2014 NW Wisconsin

[Brad W Wi]

Took a walk in the woods Thurs 3/21. 20" average of snow. More on the way today, were on the edge of trace to 1"-3" today. Last year we tapped on 3/8 and didn't collect till 3/30. But what a great year. I've got 3 test pails out. I'm hoping the snow will go down some in the next week or so to get the rest out.

[gouldjs]

Went out to put in a few more test taps and they were dripping pretty good so we put upped our total to 15 taps in trees. Looks like next wed will be the start of the season. I expect to put out another 25 taps this weekend to be ready for next weeks real start (I hope).

[mike z]

Got my 250 buckets out today. By the looks of it, I should have put them out yesterday; sap was running pretty well. The deep snow was not fun. Snow shoes did make it a little easier. I plan to go to 400 buckets as my trail system improves, but was content with the 250 today after all that trudging. Our packed trails have about 13" of snow covering them. Must be 24" off the trail. It gets easier walking though with every trip to the tree. Good luck northern tappers; I think our season has finally started!

[WildRiver]

I spent the day clearing trails of snow, put in a few more taps and collected a little sap from overflowing bags on one tree. Most trees are just starting to drip. 250 bags and buckets so far. Douglas County.

[lostrock4]

25 gallons off of 30 trees east of HaywardThe sap is flowing good. I'm hoping it freezes Sunday and Monday nite to keep the sap rolling.

[gouldjs]

70+ gallons off of 40 taps since friday night....running out of storage

[jeep27]

Collected 225 since Thursday on 180 taps..!! Still boiling now and feels like a freeze tonight .. Maybe a good run tomorrow..!!

[gouldjs]

I am a little nervous with the upcoming weather forecast that this could be a short short season.

[Rhino]

Our local weather station from Rhinelander (wjfw) is already talking a cool down for next week after Sunday. This could be perfect this week to get the snow way down with the warmth and rain and then get a good week and a half (or longer???) of perfect 20's and 40's. Lots of sap can come in during that time. Im not even close to looking up at the crowns for budding yet here. Peepers are still a loooooong ways away from peeping to which always signals the end for us.

[Brad W Wi]

We've made 25 gals of syrup so far. We got out 340 pails and don't know if we'll get the rest out or not. That snow has got to go soon, I'm not that young anymore. No frost in the ground so the tractor is making some ruts.

[stumpmaker]

Sap is flowing good now. Will collect again this afternoon and get ready to cook this weekend. A nice pause it looks like then next week the flow is back on with the weather cooling down again and some rain to knock down the snow pack that is still around 24" deep or more in the woods. Snowshoeing in a mush!

[Jeff E]

I love that line "Snow shoeing is a mush" . I did a quick check of a releaser today and skipped the shoes. That was a mistake!
It has been a lot of effort in the woods. Even now, there is still at least 15" of snow in the woods here by Spooner. I am counting on the snow sticking around through this warm week, which keeps the nights cool, and the peepers sleeping. I to am hopeful for next week.

I am getting about 1/2 gallon per tap on vacuum this week. Last weekend Sunday was a big day, over a gallon and a half per tap in 24 hrs. We are NOT done!
Sugar content is going down, we peaked out at 2.75 and this morning it was 2.2.

[Rhino]

Got to the woods early to do some oiler work on the vac pump, Nice hard freeze last night, At 8 a.m my metal taps were thawed and pounding pretty good but my vac lines were a tad froze up until 9.30 or so. Bag and gravity line taps were all pounding when i left around 11:00. Over in Price county a nice cloud bank formed so maybe it wont hit the upper 50's like they predict. I'ts funny how a person can curse at the deep snow and then when a warm spell hits and you can see a cool down forecasted in the next week, you want to go out and hug a snow bank! I to think next week for us northern producers can be a week that we all get our fill. By us we have around 15 inches of snow left, so if we get that rain on saturday like they say, it will probably be just patchy areas left but at least it would of gotten us through this warm stretch.

[gouldjs]

in polk county tonight half of my trees might be done. The southern exposure trees with no snow around them appear to be done, however, everything on the north side of a down slope with snow around them appear to have a future, at least I hope. I am in a little pickle, not enough snow for my snowmobile anymore, but some touble spots just deep enough that my atv is an adventure as well. Best case scenerio, a little more snow melting, but no buds popping, maple syrup makers dream I suppose.

