Common Maple Questions
Maple syrup is made from the sap of sugar maple trees and red maple trees. In Kentucky, maple sap tends to be 1-2 percent sugar. This percentage is measured in Brix. The water is evaporated out of the sap, most often over a wood fire, using special pans until until the sugar content is condensed to 66.5 Brix (percent). The boiling of the sap over the heat causes the sugars to caramelize into a golden brown color. Nothing is added to pure maple syrup, it is simply pure tree sap boiled down to the correct sugar content.
The amount of maple syrup produced depends largely on the sugar content of the maple sap, which can fluctuate from tree to tree and season to season. If the sap has a sugar content of 2 Brix, or 2 percent, it requires 43 gallons of sap to create one gallon of maple syrup. While producers in Kentucky may encounter sap at 2 Brix, we often see lower sugar levels. For sap measuring 1 Brix, it would take 86 gallons to yield one gallon of maple syrup.
In order to collect the sap the trees must be tapped. In Kentucky, this takes place in late December or early January. Tree tapping consists of drilling a 5/16” hole 2” deep into the tree. A plastic hollow spout (tap) is tapped into the tree. The sap will flow out of this tap into a container or into a tubing system so the sap can be collected and evaporated in a sugar house. A sugar house or sugar shack is a building where the maple sap is evaporated into maple syrup.
The maple sap is collected only during the winter months when the temperatures are below freezing during the night and above freezing in the day. The sap flows when the trees thaw.
The end of the season differs each season depending on the weather, but typically late February. When the winter temperatures start to warm the maple tree buds will start to swell. When this happens the chemistry of the sweet maple sap changes from pure and sweet to ick! A sugar maker can detect this change when the taste of the maple syrup gets “buddy”. This is the end of the maple season.