Five gallon buckets frozen full equals

[Lukie]

I tap sugar maples that are three feet across and went to empty them yesterday and they were full but was frozen almost solid.So i only grabbed the liquid that wasnt frozen and through out the ice.out of 40 gallons of frozen sap i walked away with 10 gallons of liquid and that was 4.5% sugar does that sound right 40gallons frozen = 10 gallons liquid and i understand the story about the poor mans RO system

[buck3m]

I think there is merit in the "Poor Man's RO" theory! Any idea on what the sugar content was running without the ice?

[BlueberryHill]

If you want to be sure, just thaw out some of the ice and test it to see if you are throwing away and "frozen sugar"

[Smrdc1974]

Mine were all frozen so I brought them into the garage to thaw overnight by the fire and will be doing my first boil this afternoon. Have about 50 gallons of juice to date. Two trees the sap was discolored but I will boil it down anyway. No foul odor, same thing happened last year with the same two trees. Any ideas?

[n8hutch]

Any chance you got rain or melt water in your buckets? It doesn't take much to discolor your sap. Water that runs down A tree & maybe follows a drop into the bucket can be kinda dirty, won't really hurt anything.

[Lukie]

I will have to save the ice next time after i empty the un frozen sap out and let it melt and see if there is any suger in the bucket of ice with my Hydrometer
And the sugar content was 4.5% from the sap that was not frozen which would be concentrated from pouring out the ice
when i collect again i will bring one bucket in side and let it melt to see what the sugar is .

[Run Forest Run!]

I use a sap refractometer to check my sugar levels and this is what I've noted over the past four years;

I've found that the more solid the block of ice, the more sugar is stuck in there. If I have a thinner layer of ice, or a slushy layer of ice, I'll chuck it all. If there is a solid block I'll try to break it up and let it melt a little bit in another container then drain off the first bit of melted sap. If you had 4.5% in the sap and a solid block of ice I'd bet that there was still some decent sugar in the 'first melting' of that ice had you saved it. But from a practical standpoint you've got to figure out if you've got the space and/or the patience to fiddle with all that ice if you've got 100 buckets. Today, for instance, I know that I'll have some solid blocks of ice in my large plastic sap pails. When I go to collect I'll pour off the super sugary sap from the bottom and start to boil that. I'll leave the blocks of ice in the sap pails for a few more hours. Then I'll go back (when the ice blocks have melted a bit or turned more slushy), pour off the new sap and the melted sap and then toss the rest. At some point though your time is worth more than the effort. That's when you have to make the tough call.

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey Lukie, I've just checked the sugar content in the melting ice from my 4% sap buckets. It's registering 2.5%. Once that ice is down by about half, I'll throw out the rest. Hope this info helps.

[Lukie]

That makes sense let it melt for awhile and then toss it.I will try that this next run thanks hopefully this weekend
Its to bad i had about 10 blocks but still learning i will try to post the results (thanks Run Forest Run)

[miner1]

I just filled two 55 gal barrels with ice blocks. Should I just let sugar ooze out for a couple days and boil the liquid in the bottom of the barrel? Normally I use the ice to keep the sap cool for future runs, but that could be awhile with this weather.

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey miner1, if you don't have a refractometer to test the sap then taste a little bit of the melt-off. If it tastes sugary then boil it down. If it's more watery then save yourself the aggravation and just use the ice to keep future sap cool. I'm getting really good at being able to taste the difference so perhaps it's time you began training your tastebuds. ;)

[Mitchman]

Hey Karen, Are you adding more taps this year ? Or staying with 28 ?

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey Karen, Are you adding more taps this year ? Or staying with 28 ?

Hi Mitchman. I'll likely be staying around that same number for this season. I will sometimes move a tap to a fresh tree when the early ones slow down, but all in all I'm kind of maxxed out with the quantity of sap that I can physically handle with my two propane burners. I'm toying with the idea of adding some wood fired evaporation this year, but it will be an experiment to see if I can handle the extra work since I'm only working on this by myself.

[Mitchman]

I hear ya Karen, I also use propane to heat the turkey burners. I don't know if I want to go bigger as by the end of the season I have had enough. I do know everyone who receives some of our syrup say's great job. I like the color of last years syrup pic. you have on your post, our first batch was just a tad darker, a real nice amber. Let's hope she flows the next 2 day's !!!

[Run Forest Run!]

Best of luck this year Mitchman. Keep me posted on your progress!

[Mitchman]

And to you as well Karen, last year we made 7 .5 gallons ( our best ) and hope to surpass that !!!

[Mitchman]

Progress report Karen, Not so great, I think a lot of my tree's are still partially froze. And it will take a couple day's like today to fix it. You can't have below zero temps, 3 nights in a row, without getting stung. Maybe tomorrow ?? A good flow ? How about yourself any action ?

[bagpiper]

Hey Mitchman - We are getting a good run down here on the border. 8:00 pm and my finicky reds are cranking. It's 39 F according to Accuweather but just above freezing if I average my 3 thermometers. Here's hoping they drip all night. Hope you thaw out up there in the hills by tomorrow.

[Mitchman]

Thanks I need some encouragement, my tree's stopped at 5 pm 32 degree's, and I know it will drop a little more, but it may make for a better day tomorrow. One can only hope!!!

[Run Forest Run!]

How about yourself any action ?

Things are very slow and we don't have any freezing nights being forecast for the next week or so. Don't know how this season is going to pan out. Starting to look like 2012. If things don't freeze up after this week then I doubt we'll have much syrup for 2016. Still kind of too early to say with certainty. I'll be happy with whatever I get. I did a small boil today to use up the sap I've stored so far. It might end up being a quart or perhaps a little more. Had a lot fun out there. Every kid on the street was here for samples from the boiling trays. :)

[RollinsOrchards]

We try to leave the ice in the bucket at the tree. It helps keep the next run of sap cold on the warm days. I like to take advantage of all the free refrigeration that I can.

[Revi]

It's free RO. We toss the ice and measure the sugar content, which is way up when you dump the ice!

[West Sumner Sugar]

We have been having a lot of discussion about this. We find that the people who can collect on a daily basis, tossing the ice makes sense. In our case, this just doesn't work due to the location of where our trees are vs where we live. A few weeks ago we collected 2+ 55 gallon drums of solid ice. I couldn't imagine tossing all of that. So if you have a small amount of ice, slush that formed over night then yes toss it, otherwise, boil it.

[abbott]

We have been having a lot of discussion about this. We find that the people who can collect on a daily basis, tossing the ice makes sense. In our case, this just doesn't work due to the location of where our trees are vs where we live. A few weeks ago we collected 2+ 55 gallon drums of solid ice. I couldn't imagine tossing all of that. So if you have a small amount of ice, slush that formed over night then yes toss it, otherwise, boil it.

In a case like that, try letting 80% of the barrel melt, then take out the remaining ice. Save it and check it, but I think you'll find that the sugar will have mostly melted out by that point.

[West Sumner Sugar]

In a case like that, try letting 80% of the barrel melt, then take out the remaining ice. Save it and check it, but I think you'll find that the sugar will have mostly melted out by that point.

We will have to give that a try. The unpredictable swings in temp this year have made it hard on us since we can only get to it on weekends. One weekend we are battling frozen pumps and valves, the next we are worried about sap spoiling due to heat.

[abbott]

In my case, I almost always leave the ice in the tank to keep the next run cool. Sometimes if I know we'll have plenty of cold temps I will shovel out the ice after i've pumped out the sap. During warm spells I really have to boil the sap asap since it is quite warm after its long journey through the tubing.