[markcasper]

Have made quite a pile of syrup already down here. Approaching a quart per tap. Yesterdays syrup went to dark amber, everything before that was really light. I have one south facing bush that has been giving 2 gallons sap per day @ 2.8% per tap after a good freeze, and 1.5 - 1.75 gpd without freezes, 27" and a new Lapierre releaser, very impressed. The bad side....the opposite side of this hill which is north facing has done very little yet, still some snow there and ground frost which I am sure is holding things up. I too am hoping the forecast holds out, I think we will get by ok despite the 60 degree days right now. A guy I buy sap from had his sugar drop noticeably yesterday.....went from 2.8 to 2.4 within a day.

[motowbrowne]

Mark, glad to hear everything is going well in Knapp. I'm in about the same boat. Approaching 1qt per tap. We don't use vacuum, but our historic average is closer to 1/3 gallon/tap. I doubt that we'll hit that number this year, but to be honest, i'm quite pleased to have made as much as we have. Are you expecting anything from the three nights below freezing coming up? I'm not holding my breath here, I figure my tapholes are gonna start drying up, but maybe with vacuum, you'll get some more sap.

Good luck up north everybody.

[markcasper]

I am hoping for more, yes. I do not have vacuum going on all of mine yet. I ducked in quick for a snack on my way to get a north bush vacuum going. The north bush was just tapped last Thursday and has only given about one and a half gallon total per tap, while the other side of this hill, south side is giving anywhere between 1.5 and 2 gallon PER DAY of sap depending on if it freezes or not. I have another south bush which was just put in and they have done well when it freezes, but probably won't get vacuum on there until Saturday. I didn't tap anything that can't get vacuum applied this year and one of my guys I buy from that puts out 400 bags didn't tap either. I may throw 50 bags up this weekend on some pasture trees behind my shack that never run early anyway, plus these give 4-5% sap when they do run. The syrup just moved to a high dark amber and even with a few more warmer days, I don't think it will approach commercial yet. I have some sort of new spout on everything, plus I just started tapping three weeks ago this coming Saturday so am not worried about them closing flow off.

[Jeff E]

I am optimistic as well, for next week.
Our woods (near Spooner) still has an average of a foot of snow on the ground, but no snow around the trees. The trees have been producing steadily, even without the freeze.
Our sugar % is dropping fast though.
My hope is the upcoming weeks cool down will stabilize, maybe raise, the % sugar. Have any of you seen the % go up after a freeze?
We are now making DA, it was MA for the first several boils. We are not to a quart per tap yet, so I am hoping for another week to 10 days of good sap.

[logboy]

How long is everyone going to hold out yet? I'm getting nothing but cloudy sap here in Menomonie, but the buds dont look like theyre going to pop yet. Still, I wouldn't be heart broken if we were done for the year.

[GramaCindy]

I am hoping to get the rest of my taps IN TO The trees either today or tomorrow. I know, crazy. But we just couldn't get around in the extreme snowpack that we have had. Just Thursday I decided to collect from my 23 taps here around the cabin and knowing that the snowshoes were worthless, (that's a story!) I just trudged through the slushy, quicksand type snow. Now the top of the snow is level, but the ground sure isn't. I was soaked to the mid thigh and managed to collect a whopping 5 gallons. It's raining here now and we have had a great amount of snowmelt this week. I'm hoping that my husband can get the stuck ATV out today and we can finally get things rolling for at least ONE batch of syrup. I'm dying to try out my new filter press!

[WildRiver]

Our trees at the edge of fields are running well, most haven't ran well yet. I collected 150 gallons from 270 taps yesterday and boiled it off late afternoon. I think we may have a good run coming up this week. We still have a lot of snow and its raining now.

[Rhino]

G-Ma Cindy there isn't anything crazy about tapping now where you are. My uncle who is 65 just finished tapping his 500 bag taps on Wednesday, he couldn't deal with walking in that deep snow. He is in Price county, When i drove past his bags yesterday, by far they are running better then my bag taps which were in 2 1/2 weeks. You being more north and with more snow on the ground, i would guess this week and maybe longer you will get plenty-o-sap. Good luck

[sbingham]

Grama Cindy - We are just north of Tony, I had pretty much decided to skip the year as the snow was just too deep. I finally tapped 50 trees Tuesday evening, about half of what we normally do.
Snow was finally to a depth I could walk without snowshoes and the forecast for this next week was encouraging. I've collected about 90 gallons of sap so far. We are a true hobby operation.
Good Luck.

