Syrup storage questions

[Leinie]

I want to keep my nearly finished syrup in 1 gallon plastic milk containers until I can combine my small batches and finish them all at once and bottle.

This is just back yard and kitchen sugaring and I'll probably end up with 5-7 gallons of syrup.

At what temp can I put the stuff into these plastic jugs ?

These are brand new sterilized jugs from the water dispenser section at the store- not used milk jugs that have been cleaned.

Thanks for any help

[happy thoughts]

How much sap/syrup are you talking? I just make a couple of gallons a year so getting any quantity of sap is the controlling factor for me. Your time may also be a factor. Personally, I only store sap finished that far in glass- big gallon jars that I got free from the deli. I usually aim for a concentration of at least 8/1 on first boil. There's nothing wrong with food grade water bottles but I prefer more non reactive glass at this stage when sap is concentrated and more likely to pick up flavors and odors from plastic.

Kept refrigerated, I may let it sit sometimes for 3 or 4 days but usually shorter. After that I combine it with newer stuff and reboil it or final bottle. In the process I pour off any sediment that's collected on sitting because I don't filter at present.

Doing it that way I likely end up with darker syrup but I feel better about mold and bacteria growing if it doesn't go too long between boilings especially when the concentration if sugar may be too low to prevent that kind of growth. But that's just my way of doing it. I'm sure there are as many other ways to do it as there are small home syrup makers.

I usually don't have enough quantity to make final bottling on the stove worth the effort until I can bottle at least a couple of quarts of syrup. This has been a good sap year for us so I'm waiting to process more like a gallon of syrup at one time this year. The size of your finishing pot or pan is going to determine how much syrup you can push out as you don't want to keep a cooking vessel more than half full at the end point.

It's also going to depend on what you plan on doing with the syrup. If for your use only, then do what makes sense and feels wholesome to you and you feel confident about serving your family. If you can process it more quickly then I would certainly do so.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Dont ever try plastic soda bottles you will be pissed. As far as the milk jugs Try boiling water first. Yes finished syrup is higher out of the evap But 180 is 180 so you will be OK with boiling watre as a test

[Dennis H.]

I would advise not to use milk jugs. The plastics aren't designed to take that kind of heat. I had a milk jug but in a guart size and man did it get really soft. But do as Haynes says and try putting water that is 180-190 in it and see for your self how it holds up. You may find that you don't see any issues with it, me I did so I got a case of 1 gal syrup jugs. I ordered extra caps so that I could use the jugs over and over again

Now if you put the syrup in cold and store it in the freezer thne it would work.

Me personnally I would use quart mason jars. Nice size to store that mush syrup and when you need some you are only dealing with a quart not a gal.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

My dad has a breathing aparatus of some kind he has to wear at night and it uses distilled water and he was buying it at Walmart in regular milk type jugs and he bought a bunch of them to the sugarhouse and I filled about 40 of them with the distilled water coming off of the preheater and it was probably going into the jugs around 200 and it took just a few minutes to fill and they did fine.

[Leinie]

Thanks everyone.

I let it cool to about 130 before putting it in. Now I'll freeze it until finishing time.