How to keep large quantity of sap cool

[weaver]

Hey guys, we are expanding our operations for next year, building a small sugar House and getting some more taps, but how does everyone keep their sap cool? We keep ours in snow piles but that usually doesn't work near the end of the season. We can only boil once a week, I was thinking of finding a walk in cooler. Any ideas?

[Haynes Forest Products]

A little more info would be helpful By filling out your Bio we would know how many taps you have.

if you have 5 taps and get 1.5 gallons per day that would be 52.5 so keeping a 55 gallon drum cold for that long can be a bit of a chore. Now if were talking 25 taps Houston we have a problem.

I would start looking for a SS dairy tank with working refrigeration system.

[weaver]

sorry about that. well Houston we have a problem. we have 30 taps right now and a 55 gallon homemade evaporator. we are building a small sugar house for next year, 12 by 12, and making a bigger evaporator to put in it, along with adding a few more taps. I found a pretty large walk in fridge I was thinking of jumping on but then i will have to worry about powering it.

[ennismaple]

There is a point where keeping sap for long periods isn't possible. I don't know if it's 5, 20 or 100 taps but there is a tipping point where you need to boil more often.

We've got about 2 gallons of storage per tap. When the sap runs well we boil every day to stay ahead of it. When it runs poorly (0.5 GPT or less) we can wait 3 or 4 days between boils as long as it's cool enough. At the end of the season you simply can't let it sit unless you want to find a big ball of snot in your tanks!?!?

A few larger producers near us (30,000+) have probably 1 GPT of storage because they RO and boil every day when it runs well. I recall Dr Tim said they started to keep their super-concentrate in a functioning milk tank for several days because it takes so much of it to fire up the evaporator. This would work for raw sap too.

[weaver]

Right i see your point, we are hoping to stay just under that point. we have been just keeping out 5 gallon buckets in a snow bank but we lot a 30 gallons last year when the snowpack melted and we ran out of places to put them.

[ScottyWelden]

I have 2 55-gallon barrels in mt shed and boil only on weekends. If it's going to be warm, I freeze quart-or-so sized containers of sap and throw them into the barrel.

[n8hutch]

I would suggest having indoor storage on the North Side or Shaded side of your sugar house, the side that gets the least sun, try to get some kind of stainless tank, an insulated bulk tank would be best, I have held sap a little longer than I should by tossing blocks of ice in it. Clean and I mean scrub your sap tanks every time you empty them, that will maybe buy you a day too.

[weaver]

Alright thanks guys if I can get this walk in fridge it would be great, but if not I will look into a SS tank.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Go down to Home Depot and buy yourself 12 sheets of the thickest 4 x 8 sheets of Styrofoam insulation. get yourself a cage tank and steal your neighbors window air conditioner. :mrgreen: Lay a sheet on the ground and put the cage tank on top of it. Now with 2x4s build a quick frame around the tank with the sheet of insulation leaving room for air circulation around the sides. Don't worry about the top you want the screw cover accessible for filling and cleaning. Install a drain that extends out the bottom so you can pump sap out as you need it.

Put this in the corner of you garage until the shack is done. you can keep the sap nice and cold.

[weaver]

I'm heading to take a look at that walk in fridge this weekend, it is approx. 4 by 4 by 6 ft. Should be enough room for a lot of buckets. Let u guys know how it goes.

[Haynes Forest Products]

That ain't no walk in cooler that's a shove it in cooler. How many taps you doing?

[weaver]

We are pretty small only about 40. It should be big enough to hold about 130 gallons, easy enough for a week.

[Haynes Forest Products]

40 X 7 = 280 Got it and if you get a good day or two that should all fit in 130 gallon container.:confused:

[weaver]

We had 30 taps last year and I think out best week was 80 gallons. So definitely not 7 gallons a tap, also all are just on buckets.

[weaver]

well the fridge/freezer wasn`t in good condition, so we passed on it. we are thinking of making a small one now somewhere around 4x8x4 feet, with 2 inch insulation. should fit about 160 gallons. but i don`t know much about the window ac units. i heard some good things of coolbot, but not sure if i want to fork over the $350 bucks for it if there is another way.

[Super Sapper]

There is a thread on Bowhunter website with a lot of information on making a walk in cooler.

[Mitchell tapper.]

I use a chest freezer. I bypass the thermostat with a unit off eBay. There’s a Video on YouTube. Basically turns into a refrigerator. There’s a bottom drain, I took 1/4” stainless pipe with two o-rings on it with an elbow and valve and pushed in through the outside drain hole. Mine only holds about 30 gal. It’s too small but it works great. I keep the sap around 36°. When the season is done you can use it as a freezer if you like.

[weaver]

Doing some more reading on diy coolers and a few people have said you can put a bigger resistor in the wire with the temp probe to make it cool to 45 or so. I think we are starting on the scack this weekend, so once that's done we will move forward with the cooler.