Small sap runs, waste of time?

[OneLegJohn]

Are short runs run of 18-24 hours even worth messing with? When you have a ton of equipment to clean and winterize, does it make financial sense to even collect sap fo a small run? It will cost more in labor than I would yield in syrup. Because it is so cold, maybe I can save the sap until the next boil. But all my lines will be frozen. What a dilemma!

[3rdgen.maple]

Yeah I hear you loud and clear. 100 gallon runs are the worst for me. Not enough to do anything with it but yet enough to tease the heck out of you. I will think twice before I tap anything for an early warmup next year.

[adk1]

100 gallon runs will be a good run for me!

[3rdgen.maple]

Yeah well come get it then lol. Right now is a 100 gallon ice cube. This weather sucks.

[Russell Lampron]

It is still early. I would rather it be a little too cold than a little too warm. As for the small runs and it being the early part of the season I would just save it until I had enough to boil. 100 gallons has the potential to make 2.5 gallons of syrup. If you don't want to bother with that why are you doing this?

[Sugarmaker]

Nate,
I have boiled as little as 60 gallons. It was enough to push out some syrup that was in process. Yes its a pain. Yes its work to gather a small ammount and get everything hot just to shut down. I dont have a good answer. One thing is whats the sugar content?
I see guys on here dumping lots of 1% sap. I try to be selective on the trees and the sap we get is general around 2%. Would I fire upo a R.O for 60 gallons? Probably not.
Lots of variables. I have dumped a bunch that was frozen into 15 gallon cubes too.
Hang in there! This is not for the weak of heart:)
Chris

[3rdgen.maple]

Yes it will have the potential to be 2.5 gallons of syrup. Problem is 100 gallons of sap will get me about 30 minutes of boiling. It would be a little different if the pans are already sweet and there was more on the way but 100 gallons just sitting around for 2 weeks isnt worth the effort of dealing with it. Too much work for little return for your first boil with a big gap between more sap. It would have to sit in the pans or be drained and stored and everything cleaned again. So it sits in the woods tank frozen solid taking up space cause it will take a month for it to thaw now. Should of dumped it.

[adk1]

goods points that is for sure. probably should have transfered to a few smaller 25 gallon tanks and let it freeze, the ncould have used them to keep your large tank cold?

[Russell Lampron]

The sap that is frozen won't spoil and that ice cube will melt pretty fast once the weather warms up enough to make the sap run again. As long as you have room enough in your tank for more sap when it does run again that ice cube will help keep the new sap cold.

[3rdgen.maple]

Good point Russ. I was thinking along those lines a bit but I hope it melts down fast as it only leaves 175 gallons of storage left in the tank. Its on my vac setup but I do have another tank I could swap if needed or maybe I will plumb them together. We will see what happens tomarrow should run by days end and again on sunday and monday.