opening saved barrel to can

[adironmaple]

Im a newbie to MT and sugaring this season. My question is we kept some barrels from this season to make confections and can as needed, once we open a barrel can we take out say 10-15 gallons out of 40 and just screw bung back on or do we need to can or make confections with the whole barrel?

[wiam]

I have had syrup get moldy because I thought I was going to get back to it in a few days. And it turned into a month.

[maple flats]

That depends on your storage temperature. A walk in cooler would hold it OK, a walk in freezer would be even safer. As wiam said, it can go moldy faster than you think. The biggest factor will be the temperature the entire barrel is kept at. If the syrup mass stays below what might be OK, but the empty portion above the syrup level warms too much, you will quickly get mold. What I do, is can what I'm going to can, then I heat the rest in my finisher to 195-200 and pack it in a clean smaller barrel. My big barrels are 40 gal (SS), but I have 4 SS barrels that are 16 gal. When I open a barrel I can what I need, then I pack the bal. in a 16 gal barrel. If I will have more than that I fill a second small barrel. I never pack a barrel less than about 2/3 full, so if I will have more than 16 gal but less than 32 gal I roughly split it so each has 2/3 or more. If I can't do that I just put up the excess in 1 gal or 1/2 gal jugs, both of which are good sellers for me.

[Jim Brown]

We do the same thing as Maple Flats but do it with 5 gallon plastic (smurfits)

Jim

[I Luv Stainless]

I always wondered if pumping in nitrogen or argon into a barrel to replace the oxygen would do the trick? I think they use nitrogen in other food packaging processes (like potato chip bags and wine bottles?) I just learned in a quick google search that most food molds require oxygen to complete their metabolism.

Has anyone ever tried this?

-Mit

[wiam]

I have pondered co2, but so far I store what I keep in 16 gallon barrels so it is not a big deal to can it all when I open one

[maple flats]

A few years ago I got a food grade nitrogen tank and valve etc. to charge the old SS soda kegs. Some of the seals failed, but on the ones that did not leak the syrup was perfect. I gave up on that only because of the seal failure rate (4 out of 20). Putting food grade nitrogen to a barrel would seal far better, and if set up with a pressure gauge on each barrel you could keep tabs. I would think you would need to add the nitrogen, blead the pressure, then fill again, to deplete the oxygen. A barrel might only be good to hold a limited pressure, but I don't know how much. If you might want to try, PM me and I'll give you a good price on the tank and valve. The food grade nitrogen will need to be refilled.
When I bought it, the tank had to be purchased, a lease was not an option and the food grade nitrogen had an expiration date (I think it was 3 years). The tank is the same size as what is used for the oxygen tanks on the little oxy-acetylene kits, maybe 18-24" tall or so. The refill was $20 about 8-10 years ago and the tank had to be left off and pickup up a few days later. The gas places didn't keep those in stock. The tank was rather costly to buy, but I'll need to look it up if you're interested.