Buddy/Metabolized Sap Questions...

[SDdave]

Hello all,

I had a question or two on buddy and metabolized sap. After research on the Trader I couldn't exactly find what I was looking for, so "What does buddy sap smell like when you're boiling it?" And the second question, is there any smell difference between the two? From what I've read on here is that "you'll know when you have it". But is that a smell like boiling potatoes and vinegar? Or still smells "normal" with a little hint of something else. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Keep on keeping on,

SDdave

[psparr]

Socks! And it will turn cloudy and yellow in the buckets.

[Stupatterson]

Tapped to late in the season last year and the last batch turned out buddy. The smell is hard to explain. To me it was almost metallic, or maybe like some kind of chemical, but very offensive and unmistakable. The longer it boiled the worse it got and by the time it had been reduced by 50 percent I knew what I had and threw it out. Don't remember any difference in the smell of the raw sap, but as soon as it got to a rolling boil the steam started giving off the odor. I pulled my taps 2 weeks ago before things went south as I had made enough to last me the year. If you have any silver maples tapped, let the buds swell and start to grow shoots. Then boil a little of that sap down, give it a whiff, and you'll never forget the smell. This is only my second year tapping so there are probably others with more experience who can be more descriptive

[MidMichMaple]

Buddy sap questions: Is it cloudy when it comes out of the tree, or does it just turn cloudy quickly thereafter? I go a little overboard with collecting my sap frequently and keeping it cold on warm days. I don't have anything better to do than collect 4 times a day while I'm boiling, since I'm using propane and it doesn't require as much attention. Could I be preventing buddy sap by doing that?

[Ed R]

Crystal clear sap can be buddy, but usually it is somewhat cloudy or yellow in color. I have to boil some of the sap to tell. Put some sap in a small pan and boil it a while on the stove. If its buddy the steam will smell like a combination vinegar/metallic odor and the cooked sap will have a pronounced bitter taste. I have found that the socks smell comes immediately before the actual buddy event and the syrup is still fit to eat. It is buddy when it comes out of the tree, cloudiness is from microbial action. Gathering and boiling quickly will decrease the cloudiness of you sap and make lighter syrup.

[happy thoughts]

I go a little overboard with collecting my sap frequently and keeping it cold on warm days. ...... Could I be preventing buddy sap by doing that?

Collecting frequently and keeping sap cold will help cut down on spoiling especially at the end of the season when temps are warmer and microbes in taps and sap are increasing faster. But it won't do anything to prevent buddy syrup. That's due to changes in the sap as the trees ramp up for their active growth period.

[MidMichMaple]

Collecting frequently and keeping sap cold will help cut down on spoiling especially at the end of the season when temps are warmer and microbes in taps and sap are increasing faster. But it won't do anything to prevent buddy syrup. That's due to changes in the sap as the trees ramp up for their active growth period.

Thanks for the info. Still trying to learn a little bit every day about this new hobby of mine. My hard maples don't even have a hint of buds on them yet, and everything is still crystal clear and smells good when I boil. My red/silver maple is starting to swell a little, so I will have to keep an eye on that one.

I do think I learned the buddy smell last weekend by mistake. I left concentrate in the pan for 6 hours on a 50 degree day. I re-started the boil and it smelled funny almost immediately, and then kept getting worse as it boiled. Even after I shut it down, that smell lingered in the garage the rest of the night. I would say it fit the description of buddy/metallic that people have described. I won't forget that smell. Also won't leave concentrate sitting around like that again.

[happy thoughts]

I do think I learned the buddy smell last weekend by mistake. I left concentrate in the pan for 6 hours on a 50 degree day. I re-started the boil and it smelled funny almost immediately, and then kept getting worse as it boiled.

I don't think that was the buddy smell if your trees weren't close to budding. It was more likely the smell of spoiled concentrate due to bacterial growth. Buddy sap and it's smell and flavor occurs when trees begin to bud. The sap undergoes metabolic changes within the tree and may look yellow on collection.

If some of your trees look like the buds are swelling, you may want to keep and boil their sap separately from your sugars. Reds and silvers are usually earlier to bud than sugars and so will produce buddy sap sooner.

Sounds like you're having fun. It's a very interesting hobby and there's always something more to learn or fiddle with. Enjoy your syrup while you plan for next year. I'd be pretty sure you're hooked by now. It happens to the best of us:)

[GV2]

Funny you should mention potatoes. the last boil of my first year was during an unusual early March warm week. Though I never heard of a boil smelling like potatoes that is exactly what it smelled like to me right from the first steam vapors. I took the small batch to the end and the smell was present in the taste. I don't know if it was a budding issue or just a spoil sap issue from the warm spell. I quite for the year after that boil.

[SDdave]

Thanks for the reply's from all. I mentioned potatoes cuz' I had some sap in question. I took it in the house and it kinda smelled like potatoes. I finished the rest of the questionable sap that I brought in. There was no bitter taste, or any off taste to it. I even had my quality control taste it (kids and wife), they didn't have anything bad to say so I boiled the rest.

Thanks again to all that replied.

SDdave

[bigschuss]

Thanks for the reply's from all. I mentioned potatoes cuz' I had some sap in question. I took it in the house and it kinda smelled like potatoes. I finished the rest of the questionable sap that I brought in. There was no bitter taste, or any off taste to it. I even had my quality control taste it (kids and wife), they didn't have anything bad to say so I boiled the rest.

Thanks again to all that replied.

SDdave

Hey SDdave…I think I may have the same situation. This is my first year on my new Mason 2x4. My trees just haven't produced a ton of sap, so I've been leaving the concentrate in the pan between boils. I was in my sugar house today and the pan just had a smell coming from it that was ever so mildly "off-putting." Not real bad. But not innocuous either. Our nights have been in the 20's, but it warms up during the day into the high 40's.

I drained my pan today and am going to finish it on my turkey fryer. Yours came out O.K. tasting after you finished it? I'm hoping for the same.