Weekend Boiling

[Adk sugar bush]

Hey All - just joined and what a great site! I think I've read all posts over the past year and learned a lot from everyone. Here's my unique problem. I have about 100 taps on gravity pipeline at my camp which is about 1 1/2 hour from where I live. I'm planning on retiring in a couple of years and will build up to about 300 taps, but for now, that is what I can handle from afar. I just bought a couple of 275 gal caged tanks for storage, an upgrade from my stock tank. Here's the question. I know I have limited time for storing sap before it sours, but assuming I boil for 3 days (adding vacation days here and there) , then have to leave, will the sweetened (learned that term here) sap last in reasonably cool weather? Otherwise I have to completely boil down and start all over again the next weekend. Just wondering if anybody else is a Weekend Warrior and what experiences you've had.

[Tweegs]

I boil here on my own property and can only do it 3 days a week with work and all.

I take Wednesday’s as vacation days during the season. I leave the sweet in the pans between boils, covered. My grade may suffer a little, but otherwise no harm done.
Boiling kills off the bacteria, I believe in cooler weather it takes a while for it to get reestablished to the point of causing problems.

Welcome aboard!

[psparr]

I'm in pretty much the same situation your in except I have way to many years till I retire.
I can only boil weekends. Sap sits on the trees all week. My season won't last long when temps get too high to do that, but haven't had any spoiled sap yet.

Here's the real kicker to this story. I gave a friend 10 taps to try tapping himself. He tapped the first week in January. He just showed up yesterday with three 5 gallon buckets of sap. FROM JANUARY! (Doesn't know any better) He had stored the sap in his garage because he didn't really have a way to boil it. Two of the buckets were yellow, but one looked pretty good. I threw that bucket on a finishing pan and we ended up with a pint (figures out to about 2% sugar!) of medium!

Moral of the story I guess, not all rules are hard and fast.

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

Hey All - just joined and what a great site! I think I've read all posts over the past year and learned a lot from everyone. Here's my unique problem. I have about 100 taps on gravity pipeline at my camp which is about 1 1/2 hour from where I live. I'm planning on retiring in a couple of years and will build up to about 300 taps, but for now, that is what I can handle from afar. I just bought a couple of 275 gal caged tanks for storage, an upgrade from my stock tank. Here's the question. I know I have limited time for storing sap before it sours, but assuming I boil for 3 days (adding vacation days here and there) , then have to leave, will the sweetened (learned that term here) sap last in reasonably cool weather? Otherwise I have to completely boil down and start all over again the next weekend. Just wondering if anybody else is a Weekend Warrior and what experiences you've had.It is like that for everybody to a certain extent, especially early in the season when runs are few and far between. The last time I boiled was Jan. 31. I just boiled again on the 15 of Feb. That's over 2 weeks the sweet sat in the pans! ( too much work too finish off a 4x14 between runs). Still making light this last boil. The more concentrated (higher sugar) the sweet is, the longer it will last. I ro to between 16-18%, so it usually endsup at least 25% in the flue pan. So to answer your question, if it stays 40 or below, you won't have to worry about it for a couple of weeks if it has already been boiled down some.

[Adk sugar bush]

Thanks for the comments. It's good to know that I don't have to start from scratch every weekend. Now just need a thaw. I was all excited about tapping this weekend, but doesn't look good right now in upstate NY.