Warm weather storage

[turnerburner]

It’s supposed to hit 65 degrees here tomorrow. I have about 60 gallons (a lot for this small scale producer)in a 275 gallon tote that I packed snow around and surrounded with plywood to act as some insulation. It’s supposed to cool back down tomorrow night. Hoping I don’t lose the first decent run. Anyone have any suggestions?

[mol1jb]

Sounds like you are on top of it. Its always best to boil as soon as possible. But lots of us still have day jobs and such. The 2 best things to keep sap good for longer is keep it cool and keep the sun off of it. The warm weather just passed us and since I tapped early I had a good bit of ice still frozen in my storage tank. It kept my sap good.

[Scm]

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[SSS2017]

I cut my lid out, cut the top of a 5 gallon bucket off and siliconed it to the tote. Makes it easier to clean and access inside. Like you, I packed snow around it, but today the snow melted with the warmth. Now I will tie off a couple 1 gallon frozen milk jugs and hang them inside. I do the same with my 55 gallon tank out by my evaporator. During warm spells I will rotate new frozen jugs in. I try to burn on Wednesday’s down to a concentrate what’s in the tank, bottle in 1 gallon glass jugs, store in the fridge and then finish on the weekend. I’m out here boiling down 110 gallons now:-| Gotta love it though!

[sappytapper]

One thing that worked really well for me last year when I had 20+ gallons (like you said, a lot for a small backyard'er) was to fill a bunch of Solo cups with sap and freeze them in my chest freezer overnight, then drop them into the liquid sap in the morning.

Keep it shaded, but it sounds like you have that covered as well.

[Kbrooks80]

I have a 55 gallon barrel in the ground that I dump into then pump up to my head tank. When I get done boiling at night I drain the remaining sap back down into the under ground tank for storage. Next year I plan on putting a IBC tote under ground for storage.

[red dorakeen]

17756

North side of the shack.

After yesterday I need a little more refrigerant to fall from the sky.

I cover it with a tarp when it rains and if it's warm out. Reflective side of the tarp up.

[lords sugaring]

I know the warm spell is over for now but depending on how big of an evap you're running you can always get all sap to a boil and sweeten your pans up, then let the colder weather keep it cool to get enough to run again. But the sap ice works too if you don't have the time to bring everything to a boil to kill bacteria off.