Sap Color

[hounder]

We have been cold and my father in law (91 years young) and I collected sapon Tuesday. Most was frozen, but we drained off the sap from the ice and it had an off color to it. We only got about 150 gallons of this. Yesterday everything was overflowing and it was crystal clear. It has been very cold here, not sure why the sap was off colored. I kept it separated and we will boil today. Should we chuck it? It actually tested at 3 1/4 % with yesterdays run testing at 2 1/2%

[seclark]

when you say off color you mean cloudy or just not clear.When I removed the sap from the ice buckets it was not clear but not cloudy either just a little different color but since it was frozen I think its just concentrated more and just a different color.I boiled my sap and it was great and more sugar content so I boiled in less time.I don't think you will have a problem.Maybe to be safe boil it by it self.I think I would keep it and try.Maybe you could boil a little in a pot and see if it's good,I would try that before chucking it.

[hounder]

It was clear, but a light yellowish brown. Just an off cast color against the white pail, although the ice was clear against the bucket after draining off the liquid.

One more question.. (probably a lie, I am always asking too many questions=)
We have 2 lines set up going to 100 gallon tanks. We bucket out of the tanks and put in white water tank on the truck. Since my husband was hurt in a logging accident and broke 2 vertabrae, Pa and I do all the collecting. Pa can only lift about 2 gallons up to me on the back of the truck to dump so I am looking to get a pump to transfer. I saw the battery powered ones and wondered how they worked. This is our first year, and we bought a way to big evaporator that we are going to pick up this Sunday. Our plans are to keep adding each year so I want something that will work for a while. We just got the concrete poured where we will put the evaporator and have 1000 gallon stainless steel milk tank for storage. See one more question. How long can sap be stored if it is cool out. Can we right now boil once a week? Will the stuff in the pans when you stop boiling last a week?

Sorry and thanks! :emb:

[seclark]

I have used a battery pump for the last 5 years and it works great.At 71 years young hauling sap is not fun anymore.As far a storing sap it depends how cold it stays.I'm far from and expert but the sooner you boil the better.As far as the sap in the pan a more experienced person will know better than me.Hope this helps.

[Cody]

When sap gets high in sugar content it tends to become colored (like a brownish yellow?) but yeah the tree we tap have about 5% average its usually tinted every day