Frozen sap

[kiegscustoms]

Here's a rookie question for everyone- A friend of mine was telling me that when the top of his buckets or tanks freeze he throws out the ice because there is no sugar in it. I have heard of other people doing this but wouldn't there still be sugar in the ice since the content is so low? I have been considering experimenting with a 5 gallon bucket with a 3% sugar water solution, letting it freeze, taking the block of ice out and letting it thaw and check the sugar content of the ice. Just figured I'd throw the question out before I did my science experiment since I have plenty of other things I should be doing...

[cpmaple]

I have done that test my first year since i heard the same thing on here and read it in a sugaring book i purchased. I tryed it twice and both times it came out just around .5% not enough for a big producer to worry about but the little guy can use it one for keeping sap cold and second in a pinch when a little more is needed to finish a boil. cpmaple

[BryanEx]

I have been considering experimenting with a 5 gallon bucket with a 3% sugar water solution, letting it freeze, taking the block of ice out and letting it thaw and check the sugar content of the ice. Just figured I'd throw the question out before I did my science experiment since I have plenty of other things I should be doing...

This has been argued many times over the past years and there are many that swear by throwing out the ice. I did exactly what you are considering and found I was only wasting sap by doing so. I now use the ice to help keep sap cool and just keep dumping it into large pails until melted if I have too much ice. If you have a sap hydrometer certainly do the testing yourself and your answer will be clear but base it over several samples to get an accurate result.

[sapsick]

tried it myself at least once ayear for the past 5 years and i cant see as there is any benefit in keeping the frozen stuff. when melted its less than one percent and i shovel snow around my tanks to keep it cold. i only have about 150 taps total and still dont think it is worth the effort. try it for yourself.

[buckeye gold]

Done this Tuesday with sap. I had a run Monday night and it turned really cold, so I had lots of ice. I used a kitchen strainer and separated the ice into different containers. I used my sap hydrometer and tested the liquid and it was 2.2%. Then i melted some ice in a pan over the flue, and tested....it was 1.1%. I thought, "hey the ice is less sugar content". It was only a small run so I boiled it anyway. Then I got to thinking, that the melted ice was warmer than the calibration of my hydrometer, which is calibrated at 38 degrees F. Simple physics would suggest a density change. So I chilled some with ice until I was close to calibration and it tested ~1.5%. I was still a little on the warm side though. Maybe we have some one with enough brains to answer the temperature variance question. I know it matters in syrup so why not sap? I will test sap as close to calibration as possible from now on. My gut feeling is that if you use your hydrometers properly that melted sap ice will be close to unfrozen sap. Also, to properly design a test, one needs a baseline and control. So what that would look like is, step 1. mix all solution ( best done by boiling sugar into water) in one batch at a certain concentration (say 3% sugar by wght) Step 2. Take equal parts of the solution and test and record (they should be the same. Step 3. Let cool to 38°F and test. Step 4. freeze one sample in a container so that the top 1/3 freezes (an open container with insulation around bottom 2/3rds should do). step 5. warm edges of container enough to remove ice chunk. Step 6 test remaining sugar water step 7. melt ice and bring to 38°F and test.

I know sounds like a hassle, but I actually have done research for years and believe me this is a simple design and the way to get a reasonable and factual answer. If anyone is game it'd be good info.

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

I tapped a tree for fun the other day and my sap froze solid. Could it be because it went to 5 below last night or a low sugar content?

[morningstarfarm]

I keep it... if nothing wlse I figure that its like putting ice cubes into a drink..and after the last few years I want all the chilling my sap can get..especially in the later part of the season..just my .02

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

For 50 years we tested every tub of sap that came into the sugar house. We always threw away the ice. If ice was thrown away, we circled the % sugar in our records. Long and short, over 50 years of records show sap with ice thrown out testing at about 3.8% on average and plain sap testing an average of 2.1%. Did we throw away some sugar with the ice? I'm sure we did. We also saved on boiling time and wood. We always managed to make more than a quart per tap on buckets and sometimes as much as a half gallon. If you are in a situation where you need every drop of syrup you can produce, save the ice. If you are being overwhelmed with sap, don't be afraid to throw away a half inch of ice on the top of a bucket or tank.

[TF Maple]

I didn't do any testing using good scientific methods but I did melt ice and it had 1% sugar most of the time, testing with my refractometer. Tossing the ice does remove mostly water and cut down on the amount of boiling needed. If you want every drop then you boil the ice too.