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Sap to syrup yield

How much syrup your sap or concentrate will make, from its sugar content, by the 2013 revision of the Jones Rule of 86.

01 · Inputs

Enter the volume and its Brix, and pick the density you finish to.

Refractometer reading of the sap or RO concentrate. Sugar and black maple sap usually averages 2.0 to 2.5.

Syrup density standard

03How this is calculated

This is the 2013 revision of the Jones Rule of 86 by Perkins and Isselhardt at the UVM Proctor Maple Research Center. The gallons of sap (or concentrate) it takes to make one gallon of syrup is 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 sap volume divided by that ratio.

The original rule, 86 divided by the sap Brix, dates from when syrup was finished to 65.5 °Brix. The North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual calls the revision considerably more accurate now that syrup is finished between 66.0 and 66.9 and much of it is boiled from RO concentrate. It is still an estimate: it assumes everything you boil ends up as syrup at the chosen density.

Pounds use the weight of a gallon of sugar solution at the chosen density, from the National Bureau of Standards tables, at 20 °C (68 °F): about 11.03 lb at 66.0 °Brix and 11.07 lb at 66.9. Water to boil off is the sap in less the syrup out.

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
  3. Weights per United States Gallon and Weights per Cubic Foot of Sugar SolutionsSnyder, C.F., Hammond, L.D. (1946). National Bureau of Standards Circular C457Table 1, pp. 3–34: true specific gravity 20 °C/20 °C and pounds per US gallon in air at 20 °C, by tenth degree Brix; Table 2 for water

Track the ratio boil by boil

Sapline links collection logs to each boil, so the sap-to-syrup ratio you actually got is on the record next to the Brix you collected.

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