{"id":2088,"date":"2016-03-14T10:00:04","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T15:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/?p=2088"},"modified":"2016-03-14T10:07:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T15:07:08","slug":"home-made-maple-syrup-part-3-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/home-made-maple-syrup-part-3-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Made Maple Syrup Part 3 – Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

First of all this is really just a bunch of poppycock. You don’t need any of this stuff to enjoy real maple syrup at home. In 2015 I had done a cook very shortly after some very heavy sap collecting days. This yielded the lightest syrup I had ever made, so Jessi encouraged me to enter it in the Minnesota State Fair competition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\"Maple<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t
Light Amber Maple, far right<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t<\/figure>\n

It was fun and I’d like to improve on my process a little, but doing these things by no means should preclude you from enjoying real maple syrup.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After the contest was over and I retrieved my syrup, I was also given a score-sheet. It was immediately apparent that I was out of the running right away due to two things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Density (worth 20 points) – score: 0 (57.1 Brix)<\/li>\n
  2. Clarity (worth 15 points) – score: 0 (sugar sand – which you can clearly see in the photo)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Density<\/h2>\n

    Syrup density is measured by a sugar content degree scale called Brix<\/a>. It’s measured using a hydrometer. I didn’t have a hydrometer for 2015, I simply went by the boiling temperature of somewhere around 219-221\u00b0F<\/a>. In competition, they’re much more precise:<\/p>\n