One benefit of our chilled concentrate tank is that we know exactly how much syrup we’ll make when we boil. In 1946 C.H. Jones discovered the rule of 86, which states that you can estimate how many gallons of sap it will take to make a gallon of syrup by dividing 86 by the sugar content of the sap. For example, 2% sap takes 43 gallons to make a single gallon of syrup. Our 2023 season sap averaged 1.20% and took ~72 gallons to make each gallon of syrup!

Our concentrate tank holds 3000 gallons, and lately we’ve been concentrating to 18% (20%+ tends to prematurely clog our last membrane). Using Jones rule we know our final ratio is 4.8:1, so a full boil will yield 625 gallons of syrup, or more if we’re adding to the concentrate tank while boiling.

 

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