Cleaning buckets after dumping spoiled sap?

[danfredw]

Hi, just wondering what you do after dumping a bucket of spoiled sap. Do you need to worry about cleaning the bucket out? Just thinking that there may be some bacteria or whatever (just my overactive brain) still in that might cause it to spoil again faster?

Or just don't worry about it as it's minimal, it happens on its own anyways, and you'll boil it off eventually?

[wnybassman]

Tomorrow I will have the same here, and I will be trying to catch one more run early in the week. I'll likely go around to my buckets with a bucket of warm water and at least do a quick rinse.

[Sugarmaker]

I just cleaned my tubs for the second time this season. They were getting a little gooie. I use a mild solution of clorox and water, and scrub and rince with some sap in the tub. Dump out. The bacteria will remain in the bucket if you dont brush it and rinse. Getting close to the end of the season as wnybassman mentions. This precleaning will make the final clean up easier too. Just my 2 cents.
Regards,
Chris

[danfredw]

Ok well I'm basically done after making 3 gallons. So it might not matter for me other than as you say, it could make the cleanup easier.

I just can't imagine bigger operations on buckets or sacks cleaning them out if this happens. But maybe they don't let it get this far.

[Sugarmaker]

Our operation is small, only 650 taps. 30 plus tubs to clean, so not too bad. Most folks running sap into big tanks may or may not clean them during the season depending on lots of factors. If the temps stay nice and cool, the containers, whether buckets or tanks will stay much cleaner. Warm temps can cause the sap to start to work and mess up the tanks quickly. Syrup may still be very good. but could drop a grade. Sap can also spoil during those warm temps and cause ropey syrup.
Keeping all the maple equipment as clean as possible should help you make the lightest grade of syrup possible with that sap. Remember anyone can make dark syrup! You can only make light syrup if your doing a bunch of things right! Again just my rambling.
I should go look at the tubs to see if I need to gather. We have wet snow this morning! (Sugar snow!0 Probably only 100 + gallons of sap out there total! But that could be 2 gallons of finished syrup a some point, worth $100 per gallon if sold in pints!

FWIW We did have 400 buckets at one point and rarely did they get washed during the season. But they did get collected when the sap ran.
Regards,
Chris