How to Make Maple Syrup Video

In this video Mark Donovan of HomeAdditionPlus.com shows how to make maple syrup.

Making real maple syrup in principle is easy to do. All you need to do is simply boil down maple tree sap to make it. However, you need to boil down a lot of it. On average it takes 40 gallons of maple tree sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Depending on the amount of natural sugars in the maple tree sap the amount of gallons required to make a gallon of maple syrup can vary from as little as 30 gallons to as much as 50 gallons.

Collecting maple tree sap, after tapping the maple trees, is quite a process and requires diligence. Sap buckets need to be checked nearly everyday and when the sap begins to really flow you may need to empty buckets every day. It can take a great deal of time and effort to collect and haul the sap back to where you plan to boil the sap down. Also, you should strain the sap in buckets using cheese cloth before boiling it down. In regards to boiling down the sap I used a propane stove. Using propane, however, to boil down sap is pretty expensive. Basically I estimate I am trading the cost of propane fuel for maple syrup.

Meaning, the market price of a gallon of 100% grade A pure maple syrup costs around $60 at the time of this article and video, and the amount of propane fuel required to boil down the prerequisite amount of maple sap to make one gallon of maple syrup costs roughly $60.

When boiling maple sap make sure to do it outside, at least the bulk of it. You don’t want to boil large quantities of sap in your home or in an enclosed building. Evaporating off gallons of maple sap creates a lot of moisture, moisture that you don’t want to have in your home or enclosed building. High levels of moisture trapped inside your home can lead to mold growth. In addition, the maple smell may become a permanent fixture in your home if you were to boil the sap in it.

Then place the pan back over the stove. If the maple syrup mixture holds off getting to the boiling point until 219oF then you’ve boiled the mixture down enough. You’ve got 100% real maple syrup at that point. If, however, the mixture starts to boil between 212oF and 219oF you still have a little more boiling to do.

Once the maple syrup is complete let it stay warm on the stove while you ladle it into glass storage jars. Again, use a couple layers of cheese cloth to filter the hot maple syrup as you ladle it into the glass jars. This will mitigate any maple sugar sand from forming in the bottom of the jars.

Make sure to use very clean jars or bottles for storing the maple syrup to prevent contamination. The maple syrup should be able to store for months in your refrigerator. You can also freeze maple syrup to extend its life.