Frozen sap

[jmello6085]

Is it true that you can throw out any ice that is in your sap buckets?? Feels so wrong to throw it away when I am such a small scale operation and every drop is precious!! But I don't need to boil extra water for no reason.... Thanks in advance!


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[Run Forest Run!]

A thin layer of ice, or clumps of slushy ice have the least amount of sugar trapped inside. A big solid block of ice has more. If you get any solid blocks of ice, take it out of your sap and let it melt down a bit into another container. Drain off the melting liquid until it no longer has any sugary taste and then toss the ice. Many Mapletraders like to keep the ice, but I prefer to chuck it instead of boil it. I will, however, keep the ice in my buckets to keep the sap cool if a warm weather front rolls in.

[gmc8757]

I had a bunch of ice in my buckets this week. I separated ice from liquid. The liquid sap measured 3% and the ice, when thawed, measured 1%. In my case, I had to decide if it was worth letting the ice melt and then boiling 88 gallons of it to get one gallon of syrup.

Not sure if 1% is typical of not, but that's what I saw this week.


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[saphound]

I did the same thing last year, (my first). Thawed enough ice to test and I had .06. I reluctantly decided to chuck it. I use propane and it just wasn't worth the cost and boiling time. Sap was still flowing good so it wasn't *that* precious to keep. I only had 10 trees tapped btw..so I know what you mean about precious. But an inch or two in the bucket is mostly water..mostly frozen, or of course frozen solid, you would want to keep. You'll have decide based on your own set of circumstances, conditions, etc.

[Marcus]

So your sap was 4%?

[bcarpenter]

I agree with tossing the thin stuff. When I was new to this I boiled everything. I spent a lot of time melting ice. Not anymore, if it's the thin layer of ice that covers the surface and goes down the side of the bucket I pull and pitch the ice. Buckets that are frozen solid I will keep until they thaw. This year I am praying for ice to help keep my sap cold, since we have no snow and the weather has been wacky.

Bill C.


A thin layer of ice, or clumps of slushy ice have the least amount of sugar trapped inside. A big solid block of ice has more. If you get any solid blocks of ice, take it out of your sap and let it melt down a bit into another container. Drain off the melting liquid until it no longer has any sugary taste and then toss the ice. Many Mapletraders like to keep the ice, but I prefer to chuck it instead of boil it. I will, however, keep the ice in my buckets to keep the sap cool if a warm weather front rolls in.




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[gmc8757]

So your sap was 4%?

No, I'm thinking it was more like 2%. 3 for the liquid and 1 for the ice, averaged out to 2. That's just my thinking though.


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[jmello6085]

Thanks for all the input.... I'll probably toss the slush I guess... Some buckets are frozen solid so I will let those thaw. But I definitely agree that the ice is helpful in keeping the sap cold! It came in handy on a 50 degree day like today!


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[jasminesugardaddy]

if you have a chest freezer available or just freezer space you can freeze some sap in buckets to make a sap block and to add to your rezivour on these random warm days. thats been my plan this season but my new evaporator has kept up amazingly. I do usually toss the ice. my new favorite thing to do on a cold morning is skim the ice off the top of the cold evaporator pan. feels like I am getting a lot of boiling done without touching any wood. :D its also very obvious when you do this that there is almost no sugar in the ice. (by the coloring)
Thanks for all the input.... I'll probably toss the slush I guess... Some buckets are frozen solid so I will let those thaw. But I definitely agree that the ice is helpful in keeping the sap cold! It came in handy on a 50 degree day like today!


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[johnpma]

New use for frozen bucket sap :)