How to keep your sap cool

[Brent]

We're going to more than double our taps this year and we're fussing about when and how fast we'll get to process it. So we've been thinking about
running it through a filter, UV, and keeping it cool to control the bacteria.

This morning my daughter kind of blew me away with an idea.

Put it in the swimming pool !!!!!

The ice on the pool won't melt off until the end of April. The question is how to get the expensive safety cover out of the ice so I can chain saw a hole in it big enough for a meaning full storage tank ( 275 gallon about 4' cube. )

[jemsklein]

what my freind doas is takes a 5 gallon pail full of sap and puts it in the freezer and the 24 - 36 hours later dumps the sap cube in the barrels they have (1 per barrel) and it keeps it cool for about 3-6 days

[maplwrks]

Too much effort put into keeping it cold---put more effort into getting it processed!! Cold sap will go bad with time.

[royalmaple]

I was talking to a guy once that told me of an operation on the golden road here in Maine. Super huge operation, and the sap was running so hard that they did your pool idea. The just dug out a hole in the snow as a retaining wall and put a pool liner in there to hold the sap till they could empty out the tanks they had full. I guess it could work in a pinch. I think this place had 4" or 6" mainlines coming out of the bush. That's serious sap.

[Brent]

Mike

last year I went 10 days in a row from 6:30AM to 1:30 AM with 80 taps and Leader Half Pint. That was too much effort. And it was a bad year by all accounts.

This year we're going to 180 - 200 taps. Waiting on a new 2 x 6 with preheater and going to try an experimental RO.

I'll be crying in my beer if we do all this and get a great run that goes milky because we can't keep it till we get it processed.

[maplwrks]

You'll be much better off with your 2x6

[Father & Son]

Brent,
Don't cry in your beer. With the bulk prices expected to stay high boil everthing you have, bulk it, and have fun!

Jim

[Fred Henderson]

I attended our maple epo Saturday and it was said the B grade will be selling for 2.00 buck a pound. The highest that it has been in 60 years. Also to boil anything that you have and barrel it. Someone will buy it off flavor or off color they will still buy it.

[jemsklein]

grade b is that grade d in canada

[Russell Lampron]

Not sure about the grade D thing that might be commercial. The buyers here are going to pay 2.00 to 2.10 per lb for grade B. I sell all of mine retail, the market gets bigger every year. The only stuff I sell bulk is commercial and they are going to be paying almost $2.00 per lb for that. Boil every drop of sap that you get, clear, milky or sour. The buyers want every drop that they can get, fermented, off flavored, scorched or buddy. It only has to be in a 5 gallon or larger container.

Russ

[super sappy]

Hold sap in an insulated tank(bulk milk tank flat top works best) open the lids and let it freeze on top all night. In the morning close the lid and protect from direct sun during the hot part of the day.When you get home from work the ice is still on top and the stuff on the bottom is ready to boil. - works well and seems to buy some time if stuff pops up that you have to tend to.-SS

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have a 625 gallon milk tank and I try to freeze about 10 gallon of sap every day and throw the buckets into the sap. Sure makes a big difference and will freeze even more depending on how much sap is in the tank. If you can keep the concentrate ice cold, it would definitely help keep it.

[jemsklein]

brent i dont know if you could do this but i can we have 3 springs in our bush and wear what if you waer to get some bucket with lids and but a metal bar though the handle so the lids are just above the water level and that should keep it cold cuz that water would only be 2 or 3 degrees c

[maplwrks]

DON'T STORE SAP!!!!! You should boil it ASAP! We all work jobs everyday, but you need to get it processed. If you have more sap than you can handle, in my opinion, you have 3 options:1. cut back on taps, 2. get bigger processing equipment, 3. dump the sap. As we all know, the seaon is very short. You need to do what you gotta do to get it done. I've had many nights, that after a 10 hr day at the shop, I've got to boil for another 10 hrs! Everyone in this businees goes through this every year, It's part of the businees!
just my 2 cents Mike

[Brent]

DON'T STORE SAP!!!!! You should boil it ASAP! We all work jobs everyday, but you need to get it processed. If you have more sap than you can handle, in my opinion, you have 3 options:1. cut back on taps, 2. get bigger processing equipment, 3. dump the sap. As we all know, the seaon is very short. You need to do what you gotta do to get it done. I've had many nights, that after a 10 hr day at the shop, I've got to boil for another 10 hrs! Everyone in this businees goes through this every year, It's part of the businees!
just my 2 cents Mike

I appreciate the grind it takes, but I also got a lot of complaints last year after not showing up at my day job for nearly 2 weeks. I really hope my wife can collect on low flow days and I could go to work. Got a 2x6 coming that should be nearly 10 x the Half Pint, got steam hoods and preheater in it. and going to try an experimental low budget RO. I'm trying. My wife thinks I'm nuts.

[jemsklein]

well some time you need to store it last year i would boil every day after school and got home lit the fire my brother would wacth it and i would go and collect the sap and at one point we had so much that we could not keep up so we but a lid on a barrel and bared it in snow untill a cold day whent it was not running and i boiled faster cuz of the temp diffrence between the air and the hot sap and finnaly we would catch up

[RileySugarbush]

DON'T STORE SAP!!!!! You should boil it ASAP! We all work jobs everyday, but you need to get it processed. If you have more sap than you can handle, in my opinion, you have 3 options:1. cut back on taps, 2. get bigger processing equipment, 3. dump the sap. As we all know, the seaon is very short. You need to do what you gotta do to get it done. I've had many nights, that after a 10 hr day at the shop, I've got to boil for another 10 hrs! Everyone in this businees goes through this every year, It's part of the businees!
just my 2 cents Mike

There are other options!

I find it interesting that there is such a diversity of opinion on what is the right thing to do: Some say boil the sap within minutes of it leaving the tree, others say "boil anything that comes out of the tree, commercial prices are great!"

For my part, I have stored sap for days out of necessity and made great tasting syrup. Sometimes even with cloudy sap. Keep it as cool as you can, and recognize that it may be a little darker ( and possibly more flavorful!)

For me, just the thought of buddy syrup makes me gag so I'm not interested in making it, even if there is a market.

To each his own!