[mike z]

It sure looks like this coming week's weather will be good for the northern sugar makers. Get ready Cindy; here it comes!

[Merklin Maples]

Went out and collected this morning after the rain. Not much to brag about. Just hoping next week will be better. Was able to collect for the first time without snowshoes. Yahoo! The snow was eaten up by the rain last night. Have a batch in the finisher but think I will take a day off and enjoy some quality time with the Mrs.

[markcasper]

Trees ran good all this week with vacuum until today, they really dropped off this afternoon however. Will be boiling again tonight and as of yesterday I had not detected one bit of "off" flavor yet. The syrup did lighten up some yesterday back to medium. The box elders have certainly changed their looks on the buds the last day or so. I seen some elm yesterday with swollen buds while going to work. Finally got the north bush on 26" vacuum yesterday and got a little over a gallon per tap through the night last night, but it definately has slowed. We need a freeze again, has not froze since last Wednesday morning.

Rhino......are you cooking this year? I thought you mentioned something of selling sap and not cooking this year.

As for those up north still tapping....certainly not as crazy as me! I am considering putting some more in and am alot further south. If we get 3-4 good days, that be a god chunk of the season. My north bush has three mains coming in and the one with the most sap coming in happens to be the main that brings sap from an east slope and has the fewest number of taps on it. So this tells me the north ones are still not going full bore. Food for thought.

[logboy]

I was just out in the woods looking and the red maple buds are all swelled up on the verge of popping. All my gravity lines are dried up. I'm thinking about pulling my taps and calling it a year.

[gouldjs]

First boil of the season today and ended up with 6.25 gallons of some very very very dark syrup. Tasted good. Some of the sap had been sitting in storage barrels for a week packed in snow. I'm hoping for a run Monday-Thursday on a few trees hopefully. Holding out hope for one more run and chance to cook.

[Rhino]

Mark, We arn't cooking this year, hauling all the sap to a friend that is 4 miles away from our price county bush. All blacktop roads except for a mile before his house. Miss the cooking part......do not miss trying to get the sap into 2 miles of smeary heavy clay roads in Lincoln county where our cooker is. Since i need syrup to sell at our farmers markets we are just working it in shares. Yesterday for us was a bust as far as any run, today probably the same as we are at 35 right now and my open yard trees are bone dry. My buddy from Edgar talked to me yesterday, he has those open pasture trees, with the deep snow he only put out 80 bags this year but he is up to 34 gallons of syrup from those 80 trees! sap and syrup are good quality yet down there so we should be fine. He also said his test is low this year for those trees ....... 2.5

[markcasper]

Rhino, yes the test is down. A guy I buy from was down to 2.1% last night after starting at 2.9% a little more than a week ago. I am way down on taps this year so its certainly going to have an effect in the yield department. At least to this point, I will be closing in on 400 gallons of syrup on the next boil, so I guess all of the efforts to ready the cook shack and equipment was worth it.

The syrup I made into the wee hours last night was AOK, I was convinced that I'd start picking up something already. The syrup is so close to medium, but it just isn't going to cut it.

[gouldjs]

Had a great run on my taps on the north facing banks today, no signs of buds popping and still some snow here and there on the slope. I think the sap gods are giving me another week.

[WildRiver]

It's 13 degrees this morning and we're supposed to get a foot of snow tomorrow, hopefully we get a decent run this week. Douglas County.

[mike z]

Yeah, I just checked my buckets and they weren't doing a thing, almost froze solid at 1/4 full. And tomorrow another snow storm. I guess I'll go clean something and wait some more.

[WildRiver]

I was going to collect sap yesterday for a little demonstration, it was all frozen in the bags. Some trees were lightly dripping late. It's starting to snow now and is supposed to be heavy and blowing later. Douglas County.

[mike z]

How much syrup have you made WildRiver? This has been a slow year for me, only at about 30 g. right now. Was hoping to double that by the end of this week. Not thinking that will happen now with the forecasted warm up for early next week. Not throwing in the towel just yet though, and you northern northerners have plenty of time left I think. This snow will drag the season out just a little longer for you. Good luck!

