Is bad sap noticeable?

[marktripp]

I see many/most people on here as well as some friends of mine pulling taps. My trees (as of Friday) where still flowing clear sap. I sample the sap by tasting it every few buckets but will I know when it's bad, what's bad sap taste like? 98% of my tree buds are closed tight, I guess I'm just worried about wasting my time or making bad syrup. I've been at work since Friday am so I'm not sure if they ran Friday or today but ill check when I get home in the morning. Any help/advise is appreciated.

[RileySugarbush]

Take a metal cup and a propane torch, boil a little sap and take a whiff. You will know if it is buddy.

[325abn]

Yes you sure will!! :) Plus taste it

[gmcooper]

I have never had an issue not knowing when we had bad sap. Usually I can smell it as a first clue. Some times it just looks off as in a big change towards cloudy. Best of all is to boil it. You will know very soon when it gets to boiling that something is really wrong. We always taste every batch of syrup through out the season but especially as we get towards the end of the season. Some off flavors can kind of sneek up on you, they may not be over powering but if you can taste them so can your customers.

[PerryW]

I dump yellow and cloudy sap. If it looks clear, I gather it and boil.

However, clear, good-tasting sap can still make buddy syrup.

If the last sap you boiled made good tasting syrup, then I would boil up the next batch. Eventually, you will make some strong-tasting syrup and smells okay, but has a strong after-taste. This is metabolic. Not great table syrup, but good for cooking syrup,

The next run will be be worse-tasting or even buddy-tasting.

[marktripp]

So can cloudy sap still be good and clear sap be bad? Or is all cloudy sap bad and clear sap maybe as well?

[western mainer]

The best thing to do is put some of your sap in a small pan and heat it up on your kitchen stove and you will know right off as if it's bad you will smell bad.
Brian

[heus]

Cloudy sap can still make some great tasting grade B syrup, as long as its also not buddy.

[MN Jake]

Older post but I found some answers and would like to add to it..

Last year at the end the sap changed for me overnight. Like normal I was collecting and got thirsty and took a drink, wow what a horrible flavor. I have an iron gut and I almost chucked. By that point almost 2 barrels were filled already that morning. Boiled anyway just for the experience. All thru the day whenever the steam filled my nose I wanted to chuck, kept telling dad "let's junk this batch". He would taste a little, "no no keep going". Later on as it got closer to syrup the smell started to dissipate. We finished it and after cooling a bit I was the only one that could detect a subtle off taste, maybe because of tasting the sap I was sensitive to the flavor. To me the syrup has a slight "flowery" aftertaste to it in the nose. Everyone else liked it.

The sap itself that day had a terrible metallic/chemical taste to it, and I did a flinching taste test on all bags after the first swig. Most were bad, very few were still normal. The steam was the same, just in the nose. I am not suggesting anyone boil or not to boil at that point, just laying out my experience.

[The dairy farmer]

Ok bad sap will smell kinda musky I had some go bad and u can tell ,
Budding sap is very thick and gloppy

[jmayerl]

Yes and no, the answer us not that easy

[lpakiz]

Jake,
I had the same experience with syrup. We suspected the sap was bad, but it smelled and tasted OK. So we put a couple quarts to boil on the kitchen range. Kept smelling and tasting--everything was fine.
After combining all the pans and continuing to cook, all was well. When it starred to get thicker, I kept tasting and smelling steam. All OK.
Several minutes later I took a taste and I couldn't get to the sink fast enough to spit it out. The most disgusting thing I ever tasted! 5 minutes earlier, it was fine.

[MN Jake]

Jake,
I had the same experience with syrup. We suspected the sap was bad, but it smelled and tasted OK. So we put a couple quarts to boil on the kitchen range. Kept smelling and tasting--everything was fine.
After combining all the pans and continuing to cook, all was well. When it starred to get thicker, I kept tasting and smelling steam. All OK.
Several minutes later I took a taste and I couldn't get to the sink fast enough to spit it out. The most disgusting thing I ever tasted! 5 minutes earlier, it was fine.

I have not started using my 4 gallons of "flowery" syrup yet. I have that jug labeled and stored away for the end. We will see what it tastes like a year later when I get to it. All other 18 gallons have had a great hazelnut flavor to them.