason my maples aren’t sugar maples (they're some huge yard type silver maple looking hybrid), but they put out crazy high sugar content of 2.5-3.4 percent sugar (called Brix).[ATTACH=full]83543[/ATTACH]Gallons of sap need to make a gallon of syrup follows the rule of 86.86 / your trees' Brix = gallons of syrup.I haven't measured the sap's Brix this year but if it's average (say 3%) then 86 / 3 Brix = 28 gal of sap per gal of syrup.I'm going to boil that pot of reduced sap I posted a picture of tonight on the stove (with a good vent) to get to perfect syrup sugar density (66.9 Brix) using a sugar hydrometer. I'll report later how many quarts we put up for this first batch. That sap is probably 90% of the way there - so it won't take a lot of boiling to get there.Lots of people are surrounded by boxelder which makes good syrup too (it's a maple after all). It's not always real high in sugar though.If you decide to give it a go don't try to boil a lot of sap using propane - it'll put you in the poor house! We used a hot plate the first year just for kicks (boiled maybe 15 gallons of sap) and liked it. So we built a POS wood-fired evaporator out of a barrel and some hotel steamer pans and we burn cull firewood.It's sorta fun to do something productive during "mud season". Freezing nights and highs in the 40/50s is what makes sap run. If it doesn't freeze overnight then the sap doesn't flow much, if at all the following day. It's the freeze/thaw cycle that does it - somehow.Sluggo had success a couple years ago. But he's not hooked. He's got the Missouri River for something to do in March. Grrr.</blockquote>

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