Freezing Sap

[3trees]

Hey everyone.

My first year tapping trees so still figuring things out. I won't be able to boil until next week. Can I freeze what I have collected already in anticipation of next week?

Will freezing the sap in anyway degrade it?

Thanks

[Run Forest Run!]

It'll be perfect. Go ahead and freeze it. There will be no degradation at all.

[maple75]

I do it all the time, never had an issue. Sometimes I will freeze sap in square pails, then remove the block from the container, place it a bag to save freezer space. I have two 7 foot freezers that I can fill with blocks until I can boil on weekends. Round blocks store well like cord wood in the freezer.

[Galena]

Freeze away. And if you don't have the freezer space, if you can dig into the snow on the north side of a building, try making some bunkers in which to store the sap. Works great!

[treehugger89]

Freezing sap is your own homemade RO. The less water you have to boil.

[Cedar Eater]

Freezing will concentrate the sugar into the part that freezes last. You can save space by partially freezing the sap, throwing out the ice, and combining the liquid into fewer vessels.

[ADK_XJ]

Good advice here already - I use the 20g food grade "seed and feed" Brute containers you get at Tractor Supply and will pile snow up to the tops in a big hill. This freezes at least the top layer solid and keeps sap for weeks at a time for me. Add a blue tarp to the top to diffuse sunlight and it's even better.

Last year when it was warmer, I froze sap into blocks like others in our spare freezer and then plunked them into the brute containers to keep it all cool. Worked great - never made a bad batch.

[ADK_XJ]

Oh and when it comes to boil just toss the floating chunks of ice left - very low sap % in the actual ice at that point and less energy/heat to melt it in your evaporator of choice.

[3trees]

Lots of good info! Thanks alot. I thought it was fine but saw a comment on another thread that had me thinking. I've got a couple chest freezers and only 10 taps so should be set until next Tuesday.

Unfortunately we have no snow at the moment! Setting record temps here in upstate NY.