[Jeff E]

I am pretty optimistic for us for several good days ahead. By the looks of the forecast, I think we are going to get good sap at least the next 5 days.
I am going to clean up the remnants of the warm weather biology experiments that took place out in the woods last week, and hope for good clean sap.

We might pull out an 'average' production year yet.

[Rhino]

I to am optimistic about the days ahead for us, My trees (even the soft maples) buds look like they did in the dead of winter. The last 2 days a few of my yard trees where the late afternoon sun hit were just pounding even if it was just 30 degrees. They are talking upper 50's for us next week without much for freezing nights but the trees might just keep giving through those nights also? We got another 3 inches of snow on top of sunday nights 4 inches, on top of what was in the woods yet so that will also help to keep some of those nights cooler next week. I remember many years ago when it was 70 degrees and storm/tornado watches were issued and the trees were dripping like crazy. You never know?

[markcasper]

My trees just pounded it out this afternoon and even as I type. They started about 1-2pm. They have not run this strong all season until today. They ran good Tuesday. but only for about 3-4 hours, so there wasn't enough to do much with. I will be boiling all night tonight because I have to work in town Thursday night. Will have a report how the syrup turned out in the morning.

[WildRiver]

Looks like we'll be moving snow today and probably collecting sap later, I've made about 8 gallons of syrup so far and it looks like the next few days will be it.

[Rhino]

wet heavy snow, around 10 inches total here. Got a call from my buddy this morning that our trees in Price county didn't run yesterday. Stayed right at that 31 degrees and lines all froze up. Then he told me the power is out right now so i hope Price electric will get it back on before we maybe do get a run today to spin the vac pump. The joys of sugaring!

[Diesel Pro]

We've been froze up near Merrill for a while now too. Hoping things bust loose today and tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath. Been pretty slow going this season.

Best run was 100 gallons off of 120+ taps. This had around 36-48 hrs run time I believe. Other days 60-75 gallons or even less.

[Jeff E]

Spooner area got about 12" of snow. We stayed right at 32 most of the afternoon yesterday, no sap. That did allow us to clean up a releaser and tank...
Right now we are on the cusp of sap starting to move. The snow is starting to come off the trees, it must be 33 or 34.

Looking forward to the next 4 days. All systems are ready to maximize what will most likely be the last push of the 2014 season.
Remember last year, we made over half of our syrup up here from 4-14 to 4-24 or so.

[markcasper]

What a night! 3100 gallons of sap from 1200 taps between Tuesday and Wednesday, but 3/4 of it was from Wednesday and through the night last night. Gathered the last load at 4 AM this morning before I cooked. Syrup started out DA and quickly went to LA. The flavor is pretty good, but not as well as the first syrup. I cannot detect any metabolism or bud yet, but I think because of everything getting bacteria loaded over the past 10 days, it definately affects the flavor.

[Jeff E]

I'm jealous Mark! I was hoping for 5 degrees warmer up here so we could get in on that, oh well.
Get some sleep!

[Rhino]

Green with envy Mark also. Good for you though! Just got back from the woods, Power is on and vac pump was running (auto start) Trees just started to drip around 1 oclock (slowly) Maybe it will ramp up later? when i left the woods we were at 36 degrees. Right now i have a estimated 1100 gal. of frozen/semi frozen sap in my bags. Saturday they should be thawed and more plump to gather.

[Brad W Wi]

Back after 4 days gone. First grand child. Left Sat AM and back for 12"of snow. Some pails with less than a quart and some pails ready to run over. All froze solid some thawing this PM not much. Hoping to collect and boil tomorrow. Been lucky enough to have kept up with finishing and bottling till leaving.

[flying squirrel maple]

Wow! Got up here to the bush and found 1/3 of my bags full and the rest half full. It is going to be a busy couple days for us😁


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jeff E]

Boiled down the sap from Monday - Thursday last night. Niter is getting worse, so I will have some serious pan cleaning to do this evening.
Looking at the forecasts it looks like we may not have anymore freezing evenings.
So, we make the most of the next few days.
I will take time to make sure my lines have no limbs on them (big winds with snow in last 48 hrs), and vac is high.

