Question for Chocomouse about maple syrup density measuring

[Mike Nolan]

Question (mostly) for Chocomouse:

Do you use a floating hydrometer to measure the sugar content of your maple syrup? I'm looking for a way to check the thickness of things like sauce. What I'm currently doing is measuring out 10 ml of sauce in a graduated cylinder and weighing it on a scale that does milligrams. (Water comes in at 1.002, so my methodology is probably accurate enough.) The batch of tomato sauce I'm making is currently at about 1.12 specific gravity, I'm aiming for about 1.2. The biggest limitation with this method is that when filling the cylinder with tomato sauce, some of the solids stick to the sides so it is harder to know when you've got exactly 10 ml.

I'm looking for an inexpensive floating hydrometer that would be durable enough to survive in a kitchen of klutzes. Based on the reviews on Amazon, a lot of the glass ones don't even survive transit. I don't care if a plastic one is not quite as accurate if it is more durable.

I'd use my refractometer but it doesn't work well with things that aren't smooth, like tomato sauce.

Any suggestions?

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[Mike Nolan]

The final specific gravity was about 1.15, but the thickness of the sauce is what I was after (1.2 was a WAG.)

[chocomouse]

Mike, we use a floating hydrometer to measure the density of our syrup, but since we double check everything, we also use a refractometer. We measure in brix, which requires a reading of 66-68 to legally be syrup, so we go to 67. Hydrometers are very expensive. We buy ours from a sugaring supplier in Wisconsin, and they are certified by some department in Vermont's government.

[Mike Nolan]

Thanks. I don't need a certified one, but the $30-$40 ones on Amazon nearly all have lots of negative reviews about arriving broken or breaking easily.

Guess I'm stuck with the 10ml cylinder for now. Actually, just putting some in the cylinder and trying to dump it out seems close enough, if more than half of it stays in the bottom, it's probably thick enough.

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