Cheap spouts.

[mbicknell]

The cheapest 5/16 spouts for buckets that I found were $2.00/each, so I bought a couple hundred of the one time use clear plastic spouts for tubing, ground off two of the triangular points and had myself 13 cent/ea. spouts that work just fine. And I probably won't be throwing them away at the end of the season. I've made maple syrup for 35 years without worrying about bacteria and will continue to do so till I stop sugaring.

[Treetapper]

I talked to a Maple supplier here in Ontario and asked their opinion on the "bacteria thing" and they felt it isn't as big a concern for most (hobbyist's). In a bigger commercial set up on vacuum maybe, but not so much for a smaller producer. Just my two cents.