Anyone ever have sap smell like...

[DonMcJr]

Wine? I had one of my woods buckets that smelled like a fruity wine... Anyone? What's it mean? Close to no good or no good?

[TerryEspo]

Maybe it was the Easter Bunny offering you a little nip of real wine, Bunny dumped your sap and offered you wine for all your hard efforts !! :lol:

No idea DonJr, but will watch the post to see what others think.

Terry

[Jeff E]

I have smelled that, typically on a sap soaked filter that is firmenting from being exposed to warmth for to long.
Sap in not coming out of the tree bad, I think you just need to empty and process it faster in the later part of the season.

[TreeTapper2]

Check your buckets for growth inside them. We have had several warm days with no flow and you could see faint spots of something growing on the bottom of the buckets. We have one more cold spell so before it started we cleaned all the buckets and wiped down the hoses.

[Cake O' Maple]

I agree that it's not the sap coming out of the tree that way, but something growing in the bucket. I usually get that smell in the barrels I store in; it begins as a smell of apples, sometimes just "fruity," then turns to an apple vinegar smell. If it's warm enough, I wash and re-sanitize them, (with the hose outside--they're too big to do in the house), and if the hose is frozen, they aren't able to be used until I can wash and bleach them.

And my buckets are beginning to get mold spots in them, but they're going to be pulled very soon, so I'm not replacing them like I normally would. The forecast is showing the end.

[DonMcJr]

Ok weird... I just washed the collection buckets but maybe a little bit of Sap was left in one and a few were inside when I boiled the last two days. Nothing growing on the bottom of buckets I check that every time.

Thanks!

[TreeTapper2]

It could be the sap is changing. I just read the other day how it could have different flavors to the finish product as you approach the end of the season.
The word is something like 'metobolisim'.
My recent boils have had a woody smell in the begining until the sap was more concentrated. That to is from the change in sap.
Ill see if I can find a link.

[TreeTapper2]

Ok found something:

Ferment – Fermented syrup usually develops from one of two problems with the product. If syrup has not been boiled
enough to concentrate the correct amount of sugar, then the syrup may work like apple cider. At times, we find
correct density syrup fermented and that is usually from syrup stored in barrels that have not been properly
cleaned. Even barrels that have been previously steam cleaned may have moisture in them that have revealed yeast,
mold, and bacteria in great numbers. Syrup that is fermented will have a sickening sweet flavor, at times a honey
like similarity. Depending on the type of ferment, it may have an alcoholic or fruity taste. Severe ferment may have
a foamy appearance.

This is the title of the PDF, sorry don't have a link but you could google it.
Maple Flavors and Syrup Grading
Stephen Childs, Cornell Extension Maple Specialist