How We Make Maple Gold

Ever wonder how real Vermont maple syrup is made? Below you’ll learn how we make premium Gold Rush Maple Syrup and by the end you’ll understand why we refer to maple syrup as Gold!

What: Sugar Maple Tree, Acer Saccharum
Where: Northeastern continental United States
When: Typically in March and April, good weather for sap production are freezing temperatures at night and temperatures in the 40’s with sun during the day. The freezing and thawing cycle causes pressure changes inside the tree which makes the sap flow.

Tap a maple tree. After setting up an intricate web of tubing and mainlines throughout our sugarbush, we are ready to tap the trees. We drill a small hole about 1-1/2” deep into the tree, connect the drop tubing to the tap and hammer a the tap into the tree.

Each tap is connected to a drop which is connected to a lateral tubing line which transports the sap to the mainline.

The mainline transports the sap to the sugarhouse.

The mainline entering the sugarhouse on the left. We use a vacuum pump to draw the sap through the mainline and into the stainless steel sap tank.

The sugar content in sap ranges from 2-5% so we use a reverse osmosis machine to condense the sap which removes 70% of the water and makes the evaporation process much more efficient.

The remaining water is boiled off during the evaporation process and the syrup flows through to the finishing pan. It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.

The maple syrup is then drawn off where the final density of the syrup is checked, 66.9% Brix.

The syrup is then processed through the filter press which removes any impurities.

The syrup is then pumped into 40 gallon stainless steel drum.

Bottling time: the maple syrup is pumped from the drum into a 40 gallon finishing pan, heated to 185 degrees and processed through a filter press for the second time, to ensure all impurities have been removed.

The maple syrup is then pumped into the water jacketed canning machine which keeps the syrup heated at 185 degrees until it is dispensed into the syrup jugs.

The jugs are then, capped and sealed with a welded safety seal and placed on a shelf until cool

The jugs are then packaged in cases and ready for sale.

Our job doesn’t end there. At the end of the annual maple gold rush we remove all the taps from the trees and clean the tubing lines. We are continually expanding our sugar bush by adding more lateral and mainlines every year, so when the time is ready for the sap to rush again, we are go.