Ice in buckets To Dump or Boil? That is the question..

[Ridge777]

Everything froze hard here last night and most of my trees only ran late in the afternoon. All my buckets have alot of ice in them and I am not sure if I should keep the ice or chuck it. Last year I boiled everything, but many people say there is only water in the ice. I have around 50 gallons in the tank and 40 gallons to collect if I include the ice. I am trying to avoid alot of lugging and boiling if it makes no sense. This being my second year at this I am looking for advice. Thanks.

[donka]

Ridge777

I'm not far from you in Raymond. I'm in the same boat, I collected what I had today, all ice and I'm boiling it tonight. I figure if there was sugar in it before it froze it must still be in there. I also save the skim ice that forms on top of the buckets, I can't bring myself to toss it and it keeps the sap cool. I say boil away.

[twitch]

It has got sugar in it boil it.

[not_for_sale]

There is a chart on the forum somewhere that shows that ice buildup if temperatures are above 15 F are pure water. If it gets lower than 15 the sugar also freezes. If it all freezes over you could have pockets of highly concentrated sap in the ice.

[TreeTapper2]

Try tasting the ice. I've had some taste sweet and some taste like water. You can guess what I did with each one.
This is not scientific but it works for me.

[DonMcJr]

I never throw out the ice...I'm sure it has some sugar in it and I'll take all I can get!

[jstaples]

For all that are interested take a peek at this post...it's a 2008 post but still good knowledge about ice in our sap.

http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?4329-Sugar-content-of-sap-less-the-ice

[buck3m]

If the bucket is frozen solid I keep the ice. Otherwise, if I have more time than sap, I tend to keep the ice, if more sap than time, I chuck it. It is a form of natural RO for sure.

[happy thoughts]

There have been a lot of threads on sap ice. There are pros and cons to save or toss and a lot boils down to what suits your needs. One thread I remember from a few years ago is here where Dr Tim added some input.

http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?7651-Ice-in-Buckets&p=91085#post91085

The original article that appeared in maple digest can be downloaded here. The costs of lost sugar vs the cost of boiling with oil are compared. Anyone interested can do the same comparisons. Interesting to see that in 1963 a gallon of sap went for $5 and oil was 15 cents a gallon. Boy times have changed!

http://wyndmoor.arserrc.gov/Page/1963/1863.pdf

[not_for_sale]

It makes sense to throw away the ice, even if it contains some sugar. I am not sure if you guys are doing this. I have run a couple of experiments with sugar content and water boil off. I am pretty sure that the steam carries some sugar away.

You would assume that 2 gallons of 20 Brix concentrate to one gallon of 40 Brix. Not so. It's quite a bit less than one gallon once I hit 40. The only explanation is that the steam has some sugar in it.

The less water you have to boil off the less sugar you carry away with the steam.

You maybe shooting yourself in the foot by tossing almost water ice in your evaporator.

[Revi]

Chuck the ice. We never boil the ice. We only have a few buckets, but why boil ice, when you could boil that concentrate? It's nature's reverse osmosis!

[Round Mtn Mapler]

Boil the ice.

We always boil the ice. Wait all year to tap a tree for a month and it runs but freezes. No reason to dump out all that hard work.

[Springfield Acer]

There is a previous thread about this. I have separated the ice from the sap and saved both. Where I normally got 2.5 %, I got 4% from the separated sap. I melted down the ice and it did not even register any percentage.
I boiled it down anyway and got nothing. If it is not over half frozen, you're not capturing any sugar in the ice. Chuck it or you'll just waste time and wood and still get the same amount of syrup. At some point it freezes completely or almost completely. I've been told this is when you're around 23*. Then save it and boil it. There does not seem to be as much good info about solid ice thawing and releasing the sugar first.

[twitch]

i dont know the numbers but if there is some sugar in ice then someone should be able to figure out how much sap ,on a day when it is not frozen, that you could dump out on the ground to accomplish the same thing as throwing out the ice on a day when you have ice.

[TapME]

As u already know there are 2 schools of thought. In years past i have done the experiment and have found some sugar in the ice.. You can do it yourself if you want. Take the ice out of the bucket and rinse it off with tap water to clean any sap off the ice. Then let melt and read with a refractometer. I have found from zero to. 05% sugar in the ice when done this way. If not rinsed the sugar is as high as 2%. I personally throw out the ice. Would rather boil higher sugar % than low %.

[Revi]

Tomorrow we'll boil some ice that is in the tank so that we can keep some steam happening for the show, but we usually don't keep it.

[MaineMapleDave]

I usually chuck the ice. I've tested the sap sugar content before and after the ice melting and realized that the ice is mostly water.

[deckers007]

I keep the ice and throw it in my storage tank to keep the sap cold, I can only boil twice a week so keeping the sap cold in my outdoor storage tank is important.

[Ridge777]

I am glad I saved the ice. I am using it now to keep my sap cool also. I had about a 55 gallon drum of it and have used almost half of it the last 2 days. Might take a little longer to boil, but it is better than losing a 100 gallons of sap. I will find out as I am boiling tomorrow.