Moving Maple Syrup Barrels

This’ll be a two-day process of refiltering the maple syrup, heating it up in the finishing pan and transferring it in batches into our packing unit. We’ll be dealing with three different maple syrup grades from three different barrels, putting it into containers ranging from five gallons to 50 ml maple leafs. That should set us up to be ready for demand in the next few months, as we expect to have less time available with the coming baby.

The problem that needed to get solved was transportation and dispensing of maple syrup to increasingly large bulk maple syrup customers. Once every couple months, I make the rounds in New England, delivering barrels of maple syrup to some very interesting – sometimes innovative – whole sale customers using maple syrup for everything from granola manufacturing to restaurant use to wedding favors, corporate gifts, all the way to theatrical blood simulation. A lot of these businesses have similar issues about storing wholesale maple syrup and using it in their various batch sizes, all the while trying to prevent it from spoiling, crystalizing, etc. Besides, open topped barrels are just plan sticky.

As with our bottles, boxes and other elements, I’ve discovered that borrowing items from other related industries creates a much better economy of scale than purchasing items designed specifically for maple syrup. For instance, our liter bottles of maple syrup fit into wine shippers that cost about one third as much as the equivalent box for the more obscure maple syrup container shapes.

Thus, I came up with the keg scheme for bulk maple syrup. They’re interchangeable, common, and have their own flourishing aftermarket of related products for moving, cleaning and doing pretty much anything to kegs.

The first thing I discovered when I hopped online to learn where to get one for experimentation, was that breweries own their own kegs, and it’s actually quite difficult to come by them. Only when I discovered a brewery going out of business did I get a chance to snag some.

On my way back up from one of these treks across New England, carrying my wholesale maple syrup rounds, I stopped last at the brewery in southern New Hampshire and picked them up. There, a nice young fellow showed me how to open them up and remove the mechanism in the middle that allows for dispensing and pressurization. What he didn’t realize was that the keg he was using as an example happened to have been sitting in the summer sun for a few months with the dregs of a soured stout. When he pushed in the spring-loaded ball, out shot a vile stream of beer-turned-vinegar, splashing all over us. I had 90 minutes to be back up in Vermont for an event, and I didn’t have a change of clothes.

Since then, though, the bulk maple syrup keg idea has taken on some steam. After acquiring some compressed gas tanks and various fittings, we have maple syrup dispensing out of some test kegs, and even have our first household client, who wishes to stick a keg under the sink and have a maple syrup tap on the kitchen counter. Because we’re using nitrogen to replace the air inside as it dispenses, aerobic bacteria cannot grow. Pretty clever, those beer-drinking people.

After a couple more weeks of testing, we’ll be confident that the mechanism won’t get gummed up with our maple syrup, which is just a bit thicker than most. After we do some refrigeration tests and carbonation tests, we’ll green-light the bulk maple syrup kegs to send on to a couple of our business clients.

[We are not rapping]

Our water pipes froze underground over the winter, so we called up our local plumber, Dave Hauger. Rumor had it that he’d home-made a special device that would snake down a water pipe, emitting hot water along the way to melt the barrier. He arrived and set up what we quickly called the “Hauger Auger” and set to work.

[Dave and his "Hauger Auger," along with Bone behind him conducting a maple syrup prayer]

Meanwhile, up in the woods, Ellie sought out, and found, vacuum leaks in the Hubbard Hill bush. She took these shots, the one above being a nice shot of the east face of Hubbard Hill, which very clearly wants to grow maple. The one below is of the tracks of a little critter sidling up to a pole-size sugar maple and then attempting to girdle it by eating the bark around the base. This is one of the two main reasons it’s tough to regenerate sugar maple in these woods, the others being the profusion of whitetail deer.

Tonight, we boil.

First some useful facts:

- Syrup brought to proper thickness (>67 percent sugar) won’t develop any molds. Any syrup you purchase should already be to this density, so you shouldn’t have to thicken it.

- However, temperature changes can sometimes allow a microlayer of water to form on top of that syrup through condensation. That sugary water layer is a perfect environment for things to grow.

- Syrup packed between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit will start off sterile, making it very difficult for growths to take hold, so long as the container is air-tight.

- Raising syrup past 190 degrees can cause certain particles called sugar sand to come out of solution, causing the syrup to become a little cloudy. This affects appearances, but not flavor or texture.

- Hot syrup spilled on people will continue to burn for a great deal of time. It is much more dangerous than hot water, so you need to take great care not to allow the hot syrup to touch anyone.

So, with these facts in mind, here is a series of steps to take a gallon of syrup and repack it – a common task.

(How NOT to heat of syrup. John with is “mini evaporator”)

1- Take your smaller containers and make sure they are clean. My favorite smaller container is the classic Ball jar – either a quart or a pint. Boiling them is best, but some people just pour the hot syrup right in out of the package, as it will sterilize anything inside. For more on container choices, click <a href=”/2008/11/29/containers-and-maple-syrup.aspx”>here</a>.

2- Set them aside, with caps off or ready to be taken off, in a place where you can comfortably and safely pour.

3- Heat up the syrup in a stovetop pot that has a very steady handle, or better still, two handles. Insert a candy thermometer in the fluid so you can get a sense for how quickly it is heating up. Optimally, you will just hit 190 degrees. The longer that syrup is hot, the darker it will get, and the thicker it will get, although it would take some time to increase the syrup’s grade or make it so thick as to cause texture problems.

4- Once the syrup makes it to temperature, turn off the heat. Then, pour the syrup into the containers, trying to leave only a little space left over. These relatively full containers will provide less room for air, which can hold moisture that can later condense. You will spill some syrup in this process; just make sure you don’t spill it on you.

5- Immediately affix the caps onto the containers and tighten them. If you are using jars, you will likely want to be wearing gloves for this, as they get quite hot. If you would rather not wear gloves, you might try putting the caps on after each pour, as the glass will not yet have absorbed as much heat from the syrup.

6- Turn the containers over on their sides, so that the heat of the syrup can sterilize the underside of the cap. Leave them there for 10 minutes, and then turn them upright.

7- Space the containers out to cool. If you stick them next to each other, they will take a great deal longer to cool, and they will darken.

Once you complete this process, you can use the smaller containers one at a time to ensure your year’s syrup supply lasts without growing anything interesting on top. In general, you can expect packed syrup to last about a year before it does something bad – usually developing a growth or sometimes just fermenting. Once you open syrup, put it in the refrigerator, and so long as it doesn’t develop a layer of moister on top, it will last a similar amount of time.

Oldtimers say that when syrup molds over, you can cohesively pour off the junk on top and just continue to use it. We prefer to just make more. If your syrup ferments, it is a sad and completely lost cause.