Sugar is below 2% now, so extra time and energy needed for every pint of syrup.
One other thing, most of the folks who sold me sap did not bring any this year. That is because of the deep snow keeping people out of the woods altogether, and those that did tap were keeping up with the sap, no sap tsunami in NW Wisc this year.

[flying squirrel maple]

Sap ran very well today, very muddy but real light syrup tomorrow is the last day for us over 40 gallons in two weekends. Can't complain.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[WildRiver]

We had a good sap run yesterday, started collecting late because of ice in bags but the trees finally woke up. Today is cold, rainy and windy, I'll collect till my tanks are full. Douglas County

[Merklin Maples]

Went out and collected yesterday and got 35 gallons. Mostly ice that had thawed. Today I went and collected. Got over 200 gallons off 125 Taps. That is the most I have ever collected in one day in the eight years I've been doing this. Yahoo. Might be the last for the season. Could't end any better. Maybe more today, but with the wind I don't expect as much.

[Rhino]

just got back from the woods after 2 long days. Great runs! Even when i left, the trees were doing well with the lower pressure. Last night they ran through the night and kept going today. We have 4 inches of rotten snow left and i seen channel 7 weather predicts freezes for Monday Tuesday and next Friday nights! And thats for Wausau, we are usually 6 degrees colder. Sap is crystal clear yet. Been a long time waiting for us northern producers to fill our tanks but i think our time has finally come and it might go on with those cold nights come Monday? Happy Easter to all.

[WildRiver]

The trees I collected on friday afternoon have full bags and some are still dripping, I need to get boiling to make room for more sap. Easter in the sugarbush.

[markcasper]

Tons of sap the past few days. Between Friday and Saturday we had 4500 gallons of sap from not quite 1200 taps....amazing what 26" of vacuum will do. The syrup was some of the lightest I made all season, lighter than light amber. And the taste was better than that produced earlier in the week. Will have at least 3000 gallons more tonight to take care of. The sugar % on the loads I brought in last night had went up 2/10's....can't figure that one out. Between Wednesday morning and saturday night, only had 5 hours of sleep, getting ready for this to be over and looks like it will be soon.

[Rhino]

Mark, Don't give up on the season yet.......Just go on WSAW channel 7 weather and now they have next weekend back in the grove of the right maple weather plus those few freeze nights in between, not sure if you are in a cold area or if You are typically warmer then say Wausau Wi. would be. We went down to the Edgar area by the mom in laws for Easter dinner and i met a sap hauler with maybe 300 gal. going somewhere? No snow there in the woods what so ever and i thought to myself, if that sap is still good at this time down here, we are good to go until next weekends cold snap. My brother in law did say he seen night crawlers out and did hear some peepers down there last evening so they are right now on the verge of done. My yard trees today dripped a little in the morning so my woods trees had to do something also. Vacuum is just chugging away and wont shut off until the next cold night. Will go at first light and get whatever i got today. good luck on the next wave!

[Merklin Maples]

Another great day for sap 169 gallons today. Second best day ever for me in eight years of sapping. Yahoo. Thought the season was over. Ma Nature sure is fooling me. I'll take it and more.

[WildRiver]

We've boiled off everything in our tanks, the last 5 gallons was pretty dark. It looks like another hundred gallons of sap in the woods for me this afternoon. The forecast looks good for another strong run this weekend and trees are actually dripping right now.

[WildRiver]

Collected 85 gallons of sap yesterday afternoon, boil it off this morning. We're supposed to get snow tonight, it's raining now. Gonna pull taps this weekend.

[WildRiver]

I may collect one last time, we've had some sap running the last two days and it's nice and clear. I tested the sap of a sugar near the house and it was 4% this morning. I'm not nearly as enthusiastic as I was two weeks ago, but definitely in better shape.

[gouldjs]

sitting in my garage boiling down my last 6 gallons of sweet in year 2. Cleaned 40 plus buckets yesterday and all storage.

[mike z]

Started pulling buckets yesterday. Time to think BBQ. I've got a lot of charcoal to make; not as fun as making syrup but still involves wood and fire.

