Buckets and Ice

[Richard Gress]

Until this year I have always run lines into 5 gallon buckets. I was told early on that the ice contains no usable sugar. On good years I chuck the ice that I fing in the buckets. Am I wasting precious product? Thanks for your input Rich

[sapbrush]

HI some say to chucl it im not to sure i beleive that if you are a small guy, i have had ice in the buckets today in fact i took it out placed in another bucket and let it melt, there is sugar in the ice so i guess it depends on how big you are or arnt, i run about 40 taps on buckets and i try not to waist a drop jim

[smokeyamber]

To throw or not throw ice is a question that seems to come up often. Do a search on the forum and you will see there is much discussion either way. If you have tons of sap I would chuck, but later in the season I keep it just help keep the sap cool longer. Also the amount of trapped sugar in the ice depends on HOW the ice formed. If you have a skim on the top it often has less sugar than say if the bucket is halfway frozen. I keep the fully frozen blocks as well since obvioulsy the sugar is in there :mrgreen:

[Richard Gress]

Thanks-great point about keeping the ice in to keep the sap cool. Especially when the days start hitting 50F+ on a regulay basis and I don't have time to completely boil off in a day. Don't want fermentation-that's for grapes...