Sap Chiller

[hholt]

Any suggestions on how to keep sap chilled to keep it from spoiling? I've done a couple of boils now, and so far so good. I was packing sap in snow when it was available......and I froze some, but now I'm snowless and it's 55 degrees out and I can't boil until later in the week. I know I'm on the geographic fringe of being able to do this at all, but I'm not about to let that stop me.

Any creative suggestions for keeping sap chilled? I've thought about a little walk in cooler that could double for hanging deer....is there an easy way to chill a room the size of a large closet?

[ebourassa]

I used to freeze 2 liter bottle of soda with water and throw those in the tank over night, takes a day or two to freeze though. keeps it some what cool anything helps though.
good luck

[maple flats]

If you need some snow for cooling you can come get all you need, free. I have 2' hard packed in the woods and my snow banks at the sugarhouse are 10-12' high, I just drive up the pile with the tractor/loader and dump more. I keep running out of places to put it.
Dave

[325abn]

Make 2 Gal sap ice cubes using 2 gal buckets!

[lpakiz]

You know--my wife had a great idea the other day--has anyone tried using a used (working or non-working) chest type freezer?? If it wouldn't clean up, how about a plastic sheet/liner? The chest is insulated and most have plastic inner liners. Seems you could just plug it in for a few hours on the warm days.

[ibby458]

I had thought of picking up a small chest freezer, and using it to freeze a tote full of water with a copper coil embedded in it. Circulating sap thru the copper coil would keep it well chilled. Of course, if your circulating pump quit, it would freeze the line, but few ideas are perfect.

[twigbender]

I use the frozen water or sap in a jub method of keeping the sap in my tank cool. Just freeze up as many gallon jugs as you might need -- I usually put two or three in my 135 gallon tank to hold when I'm boiling every other day. A friend used an old chest deep freezer last year to hold his sap, keeping it just above the freezing level and it worked great.

[MaineMapleDave]

I used to fill 2 gallon buckets with sap, freeze them, and use the big sap cubes to help keep the storage tank chilled. Worked pretty well. The biggest problem was melting the sap cubes so I could boil them off!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I usually freeze three of the 9 quart aluminum sap buckets every day and throw them in the 625 gallon milk tank. Works great and keeps the sap cold. I am thinking about next season of tapping a couple of trees close to the sugarhouse I don't normally tap in Jan and building up a supply of frozen sap in the 2 gallon ziplock bags.

[danno]

To late for you now, but when you do have snow next year bank it around your tank AND cover tank with a tarp. Banked snow under the tarp will last a week or two after all the other snow melts.

These cold snaps we've been in having in the NE do have there benefits. I've been leaving 100 gallons in the stock tank at the end of the run. Now I have another 100 gallon ice cube in the tank for when it hits 60 again later this week. Last week the last big ice cube melted to nothing right before it got cold again.

[wvsugarshak]

what temp are you trying to keep the sap below?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

As close to freezing as possible, under 40 would be good but 33 would be best.