Storing concentrate

[sbedilion]

What is the recommended way to store concentrate until next weekend...friday the earliest. I sat my buddy up w some taps last wkend and he collected 20gallons. He lives 45 mins away and he is using my pan. So I am boiling on Fridays and Saturdays I go to his house to boil. Last night we took 20 gallons down to 2 gallons. We ran out of time so we called it w the plan of boiling this up coming weeks sap and then adding in the 2 gallon concentrate at the end. This will give him a decent amount for his first experience. I know the rule is boil it when you got it but we cant. Do we freeze the contentrate or just refrigerate it?

Thanks for you input!

[sugarman3]

Freeze it to be safe,remember it's concentrate

[Snappyssweets]

Yeah freezing would be the only way I would try it.
Otherwise it may metabolize and ruin what you have so far.

[sbedilion]

thanks guys!

[Clinkis]

As long as it's been boiled you just need to keep it cool. I leave my evaporator full for over a week in between runs as long as cool out. Definitely shouldn't need to freeze it. Leave it outside in a bucket or if it's warm out put it in the fridge.

[Hoppy]

As long as it's been boiled you just need to keep it cool. I leave my evaporator full for over a week in between runs as long as cool out. Definitely shouldn't need to freeze it. Leave it outside in a bucket or if it's warm out put it in the fridge.

Glad to hear this as I boiled some last night and put the concentrate in the fridge.

Sbedilion, I read in the another thread you're over by rolling hills. I'm in Bethel Park. I only have 5 taps, but have collected 8 gallons of sap since last Sunday. I collected yesterday afternoon. This morning I collected another 2 gallons. Hopefully, I'll have time to boil again this evening.

[sbedilion]

Hey Hoppy, Yea I'm next to the golf course. Nice to see another local playing around with maple syrup making. Besides being overrun with sap....things are going good here. Made about 4 gallons so far. Have 75 gallons of sap ready to boil. Not sure when I'll find time this week to boil...I might take off work Wednesday. Best of luck...let me know if you need anything.

[Hoppy]

Thanks! 4 gallons! awesome. Today was a gallon of sap. I was hoping for more. Hopefully, I'll keep getting some this week and more this weekend. I'm at 9.5 gallons so far and when my son and I started this I told him if we could get a spaghetti sauce jar of syrup, it'd be a success. We'll see!

[Cedar Eater]

We ran out of time so we called it w the plan of boiling this up coming weeks sap and then adding in the 2 gallon concentrate at the end.

If you add the concentrate at the beginning, the evap rate will be higher and the finished product will probably be slightly darker and may have more flavor. If you can freeze the concentrate, that would be best, but if you can't do that, concentrate spoils much more slowly than sap because you've already killed so much bacteria by boiling it. So refrigerating it is really all that you need to do.

[maple flats]

A few years ago (before I got my RO) I sold excess sap to another producer who ran it thru his RO and then stored it until the next Saturday. I sold him sap on Friday-Monday and he stored the RO concentrate (8% sugar, no boiling when stored) at 30 degrees, until his open house. That made some real nice Medium Amber, of which I got half.
He had stored it in a working milk tank turned down to 30 F.

[helptheold]

Glad to hear this as I boiled some last night and put the concentrate in the fridge.

Sbedilion, I read in the another thread you're over by rolling hills. I'm in Bethel Park. I only have 5 taps, but have collected 8 gallons of sap since last Sunday. I collected yesterday afternoon. This morning I collected another 2 gallons. Hopefully, I'll have time to boil again this evening.

I'm in Peters as well, next to Bower Hill Elementary. Nice to see more people around!