Boiling from frozen bucket

[pollywog]

So i only had a 5 gallon pale of sap. So I let it sit for the last couple days/nights to freeze up. I poured off the liquid into a graduated pale. I got 3 gallons. I boiled it down and go 18oz of syrup. So doing the math 18/384=.046. 3 gallons equaling 384 oz's. If I did my math right freezing gave me over 4-1/2% sugar. Not bad

[acerrubrum]

I recently discovered the benefit of buckets that are partially frozen too. I had sap at 4% from buckets with 2/3 ice in them. I took the ice inside and tested it once it thawed. .5%, not worth boiling. I've repeated this several times lately and found thawed ice was less than .75% to .5%.
From now on I only collect when the buckets are partially frozen.

[Old school maple]

I to have been dumping off the ice. Never tested just taking what i heard that the sugar wont freeze.

[West Sumner Sugar]

We had 100 frozen buckets today...frozen solid. I did test the liquid on the top of one and it was over 10 brix. But how do you let those thaw. It would take days. Seems like every season we have a week or two where its crazy cold.

[raptorfan85]

They don't call it natures RO for nothing!

[Sugarmaker]

I recently discovered the benefit of buckets that are partially frozen too. I had sap at 4% from buckets with 2/3 ice in them. I took the ice inside and tested it once it thawed. .5%, not worth boiling. I've repeated this several times lately and found thawed ice was less than .75% to .5%.
From now on I only collect when the buckets are partially frozen.

Unless it doesn't freeze?
Some folks are only getting .5% sugar on liquid sap.

Keep boiling, and have fun!
Regards,
Chris

[Daveg]

I to have been dumping off the ice. Never tested just taking what i heard that the sugar wont freeze.
The sap with sugar will freeze, depending on the temperature. The amount is called the Freezing Point Depression. 2 mole sap will freeze at -3°C; 4 mole sap will freeze at -5°C, so, depending on the temperature, the discarded ice will have varying amounts of sugar in it. The colder it is at the time it gets dumped, the more sugar it has in it.

[Gord]

So i only had a 5 gallon pale of sap. So I let it sit for the last couple days/nights to freeze up. I poured off the liquid into a graduated pale. I got 3 gallons. I boiled it down and go 18oz of syrup. So doing the math 18/384=.046. 3 gallons equaling 384 oz's. If I did my math right freezing gave me over 4-1/2% sugar. Not bad

Pretty remarkable numbers even with the original 5 gallons, which works out to (35.5:1). The 3 gallons works out to (21.3:1).
This is only my 2nd year tapping, and I have never come close to those numbers. Mine are closer to 70:1 even when I dump out the ice. My best ratio this year was 56:1.
I guess I don't have the best of maple trees on my property, but having a lot of fun just the same. And the syrup tastes great!
Congrats on your yield!

[Trapper2]

I boil the liquid first but I don't discard the ice, I save in case I need to keep fresh sap cold that I cant get to or if I need to make a little more syrup. Or sometimes the buckets are froze so solid that you just need to be thankful for what God has given you and deal with it.1822018221