Sap gone bad?

[sr73087]

I have sap stored in buckets in the shady area of my deck for the last 2 weeks. I have not had a chance to boil it. We had a few days that were in the 40s and 50s but recently much cooler. This morning I went to pull all the ice from the bucket and noticed the sap was more discolored and alittle darker than normal in a few of the buckets. Not sure if the sap could be going bad or just more concentrated since I've been able to remove so much ice from it each day.

[CampHamp]

If you didn't boil it at all to kill bacteria initially, then 2 weeks seems like a long time. It has been cold though, so maybe you're OK. I'd boil it down separately (in case it's no good) and see how it tastes.

[psparr]

If you have the time and want to boil it, go ahead. Two years ago I gave a friend some taps to try sugaring. He called me a month later and said he was ready to boil! I thought he would research a little on the process. I told him the sap would be no good. He had stored the sap in two five gallon buckets in his garage. He brought it over anyway. Well one bucket smelled bad. That was dumped. The other was cloudy but didn't smell bad. We ended up boiling it and got a pint of deliciius medium. So you never know.

[happy thoughts]

Like CampHamp said, boil it separately if you decide to keep it. An open jug of milk kept cold would not last two weeks. There is no reason to expect any different result for sap. If it were me, I would not have removed ice from any sap that I knew could not be kept very cold or processed within a few days of collection. By concentrating the sugars you have enriched the sap for microbial growth, especially yeasts. If the sap has started fermenting as it probably has to some degree, you're losing sugar. You may not have gained anything in the end by removing ice.

[maplefarmer]

Question on how long sap will keep, if sap is in almost frozen solid state, are the microbes that eat the sugar active at such low temps ? would think that is why colder the sap longer it would keep, but will bacteria stay dormant at lower temps, or still be working on it?

[happy thoughts]

Kept frozen it should keep for many months. But partially frozen is another thing. microbes and especially yeasts and mold can grow at low temps but will grow more slowly. Yeast dough will rise in the fridge which is usually around 40*F. And then there's all those moldy unidentifiable leftovers many of us find in the fridge :o

[Thomas Maxwell Hume]

I had the same problem last week, ended up making a quart of the worst syrup yet. just like snot. dump it out.

[cbhansen]

Two years ago, I was called back to town for work during the prime of the season. A couple of days later, I had about 150 gallon of sap stored in sealed 20 gallon drums largely buried in snow and covered with a white tarp. The days had been quite warm and all the sap was cloudy but with no unusual odour. I decided to boil it down and after a very long day on a 2x3, I ended up with a few gallons of dark syrup with a stronger than usual maple flavour. It was very popular with the majority of adults and I was asked if I could make more. The kids, not so much as the flavour was pronounced. The short of the story, is that as long as it doesn't smell off, it is worth trying to boil down. I wouldn't mix it with fresh sap, just in case.

Note that the sap I boiled was never frozen and the days were very warm which I expect is why the sap started to turn after only a few days despite being cooled. The equipment and storage containers used were quite clean.

When I was younger on the farm, my father would always throw out any sap that had started to discolour but more out of habit then necessity.