How long can you keep concentrate

[steve J]

I drained my pan of concentrate 2 weeks ago due to the cold. I have two large pots in basement full and the temp is 36 degrees. And one in sugar house that partially froze. How long can I hold it I hope to finally boil again by Saturday.

[SeanD]

There are a lot of factors that go into that answer. If it was all boiled hard after flooding in the last boil you had and it's been kept at or near freezing, it will last at least a week. That's based on what I just experienced with the sweet I pulled off last Thursday (7 days ago) However, last night, to play things safe I:
-Pulled the nearup (63 brix) off the front pan and set that aside in a bucket.
-Poured my sweet from the back pan (that I had set aside in buckets like you) into the front pan.
-Filled the back pan with water
-Boiled the sweet for about 30 minutes

Ten minutes of boiling probably would have been enough, but it smelled good and for once, I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere. The amount left is too little to go back into the back pan and I'll have to re-sweeten the pans all over again, but that's just how this season is going. I'd rather have 8-10 gallons of nearup to deal with than 25 gallons of sour sap that I have to dump.

[steve J]

Its a dark sweet but its been sitting 2 weeks. my plan was to put it back in pan and than start boiling adding fresh sap and my guess is it would take an hour of boiling to get it to separate before drawing any off.

[maple flats]

The one that froze should be as good as when you put it in the bucket. The one at 36F have likely degraded after 2 weeks, but they will just make darker syrup and maybe not as much as if they were kept cold enough that slush formed on top. Some of the sugar has been eaten up by microbes in the concentrate.
If this ever happens again, store it cold enough for it to get slush on the top. Then it would be best to finish it off within a week.

[Russell Lampron]

If it's frozen and left frozen it will last until you can boil again. I have had some sit in my evaporator or 3 weeks and it still made good syrup.