Vt. Maple Products

Making Maple Syrup

So you want to know how pure Vt. maple syrup is made huh? Well ok, I’m not that great at explaining things, but I’ll do my best. I think it’s best to break the steps up into sections so you can more easily understand it.

1. Tapping the maple trees

Only sap from maple trees is used to make Vt. maple syrup. Around about early March, when we start to get warm days and cold nights, the sap starts to run. Sap is nothing more than water that is drawn up from the ground to feed the maple tree. It contains around 98% water and 2% sugar. The warm days of spring make the fluid expand, causing it to run out of any cuts or holes in the maple tree.

This is the start of sugaring season. We sugarmakers go out and start tapping the maple trees. We only tap trees that are at least “18″ in diameter or larger. We drill a small hole around 5/16” in diameter and only about 2” deep. That will not hurt the tree, and depending on how big it is we use one to 3 holes per tree. The sap will start flowing out of the hole, we tap in a hollow plastic or metal spout to channel the sap out to whatever we use to collect it.

2. Collecting the maple sap

Now in the old days the way they collected the sap was to hang a sap bucket from the spout and empty it each day, or several times a day. Some places still do that, but todays operations have grown much bigger. A sugar maker can have anywhere from 100 to 30,000 maple trees tapped. That’s a lot of area and lots of trees!

So today it is common to use a network of plastic tubing that attaches to each spout. Vermont is a very hilly state, so it’s easy to make a network from tree to tree and make it all flow down the mountainside. The sap runs down the tubing into whatever the sugarier uses for a container. With hundreds of trees making all that sap, some use a milk tanker truck!

Even then they have to use several places to collect the sap, often making a road into the woods. With the warmer weather making the snow melt and driving a tractor into the woods, it gets muddy real fast. Collecting maple sap is very hard work. So if sore muscles is not your thing, don’t try to make maple syrup! Finally they bring all the sap into a big holding tank by the sugar house.

3. Boiling to make maple syrup

Now that the sap has arrived at the sugar house, it must be boiled as soon as possible. Sap breaks down very quickly and can start to spoil. At the center of the sugar house is the evaporator, a long rectangular metal pan with many different compartments. It sits up high so that a fire can be made underneath it. In the old days they always used firewood. A lot still do, but some now use a huge oil burner to make it hotter more quickly.

As the sap runs over all the different compartments it starts to boil, letting off huge amounts of steam. This is why a sugarhouse has a close-able roof, so it can be open to let out all that steam. The sap gets more dense as it boils off water. Once it gets to the end of the evaporator and reaches the right temperature (7.1 degrees above the boiling point of water) and density (66.9% sugar) it is now pure Vt. maple syrup!

4. Final steps

At this point the sugar maker opens a valve and draws off the finished maple syrup. But there are still several steps to go. First it must be checked for the right density by a hydrometer. Then the syrup is filtered to remove any particles in it. Then it is color graded to find out which grade label (Fancy, Medium Amber, Dark Amber, or B) can go on the container. It is now ready to be bottled, put a grade label on it, and ready to sell.

With modern technology there are a lot of other little things a sugar maker may use to help with the whole process, but that’s about the main way pure Vt. maple syrup is made. Now you know just how much time, effort and love goes into each and every golden bottle of pure Vt. maple syrup!