[gouldjs]

Final Tally for 2014....13 gallons.....season over

[markcasper]

Everyone must be going fishing tomorrow, kind of surprised nothing out of Wisconsin for awhile. I am still cooking yet, hard to believe, but with the recent cold and non-stop rain since last sunday, the north bush just keeps on spitting it out. I have gotten 4000 plus gallons of sap since last Saturday until yesterday on only 275 north slope taps. I pulled the plug on the other 2 woods that face south also last Saturday. Today will be the end though, the sun is supossed to come back out tomorrow. The syrup is very much commercial and black, but it amazingly doesn't taste bad and I have never seen commercial syrup go through the filter press as easy as this year. It has all filtered wonderfully. I'll have about 1000 gallons to run through this afternoon, granted the sugar is down to about 1.6%. %The north side finally has earned some of its keep back.

[bison1973]

Markcasper, totally amazed that you could still be cooking. Here, in Clark county, we were done on April 20. Syrup wouldn't filter so it was time to quit.

Sent from my LG-LS970 using Tapatalk

[markcasper]

The Monday and Tuesday after Easter I dumped 2500 gallons of sap, yes, it would not have filtered. And last Saturday I discontinued 2/3 of my taps that are south sloped. The only one I kept going was a 275 tap north facing bush. I collected off him for the last time yesterday and cooked last night. The commercial was the best tasting that I had made yet this year, filtered easily and have to cook the evaporator out yet. Cleaning lines today.

[Rhino]

Mark, The new Leader rep/equipment salesman (Mike, from Phillips Wi) walked my woods with me on Friday May 2nd to get a look at the lay of the land to give me a quote on the supplies i would need after he mapped and flagged it. He also told me he had his pumps going and cooking yet but thought That day or the next he would be done. he Used cv2's, Did you also use them? We pulled a few of my smart spouts (brand new this year) and only one was dripping a drip a second and that was on the north side, other holes were blackish grey and dry.

[Mark]

We tried the CV1's and CV2's and they quit a week ago with the rest of the old tubing that only had new non check spouts. We have some new tubing we put up this year and the sap is really flowing over the last few days from the new stuff. It is the only taps running. We will be boiling again today and probably a few more days.

[markcasper]

Mark, The new Leader rep/equipment salesman (Mike, from Phillips Wi) walked my woods with me on Friday May 2nd to get a look at the lay of the land to give me a quote on the supplies i would need after he mapped and flagged it. He also told me he had his pumps going and cooking yet but thought That day or the next he would be done. he Used cv2's, Did you also use them? We pulled a few of my smart spouts (brand new this year) and only one was dripping a drip a second and that was on the north side, other holes were blackish grey and dry.

I tried the cv 2's only on the end of laterals and only on this north bush. Last year was the first year for this part of the woods on the north sides and I used straight clear spouts, I then had to put regular check valve stubbies on as the Leader T;'s, I could not cap them off. The end laterals had slide fittings nearby and I could cap the straight clear spouts off on them, never got the checkvalve stubbies put on the end trees. The cv 2's are a real pain to get out of the tree, The wife and I both were breaking some off and broke more trying to cap them off on the slide fittings. I'm going to have to bring caps this afternoon or go ahead and put the stubbies on just to cap those off. Its pretty clear that you are supposed to go with one brand only. I am not impressed with them! While we were pulling yesterday, almost every hole had sap rushing out yet. The south side had the vacuum turned off for a week and yesterday turned it back on to flush lines, and as mentioned pretty much everything had sap running down the trunk. Everything there had regular checkvalves and the drops are 4-5 years old.

[Mark]

I tried the cv 2's only on the end of laterals and only on this north bush. Last year was the first year for this part of the woods on the north sides and I used straight clear spouts, I then had to put regular check valve stubbies on as the Leader T;'s, I could not cap them off. The end laterals had slide fittings nearby and I could cap the straight clear spouts off on them, never got the checkvalve stubbies put on the end trees. The cv 2's are a real pain to get out of the tree, The wife and I both were breaking some off and broke more trying to cap them off on the slide fittings. I'm going to have to bring caps this afternoon or go ahead and put the stubbies on just to cap those off. Its pretty clear that you are supposed to go with one brand only. I am not impressed with them! While we were pulling yesterday, almost every hole had sap rushing out yet. The south side had the vacuum turned off for a week and yesterday turned it back on to flush lines, and as mentioned pretty much everything had sap running down the trunk. Everything there had regular checkvalves and the drops are 4-5 years old.

When you pull the spouts there is some sapwood that is compressed by the spout and has not been subject to the bacteria in the hole. When I pull mine some run and I figure that is what is happening.