cloudy sap question

[andrew martin]

We put our taps in last Saturday, and we have had a fairly cool week except for Thursday and Friday where the high temperatures topped out around 62 degrees. Subsequently, we had a dozen buckets with cloudy sap in them today. Should I pull these dozen taps or will the onset of cooler weather this coming week (20's at night, 40's during day) help return the sap to its normal clarity? I would hate to pull them, but I do not want to make low quality syrup either.

Thanks,

Andrew

[lew]

Don't pull them. The sap most likely became cloudy because of bacteria growing rapidly in the sap due to the warm weather. Wash your buckets and put them back on the spile. This will severely reduce the bacteria count in the bucket and the next batch of sap that gets into the bucket will not get contaminated (at least not from the previously contaminated sap). With cooler weather you should be back to nice clear sap. As a side note, we have tapped one woods (200 taps) for about 20 years. The sap from this woods was always cloudy from the day we tapped it until the day we pulled spiles for about 5 consecutive seasons, then it cleared up and has been cloudy only when the other woods were cloudy. We always made the same grade of syrup with that sap as the other sap. Just one of thos little quirks of mother nature.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

If it tastes like crap, throw it away. If it tastes good or ok, boil it. Cloudy sap don't mean it is bad, as Lew stated, it just happens and sometimes for no reason in our finite minds. :lol: :D

[andrew martin]

Thanks guys, that is good info. I boiled the sap we collected yesterday and made good syrup out of it. I will go ahead and rinse my buckets in the meantime before the good weather returns.

Andrew