Yellow sap

[efoyt]

Ok..dumped a bunch of yellow sap today? It also rained and snowed all night. Doses the yellow come from runoff from the rain?

[The dairy farmer]

yes its from the rain on the tree

[efoyt]

Do I need to dump it?

[psparr]

Do a test on it. Boil a little on the stove. If it smells funny toss it.

[Cabin]

Do I need to dump it? I have an old saying "when in doubt throw it out".

[Ausable]

Everyone is giving good advice. ---You are in Maine - I would say too early for buddy sap. If just a little from one tree - I'd pitch it. If quite a bit - check it for sugar content with a sap or winemaker's hydrometer (I think they scale that low?). Yes - rain running down tree bark can pickup color - or if you tapped into some dead wood - that can do it too. pparr says to boil a little and give it the smell test - never thought of that one - have to remember it - good idea.

[happy thoughts]

Do I need to dump it?

That's up to you. I do because I figure it's diluted with rain water so sugar will be lower, will darken my syrup because of the color, and contains a lot of dirt and microorganisms including contamination from bird and animal droppings. The boil and smell test is good for detecting metabolic sap but yellow sap from rain contamination isn't metabolic, it's just dirty.

[drewlamb]

Assuming you had lids on your buckets. If so, I highly doubt it's rainwater. All sap from all trees will yellow over the season, not from bacterial growth, but from sap chemistry change. If left in buckets too long of course it will darken more, and that funky stuff should def be tossed, but fresh sap also just comes out of the tree darker later in the season. I also have trees that just run sap that is more yellow than other trees, year after year, even at the beginning of the season. The sap doesn't taste much if any different. In general I've noticed that those trees are often of poor health, but then all poor health trees don't make yellow sap!

[mapleguy]

Just checked one of my 600 gal. collection tanks. Sap has a yellow tint but is clear. Last year same thing happened but didn't affect syrup at all. Of course after the nxt run or two it started clouding up. Hard to believe after this winter we would start seeing buddy sap this early. But remember it's almost april so maybe chemistry of trees are changing despite the cold. This is the hardest I've seen sap running this year.

[drewlamb]

You're lucky. Still haven't seen hardly a drop here (no vac) and won't for maybe another week. Gonna be a short, but hopefully fruitful season. Haven't given up hope that once it comes, it's gonna gush!

[Sengelaub Farms]

Somebody peed in your buckets. lol


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[wnybassman]

Somebody peed in your buckets. lol


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Obviously bigfoot.

[Quagmire33]

I've had yellow sap and dumped it. Only because one year I had some and boiled it separately, 6 gallons made almost a half pint of syrup. It tasted fine, just had barley any sugar content to the sap. I know it wasn't rain water, guess I could have been in bad wood but I doubt that since I pay close attention while tapping. At any rate, when I get yellow sap now I dump it.

[GV2]

One of my buckets had yellow sap 2 days in a row after a rainfall. The first few runs prior were clear. Then the rain, followed by 2 yellow sap runs in that tap only. Now that tap is clear again. I would say that if rain is the possible culprit then maybe keep the tap in and check it each time for a while before collecting it into a container with clear sap.

[grimmreaper]

I always worry about yellow sap (someone using your bucket for a road side pitstop)lol..I used to dump yellow sap but I could collect 200 gallons and it would be clear with a yellow tint..don't think you neeed to worry..boil what ever you can get,the season is going to be short I think.

[longlakejohn]

Tannin or Tanic Acid from tree runoff is most likely your culprit----works for veg tanning of raw hides but I personally would dump before contaminating a clean boil

[bowtie]

this happens a lot in bucket operations, I will dump if it very yellow but it is just tinted I usually keep it. as for contamination I would not worry about it unless it creates a off flavor. once boiled all microorganisms will be dead. I do not really think it is big deal rain water gets in your buckets yes it will lower sugar content but in years like this next week could end our season. I would worry more about using galvanized buckets than contamination from bird droppings, insects and rain water down a tree. anything from these will be neutralized during boiling while lead and galvanized materials will only concentrate in the syrup.

[happy thoughts]

I would not worry about it unless it creates a off flavor. once boiled all microorganisms will be dead.

But how do you know if it will create an off flavor without boiling separately? It seems easier imho to dump a couple of quarts that will only produce an ounce or two of syrup than risk spoiling a batch of good syrup. As for boiling killing everything that's not true. Spores are not killed and some bacteria can survive very high temps though they are not likely to grow in properly sealed and bottled syrup of correct density. As I said before, to dump or not is a personal choice just like deciding what to do with sap a squirrel died in :o Come to think of it, we haven't had a post about that yet this year yet. Must mean we're all having a late season :)

[bowtie]

that is true about spores but you will have them in a bucket anyway, and I am not sure any of the bacteria you speak of are present in this neck of the woods, believe you are speaking of the bacteria in the pools found in or around volcanic areas. I have had 2 flying squirrels in buckets this year and did not boil them I finished them on the spot!

[happy thoughts]

believe you are speaking of the bacteria in the pools found in or around volcanic areas.!

Honestly I wasn't. :) There are many common species of thermophilic bacteria all around us including soils, compost piles and the air. Not all require the intense heat of geothermal pools to grow but can tolerate a wide range of temps. These are known as facultative thermophiles and tend to be spore formers.

Well I suppose drowning squirrels are a good sign! At least you're getting sap :)

Have a great season!