Adding " nearup" to finished syrup

[Hunt4sap]

Wondering your guys thoughts on me adding about 50 oz of finished syrup to about two and a half gallons of near up to give myself enough worth finishing on a 1 foot by 2 foot stainless steel propane finisher?

[psparr]

That is how most small timers do it. Save up batches till you have enough.

[Hunt4sap]

I knew that you could add near syrup batches together but I wasn't sure about adding near syrup to finish syrup and then finishing the syrup mixed in with the near up again

[psparr]

Yup. May get darker but it is fine.

[sticknstring]

I cooked tonight and it got late on me because the wi dy conditions slowed down my evaporating. I have about a half gallon or so of stuff that is close to being ready to finish, but not quite. Do i need to freeze it, or can i just keep it in the fridge around 34 degrees until i am ready to finish it? And would a plastic bucket or metal pot be better to keep it in?

[sappytapper]

I just did the same thing last night. Have been worried about the sap from my first 6 taps going bad in the warm weather, so I boiled off the first 15 gallons on a turkey fryer and steam pan over the last couple evenings while I did stuff around the house.

Two nights ago I boiled off the first 7 gallons or so, and dumped the remaining 3 gallons into a food grade bucket and let that sit in my basement until last night.

Last night I added 5 more gallons of sap and got it down to about a quart and a half of nearup, which went into a 2 quart jar and into the fridge until I boil off a larger batch this weekend.

So, short answer, if you can get it down to a Small's she amount, it'll keep fine until you can get a couple more batches to finish.

You'll also have the additional advantage of letting some of the niter settle out while you build up the larger batches. To this end, I do a "pre-filter" step when it is at the nearup stage, running the nearup through a couple moistened bar towels before it goes into the jar to store in the fridge. I've found this drastically reduces the amount of filtering necessary for the final product.

[maple flats]

If it's almost ready, you can just store it in a cooler area, don't even need to put in the fridge. It will be fine for a few weeks.