My grandson (9) and I started tapping maple trees in our yard for something to do at the start of the pandemic last March 2020.. Lots of reading and educating ourselves watching video's and trial and error. We learned about the trees the boiling process. Great educational experience for anybody. I had been using Mrs. Butterworth for most of my life. Thick syrup I was trying to make. Tasted great that night but was a big chunk of hard maple candy the next day. Lol. 2 nd batch turned out to watery but still tasted great. After watching more videos the 3rd batch was almost perfect. We did not have a meter to measure the sugar content. It turned out great. Wife got me a brix meter this year for Christmas. Measured the last batch from last year and it was 68% doing it by eye. We are already boiling sap again for this year.