Orange sap

[madmapler]

Yesterday I finally had a chance to cruise one of my bushes for leaks. The vacuum had dropped drastically(26"to16") over the past week and after only finding a few chews I discovered my water line to the pump was restricted which was the real cause. I'm saying all this because while I was there and my vacuum shot back up I noticed the sap turning a real off color. It seemed to correspond with the vacuum surge but I'm not absolutely positive. I just got back from turning the pump on for the day(it just started running) and the sap in the tank looks like rust yet the sap going in seems to have cleared up. It doesn't seem possible that the sudden increase in vac. could have dislodged anything but I'm stumped as to what happened. Any thoughts or similar experiences? BTW. I have another bush about 2 miles down the road on the same hill and hillside that is running absolutely clear.

[GeneralStark]

In my experience, orange or brown sap is an indicator of the sap overheating/fermenting. I have seen it in buckets at the end of the season, and in sap stored in direct sun or in a heated space. If you are using black pipeline and have some flat areas where the sap may pool and become stagnant this could occur. Perhaps getting the vac back up pulled this funky sap through the pipeline.

I should say I have also seen this with buckets when rain or melting snow runs down the side of the tree into the bucket but I doubt this is your situation unless you have some serious leaks, or have tapped some rotting maple trees...:D

[madmapler]

I checked things again this morning and its running clear as a bell again. What you said General is probably close to what happened. I can't think of anything else either but it pretty bizarre the way it went.