holding sap

[cavescott]

hi dont want to be a pain but it is my first year. think of me as a two year old got a million questions.
before coming on this site i always thought you had to boil the sap you got each day or it would sour. but i have been noticing that people are saying collecting today and boiling on friday or whatever.[U] What is the exeptable amount of time to hold sap before boiling?
thank you for your help!

[spencer11]

a week max.just keep it cold , or frozen and it will last a while.

spencer

[cavescott]

thank spencer. you answered this over 24 hours ago and no body has argued with you. On this site that would mean that everyone agrees with you. thanks again you saved me alot of very short boils.
scott

[wnybassman]

I've read you treat it as if it were milk. How long would you trust milk in 35º weather, 45º weather, etc.

[RC Maple]

It's my first year too. Treating it like milk is what I learned. I use 32 gal trash cans kept on the North side of my shack. I fill milk jugs 3/4 full of water and freeze them then put the lids on and put 1 or 2 in the trash cans like big ice cubes. When they melt your not adding extra water to your sap and just swap them out with different jugs when they've melted.

[PerryW]

ditto on the milk analogy.

[RC Maple]

I forgot to mention after reading similar posts on here I try to have all my sap boiled within a week. There have seen stories on here of people who have a sorry tastin' batch after boiling for hours with 10 day old sap. Trying to learn from their experience. It is supposed to be 63 here today - just added another frozen milk jug ice cube to each sap storage container. A lot of boiling to do.

[cavescott]

thanks alot. this site is great get lots of cool information and ideas that milk jug thing is a great idea! I dont have to worry about that yet though the sap hasn't even started running here yet. got to admit being on this site the anticipation is killing me being my first year. I'm sure i will get over it soon enough.

[happy thoughts]

I'm sure i will get over it soon enough.

I wouldn't put money on that:lol: If you haven't heard it yet, it's an addiction!

[Yellzee]

Get over it soon... yeah that's a good one.

All of our spouses would get a good chuckle out of that thought.

[Dave Puhl]

It really depends on the daily high temp...as long as you can keep it cool it should last a week...once its not as clear as water get it cooked asap.....

[happy thoughts]

Just keep it as cold as possible. The colder the better. Handling it like milk is a very good guideline. And boil as soon as possible. With any amount of sugar in the sap you're bound to get at least some yeast and mold growth the longer you hold it. Yeast in particular loves sugar solutions. Boiling, especially at the temps needed to reach syrup which is well above the boiling point of water, will kill just about everything that may be growing in there. In that respect you're probably safe from killing your loved ones with iffy sap:o But that said, you increase your risk for off flavors and darker syrup as sap gets older and ranker. So just use your best judgement and strive for quality.

[SeanD]

It's my first year too. Treating it like milk is what I learned. I use 32 gal trash cans kept on the North side of my shack. I fill milk jugs 3/4 full of water and freeze them then put the lids on and put 1 or 2 in the trash cans like big ice cubes. When they melt your not adding extra water to your sap and just swap them out with different jugs when they've melted.

RC, that's a tried and true technique. I've had to use it a couple of times on some warm nights this season. The one thing I'd recommend though, is that you fill your jugs or bottles with sap. Just in case they split open you are not adding minutes/hours to your boil with the added water. Also, as it melts, you can pour off the sap and dump the leftover ice for a little natural RO. I cycle a couple of juice bottles from the freezer this way.

Sean

[SevenCreeksSap]

RC, that's a tried and true technique. I've had to use it a couple of times on some warm nights this season. The one thing I'd recommend though, is that you fill your jugs or bottles with sap. Just in case they split open you are not adding minutes/hours to your boil with the added water. Also, as it melts, you can pour off the sap and dump the leftover ice for a little natural RO. I cycle a couple of juice bottles from the freezer this way.

Sean

We freeze some in good ziplock bags and just tear the bag off and dump the block in. If its there when you are out of sap just pick out the rest and drip it in the evap.

[3fires]

I'm fairly new to this, but it seemed like if it got over 50 F the sap would start clouding up real quick and going sour. I went 5-7 days no problem under 50, but when we had a warm up over 50 the sap was starting to cloud up in just 3 days and I had to hurry and boil it. Then I had to clean my storage tanks for fear of it funking up the new stuff.

[ca2devri]

Last year when it warmed up I put a 5 gallon bucket about 1/3 full of sap in my freezer. Then when frozen, I dumped it into my 200 gallon holding tank. made nice big ice cubes to keep everything cold.

So far this year it's been pretty cold while holding sap so I haven't had to worry about it. I have been spending a lot of time thawing the drains on my holding tank to get at the sap when I want to boil though!

Chris