Ropey sap?

[Openwater]

I think I've got my first batch of ropey sap. My process typically involves collecting sap and RO'ing during the week and boiling on the weekends. I usually RO my sap to 4-5%, then store it in a fridge, in 5 gallon water jugs, which is probably around 32-34*F until the weekend when I boil it. I've got RO'ed sap from 80 gallons of raw sap (which is alot for me). I went to dump one of the jugs of 4% sap from the fridge into my RO tank to RO it a little more before boiling tomorrow. It poured out of the jug into the RO barrel like motor oil; and slimy. It is cloudy, but doesn't smell or taste "strange". I always figured keeping my RO'ed sap cold in the fridge would make it last until the weekend, but I'm wondering if the sap got too warm before I even RO'ed it to start the "spoilage" process. Can this sap be salvaged, or do I just have to dump it and forget about boiling this weekend?

[Pdiamond]

I had that happen to me late last year, dumped the whole bunch of sap. I don't RO mine. You can only keep it for so long unless you freeze it. I don't think there is any saving of your sap.

[Openwater]

That's what I was afraid of. I've never seen anything so slimy and gelatinous as this stuff before.
Dumping 80 gallons worth of sap is frustrating; that's like 15% of my typical amount of sap collected.
The warm weather the past week definitely didn't help. I might just call it a season now and be done.

[Paddymountain]

Don’t give up! Learn from your mistakes and move on!

[220 maple]

Openwaters
If starting with sap that has the bacteria that causes ropey, by ROing you concentrated the bacteria also! RO sap goes bad real fast, maybe better to freeze raw sap then RO right prior to boiling, can’t discuss it much, there was grant money being used to study the microorganisms in sap! Goal a meter that will give us a number level of build up, better to dump sap in the woods before wasting time and money on it.
Mark 220 Maple

[SeanD]

Ropey sap/sweet is the worst. Yes, it's a loss, but not a total loss. There are a couple of silver linings. You caught it before it went into your evaporator. Had the ropey sap gotten down into those flues there's nothing short of a total break down and cleaning that will get it out. The other silver lining is you found the source of the problem, so you won't repeat it.

I went through two seasons where I had ropey sap showing up in my back pan and I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. It was driving me crazy. I made sure that everything came to a vigorous boil after flooding and I even did preventative boils during no-flow periods. Yet, there it was in the bottoms of my flues - disgusting and frustrating. Then I found it. It was the f-ing float box! Even though I was bringing the pan up to a boil after flooding, the float box was only getting up to like 75 deg maybe and those little critters were having a party. Even when I drained the evaporator to clean it out, there was still about 1/2" of liquid still in the float box. It's raised up just enough because of the inlet pipe. So, what I thought was ropiness in the bottoms of my flues was really just the overflow of the slime that was being generated in the float box.

Now, after I flood, I scoop boiling sweet from the pan and dump it into the float box again and again until it gets to 200 deg (it starts around 55 deg). Problem solved.

So, it's a cruddy problem to have and you are dumping a ton of your sap, but you figured it out and it beats the frustration chasing the problem around in the next boil. Don't quit on the season. Use this time to figure out a new process so you are not stewing about it all off season.

[SeanD]

Ropey sap/sweet is the worst. Yes, it's a loss, but not a total loss. There are a couple of silver linings. You caught it before it went into your evaporator. Had the ropey sap gotten down into those flues there's nothing short of a total break down and cleaning that will get it out. The other silver lining is you found the source of the problem, so you won't repeat it.

I went through two seasons where I had ropey sap showing up in my back pan and I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. It was driving me crazy. I made sure that everything came to a vigorous boil after flooding and I even did preventative boils during no-flow periods. Yet, there it was in the bottoms of my flues - disgusting and frustrating. Then I found it. It was the f-ing float box! Even though I was bringing the pan up to a boil after flooding, the float box was only getting up to like 75 deg maybe and those little critters were having a party. Even when I drained the evaporator to clean it out, there was still about 1/2" of liquid still in the float box. It's raised up just enough because of the inlet pipe. So, what I thought was ropiness in the bottoms of my flues was really just the overflow of the slime that was being generated in the float box.

Now, after I flood, I scoop boiling sweet from the pan and dump it into the float box again and again until it gets to 200 deg (it starts around 55 deg). Problem solved.

So, it's a cruddy problem to have and you are dumping a ton of your sap, but you figured it out and it beats the frustration chasing the problem around in the next boil. Don't quit on the season. Use this time to figure out a new process so you are not stewing about it all off season.

[Openwater]

This morning I took both of my collection tanks out of the woods to clean them out good and they both had slime in the bottoms. Got 'em clean/sanitized and put them back out under the shurflo's.
Just don't have anything in the tanks to recirc to get the vac up.
Temps below freezing last night, hitting 50's today. Next 10 days below freezing nights and 40's days.
Mother Nature's in control now, as usual.

[Openwater]

Since this is the first time I've ever come across ropey sap, I was trying to think what I did different this season compared to others.
The only significant change in the collection process was adding the recirc line to the shurflos. Because of the recirc line, I have been trying to leave a little bit of sap in the tanks when draining them to give the recirc line something to suck into the pumps to keep the vacuum up. Did the recirc line warm up the sap too much? Did the residual sap in the tank after collection start growing an active culture of bacteria?
I also added another membrane to the RO system, so I've also been RO'ing more, usually getting the sap to 4-5% or more, instead of just 3-4% like I did last year. So I was pretty proud of myself taking 80 gallons of sap down to 20 gallons and only having to boil the 20 gallons for 3 hours to make syrup.
I guess I got a little greedy for time and firewood and it caught up to me.