Best practices

[Birdland Sugarbush]

Looking for advice on how to manage sap with my new RO (in a bucket).

I have a small StarCat evaporator and 35 taps on buckets.

Is it best to process sap overnight and then boil in the morning, or to process just enough to get ahead of the evaporator’s gph rate and keep the two going at the same time?

I’m sure this falls under the “ask a dozen maple folks and you’ll get a dozen different opinions”…

Chris

[ecolbeck]

I think the answer really depends on several factors and what works for your schedule. If you process ahead of time you need a way to keep concentrated sap very cold because you are concentrating sugars AND bacteria. Spoilage will happen more quickly.
Personally, I don’t have cold storage or time to mess with the RO ahead of time so I just process sap concurrently to boiling. You can tune your RO to match the speed of your evaporator or crunch some sap before lighting a fire to give yourself a head start.

[LMP Maple]

I am new to the r/o game this year. I process the sap as fast as I can. I would not let r/o'ed sap sit overnight. If I collect on a Friday after work for example I will hold the raw sap overnight if the temps are going to be below freezing then I will r/o it right before I boil the next day. If you have help to keep an eye on the r/o until you get used to it you can r/o as you boil. I like to r/o then clean the r/o then boil separating out the process. I have found that doing a batch run I can get the sap to 6% or so then start boiling. If I take the time to let the r/o get the sap to 6% or so before I boil I am taking out so much water that the time saving are well worth it for me to let it reach its full potential before processing if that makes sense. I might gather my largest tank bring it back and start the r/o on this while i get the rest of the sap gathered adding it to batch. I think with 35 taps you could certainly r/o then boil as a separate process but as you mention you are going to get many different opinions on this.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Yes, completely process sap to syrup as soon as you can. But the cold temps in the first half of the season are pretty forgiving. Another good practice is to rinse all the line and tanks after each use, stopping any sour dough effect.

[fireant911]

Looking for advice on how to manage sap with my new RO (in a bucket)...

Out of curiosity (and because this is my first attempt with Reverse Osmosis) what are you doing in regards to an initial flush of new your system?

[maple flats]

I always started my RO first and then as I got to a certain level in my head tank I started to boil, continuing the RO as I boiled. Do not try to hold ROed concentrate unless you can refrigerate it to the low 30'sF

[LMP Maple]

I purchased a new R/O for this season. The manufacturer said to soak the membranes in 'soft' water overnight. I bought purified water as we are on town water and the chlorine levels were too high coming from the faucet. I then installed the membranes and then rinsed the system with purified water like you would with permeate and was ready to go. This was the process they told me to do right out of the box. Hope that makes sense. You could use permeate if you know a producer that has some on hand as well.

[fireant911]

Thanks! I just purchased some distilled water and I will soak my membranes too! I tapped one 'exploratory' tree on Friday to see when the sap is flowing as the conditions are getting close. I checked yesterday and there was a couple of ounces in the bag. Interestingly, I used this opportunity to test out my new refractometer to see what the Brix reading was directly off the tree after letting the temperature stabilize - I was surprised to see it was 2.7. I do not know how the actual reading will be once the sap is truly flowing but it looks promising!

[Mean_Oscar]

In another thread, I saw a 0 ppm chlorine tolerance as the reason to use permeate or spring water. When my permeate is gone, I have to drive an hour to get spring water. Then I have to heat that on a stove for a warm wash. About any free sodium ion source (like bicarb) should react to form salt (NaCl). Aren't ROs used for desalinization? If all this is right, why couldn't I put say a tablespoon of bicarb in 5 gallons of hot tap water and wash with that?

[ecolbeck]

I didn’t find any evidence that bicarb can be used to neutralize chlorine, in fact I found the opposite. However I did find that vitamin C can be used instead. https://www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/pubs/html/05231301/05231301.html#:~:text=Vitamin%20C%20is%20a%20newer ,is%20considered%20a%20hazardous%20chemical.

You can also just leave an open container of water and the chlorine will dissipate on its own.

[DRoseum]

Or use an active carbon block filter to remove chlorine from city tap water. This is what I do for my yearly pre-season flush.
https://youtu.be/mP_ESUNqUg8