Cold snap - store sap or store concentrate?

[littleTapper]

Looking for those with wisdom in this kind of situatio. We've got another day or so of sap flow following a good weekend here and then it'll get cold for a few days. Sap is in a 275 gallon iBC tote and it'll be nearly full. Thinking I'm better off running it through the RO and the weather will keep that cold (in 55 gallon drums) vs dealing with a giant block of ice in the tote and then having no way of doing anything with until mid-week next week (and then not having enough storage). I have to boil outdoors (yeah, I should change that) and there is a winter storm watch for Tuesday/Wednesday so that wouldn't be enjoyable to boil in. Also, forecast says boil Sunday or be miserable after that. Thoughts? I would think concentrate would keep fine at those temps and the barrels sit on the north side of my shop out of any sun.

20986

[DaveB]

I've been told by several people that concentrate spoils very quickly. If I need to hold off on boiling due to work and other issues, I typically just hold the sap and use an axe to punch a hole through the ice. The sap is actually more concentrated because the ice is water and the sap is nice and cold in the center.

[tgormley358]

I think that’s a goood strategy and you’ll be fine as long as the sweet isn’t exposed to above mid-30s (refrigerator temps). Passing along what I’ve read here (I don’t know the chemistry), concentrate also won’t freeze as quickly as sap due to the higher sugar %.

[TheNamelessPoet]

I think that’s a goood strategy and you’ll be fine as long as the sweet isn’t exposed to above mid-30s (refrigerator temps). Passing along what I’ve read here (I don’t know the chemistry), concentrate also won’t freeze as quickly as sap due to the higher sugar %.so can you freeze concentrate intentionally with no issues, like boil down a 5 gallon bucket to 1 gallon, then freeze that 1 gallon in a chest freezer? once you have 5 gallons of the concentrate thaw them and then boil them together? essentially batch the frozen concrete?

[littleTapper]

Yeah, sap in any form will freeze fine.

For those wondering; I chose not to concentrate and let my IBC tote build some ice to allow me to ride out a decent warmup. RO processed more slowly when I did, but it was fine. Allowed me to keep incoming sap cold those warm days. Would have probably been just fine concentrating as well, but it all worked out.