stimyg
01-25-2020, 09:50 AM
I've been sugaring for 10+ years, hobbyist, 20-30 taps, boiled mostly on my propane grill. This is a weekend home, and I boil only on weekends - and occasionally miss a weekend so it can be 2 weeks between boils.
I've always been the Evel Knievel of sap storage. My buckets hang a week between collections, sometimes hang a couple weeks. If it gets warm and they get seriously funky I dump them. Otherwise if it's stayed cold and they're not wildly bad, I use it. 98% of the time I'm using it. Always turned out great. (Almost always. Don't ask about the March run of '18.)
I've always been a lot more careful with my sweetened-but-not-finished sap/syrup. Let's say I couldn't finish a batch in a given weekend. I'd boil it down to a size that would fit into my fridge and leave it there. Otherwise that's a lot of work to ruin by letting it sit outside and go bad.
But now I've finally upgraded my system to a real evaporator, 20"x48", divided pan. Exciting! I hope to add some more taps too.
As I'm mentally working through my new system, I'm realizing that I'm going to have probably take a full weekend or two to even sweeten my pan. BUT, emptying that large volume of sweet out of my evaporator and storing it in my fridge is somewhere between a hassle to impossible. (Not sure I can boil low enough to get a small enough volume that will fit in my fridge, if that makes sense.)
So...
How long would you dare leave sweetened sap in an evaporator?
If you were like me, the evel knievel of sap storage but not a total idiot who wants to waste all his hard work, how long would you dare?
One thing I don't get - let's say you're boiling. You kill the fire. Once the sweet is close losing it's boil, you cover it with a nice-fitting lid. Isn't the inside of that going to be completely sterilized, by the boil and the heat and the steam? Why couldn't you leave that for a very long time, no matter what the temps? There shouldn't be any organic activity happening in a sterilized system to spoil it... right? What am I missing? (I know it's not a completely sealed system, but it seems pretty close.)
I've always been the Evel Knievel of sap storage. My buckets hang a week between collections, sometimes hang a couple weeks. If it gets warm and they get seriously funky I dump them. Otherwise if it's stayed cold and they're not wildly bad, I use it. 98% of the time I'm using it. Always turned out great. (Almost always. Don't ask about the March run of '18.)
I've always been a lot more careful with my sweetened-but-not-finished sap/syrup. Let's say I couldn't finish a batch in a given weekend. I'd boil it down to a size that would fit into my fridge and leave it there. Otherwise that's a lot of work to ruin by letting it sit outside and go bad.
But now I've finally upgraded my system to a real evaporator, 20"x48", divided pan. Exciting! I hope to add some more taps too.
As I'm mentally working through my new system, I'm realizing that I'm going to have probably take a full weekend or two to even sweeten my pan. BUT, emptying that large volume of sweet out of my evaporator and storing it in my fridge is somewhere between a hassle to impossible. (Not sure I can boil low enough to get a small enough volume that will fit in my fridge, if that makes sense.)
So...
How long would you dare leave sweetened sap in an evaporator?
If you were like me, the evel knievel of sap storage but not a total idiot who wants to waste all his hard work, how long would you dare?
One thing I don't get - let's say you're boiling. You kill the fire. Once the sweet is close losing it's boil, you cover it with a nice-fitting lid. Isn't the inside of that going to be completely sterilized, by the boil and the heat and the steam? Why couldn't you leave that for a very long time, no matter what the temps? There shouldn't be any organic activity happening in a sterilized system to spoil it... right? What am I missing? (I know it's not a completely sealed system, but it seems pretty close.)