Saving Concentrate

[blissville maples]

I am curious how long folks have successfully stored concentrate in temperatures of 35 to 45 no higher.. my father seems to think Ro the day before to start boiling first thing in the morning this idea makes me very nervous. I know a few hours isn't a big deal but I certainly hate to learn the hard way......

[chuck]

Because of my work schedule I often have to RO at night and the process it the next day. With the possible exception of maybe producing a bit darker syrup, I have never had any adverse effects in doing this. That being said, there are a lot of variables that play into this. I don't use poly tanks, all ss; I clean them often, my sugarhouse is typically cold, and I watch the temp of the sap coming out of the RO. Also a factor is how high a concentrate you are storing. The higher the concentrate the bigger the risk. I typically go to 8-10%, sometime 12%. The weather comes into play too so late season I never hold it over. The bigger problem I have in doing this, especially early in the season, is everything freezing up on me. I'm sure there are much more experienced sugar makers on here that will have a different opinion but this is what I do based on the time I have and again have not experienced any adverse effects.

if you are really concerned how about just holding onto your raw sap(if you have the storage), then 1-2 hrs before you boil, fire up your RO and recirculate. Based on your equipment listed, I would think that with a 1-2 hr head start, your RO could keep up with your rig?

[Rockport]

I have the same problem from time to time, What i do is RO it and put in the pan and bring to a boil and its good for 24 if temps are not high , my thought is it sanitizes or kills the bugs ! and should last longer ,but would make a darker syrup I would say.

[Russell Lampron]

I generally save mine for 8 hours or so without any problems. There have been times like last Saturday when I started concentrating the first batch at 9 pm and didn't start boiling until 5 pm on Sunday. The daytime temp never got above 34* and I made Amber syrup. I did a total of 3 batches with the last one getting to 12% as I was running out of sap.

[saphead]

If at all possible store concentrate as cold as possible.Old dairy bulk tanks are great for this,if you can find one that still runs all the better.Where I help out the old RO can pump out about 250 gal. of concentrate an hour but the rig will boil off around 900 gal. an hour, so no choice but to store... the longer you store the more the little guys in the concentrate nibble at the sugar! Visited a sugarhouse around the corner this afternoon and he had picked a 1000 gal. insulated vac. tank for $.50 gal.!! There are tanks to be found.

[blissville maples]

All our concentrate storage is still with an insulated bulk tank, so we may be good for storage of 8+hrs....sounds like it may be fine as long as temps are reasonable. Our evaporator takes about 2-2.25 gals an HR, I usually to get 9% run ro at 1.5 gpm at 400 psi. we need about 600 gallons of concentrate before we can start which is about 6 hrs of to time--- well time to fire her up so we can boil by 1!!!

Good luck all and ty

[maple flats]

Back to the last year before I got my RO, I had a 4 day period when we were boiling 21 hrs, sleep 2, get washed up and back at it. During those 4 days I had to sell my incoming sap because all of my tanks were full and I didn't want it to spoil. I sold 1150 gal of sap to another producer. He concentrated it to 8% and sent it to an operating bulk tank and there he saved it at 30F until the next Saturday, which was maple weekend.
The key piece of info on this was that the sap had been sold to him from Friday-Monday, the week before. He made Amber with it.
If you can keep it cold enough it will be fine, I just have no idea exactly what the time vs temperature curve is.

[Bucket Head]

I have held concentrate for six days in a working bulk tank with great results. Pretty much have to since boiling can only be done on the weekends for us, for the most part. I have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday's take in there right now.

However, we did hold concentrate in a non working tank before this one for up to a couple days without issue. But it needs to be in a cool spot, out of the sun (all the time), and at night when it cools down open the lids and let that cold air help out. Ultimately, the temperature of the concentrate will be the deciding factor on how long you can wait to boil it. Low 40's is the "caution zone". Think of what your refrigerator is set at and then look at what the thermometer on the tank says (if its working) and go from there.

Steve

[blissville maples]

Six days wow that's amazing, what grade syrup did u make?

[DrTimPerkins]

Last year was our first with the Lapierre HyperBrix RO. We saved concentrate (30 Brix) a few times overnight with some trepidation. Each time it turned out OK, but it was always a worry. We got a 650 gal refrigerated bulk tank over the summer and put it up overhead in the sugarhouse. Our new procedure is to concentrate and boil on alternate days. We concentrate all day the first day, then start the RO and start the evaporator in the morning on the second. Our evaporator will outperform the RO by a decent margin, so it's worked out fairly well. We've made some of our lightest syrup ever so far this year.

The best part of this has been to shorten our days considerably. Instead of concentrating all day and starting the evaporator in the late afternoon, most of us now finish by 5-6pm and go home. One guy comes in late and stays later to do the RO wash/rinse and finish up cleaning for the day. Having the bulk tank really decoupled the two processing steps (RO and boiling).

The second boil we had 2" of slush on top of the concentrate. It went down the feed tube, but the float didn't like it much until we hit it with a bucket of hot permeate. Turned the tank temperature up for the next boil. So far we've only kept concentrate a couple of days max, but at 34 deg F, it won't spoil much.

[VT_K9]

We have not concentrated and let it sit at all. We would leave it was raw sap. With that said we have expanded to a larger storage tank for raw sap, but when the number of taps increases we will be back in the same position. I suppose I could see holding concentrate overnight early in the season or colder nights with a SS tank or bulk tank. If the bulk tank is operational then I could see holding it longer. But the bacteria growth is much faster with concentrated sap. Unless it is truly an extended period of time my impression is the opportunity for darker syrup increases before there are truly harmful issues.

Mike