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Season syrup potential

Estimate your total syrup production for the season based on tap count and expected sap yield.

01 · Inputs

Enter tap count, expected sap gallons per tap, average sap Brix, and your syrup density standard.

Taps you plan to put in this season.

Your own average from recent seasons works best: it moves with vacuum, tubing sanitation, weather, and how long the season runs.

Season average of your refractometer readings. Sugar and black maple sap usually averages 2.0 to 2.5.

Syrup density standard

03How this is calculated

Total sap is the number of taps times the sap each tap gives over the season.

The gallons of sap it takes to make one gallon of syrup come from the 2013 revision of the Jones Rule of 86 by Perkins and Isselhardt at the UVM Proctor Maple Research Center: 88.2 divided by the sap Brix, minus 0.32, for syrup finished at 66.9 °Brix, or 87.1 divided by the sap Brix, minus 0.32, at 66.0 °Brix. Syrup is the total sap divided by that ratio.

The estimate assumes everything you collect is boiled and finished at the chosen density. Sap left in the woods, losses in filtering, and syrup left in the pans all bring the real number down.

Sources

  1. The 'Jones Rule of 86' RevisitedPerkins, T.D., Isselhardt, M.L. (2013). Maple Syrup Digest, October 2013 (UVM Proctor Maple Research Center)October 2013 issue: revised equations S = 87.1/X − 0.32 (66.0 Brix) and S = 88.2/X − 0.32 (66.9 Brix), and the validation table of S by sap Brix
  2. Ch. 7, sidebar "The Jones Rule of 86: Original and Revised" (original rule for syrup finished to 65.5 °Brix; revised rule for 66.0 and 66.9)NAMSPM 3rd ed. (2022)p. 7-20

Hold the season to the plan

Sapline keeps season goals next to your collection and boil logs, so the gallons you made sit beside the gallons you planned for.

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