Holding Tank Slime, Head tanks and Ropey Syrup

[bryankloos]

Hi All,

As a contnual learner in this game, I'd lke to focus some attention next year on sap storage and tanks cleaning.

My system as of this year:

55gal plastic barrel at the 4048 pump.
275gal IBC for storage at the Shack.
2 x 55gal plastic barrels as head tank

As the season goes on, things get slimey. My cleaning routine has been historically poor.

I'd like to make a regular habbit of draining all tanks periodically and cleaning. To do this, what is the best process. What type of mechanical cleaning (scrubbing, power wash, etc) is advised? What tupe of sterilizing compounds are recommended? How do you plean all your transfer lines? What frequency is optimal?

Additionally, for the pans, how often do you drain the sweet and when you do where/how do you store it? I have a chest freezer that can fit the 20 gal or so of sweet.

Looking forward to hearing your opinions and improving my process for next year.

Thanks in advance.

Bryan

[maineboiler]

I have a relatively small operation, but I have found very dilute white vinegar to be a good cleaning agent for my collecting tanks and evaporator. For tanks I use just a dash with hot water. Give a good rinse after. How many times you need to do this will depend on the weather. The warmer it is, the more slime. I’ll drain the evaporator 2-3 times a season and give the sugar pan a good cleaning with the vinegar solution. Works for me!

[Aaron Stack]

My pan tends to tell me when it needs cleaning. It will suddenly stop giving me syrup and simply boil for a few hours straight with the temp in the syrup section hovering around 3 degrees above boiling and refusing to budge.

Last year had lots and lots of sugar sand and I was cleaning, scrubbing, and scraping with a flat razor to get the sugars off the pan almost every other boil, or about 50-60 gallons. This year I did the vinegar solution (3:1 water to vinegar) overnight once and it magically lifted the sugars with simply light scrubbing after about 150 gallons and we were back on the syrup. To store the sweet I rinse out a couple collection buckets very well with hot water and hide them in a cool corner of the shack since it's just usually overnight. I'm cleaning it tomorrow due to the warm temps the next few days so I put them in my chest freezer hoping for another run this Sunday to Tuesday.

Don't forget to clean the bottom of your pan - a long-handled, wire grill scraper does just fine. I do that after every boil as part of the shutdown process.

[maple flats]

As for equipment, storage wise, I only ever had SS tanks except year 1. That yesr my sap was stored in severalo 5 gallon cooking oil jugs, that *I got from a Chinese Restaurant. When I got them they had all been recently emptied. However, empty to them was not very empty. The cooking oil in them was hard to clean out, it had coagulated in the jug. I took them home, filled about 2-3 qts of hot water and shook them as hard as I could, (I was 57 at the time) I dumped it on the ground in one spot in the back yard and repeated as needed, some only took 3x, others up to 5 and 6 times. Once clean I kept the cap on each. Then in use, I had plenty of those jugs, so at the trees I used tubing collecting 1 or 2 trees into 1 jug, 1 or 2 taps per tree. Then I had a hole melted into each cap (using a sharpening butcher's steel and a propane torch) and on the inside of the cap I used a tubing squeeze clamp to hold the jug when too light so it wouldn't blow away in the wind. As I collected, I used my tractor with a 3 pt carrier on the back and a wooden box strapped on. When collecting I just unscrewed the cap, carried the jug to the tractor, if less than half full I poured it into another jug (or I switched jugs if I didn't yet have a partial jug full on the tractor). I then put an empty on the tree and moved to the next tree. I had about 12 jugs in service, but as the season progressed I added more trees and jugs. Before I knew it I had 79 taps and likely 30 such jugs. Then I hauled them to my SUV at the road, put them in the back, I could fit 15 such jugs in the back. I 2 or 3x had to make a second trip, but usually once did it.
Then, once I emptied a jug, as I boiled, I just added hot water 2-3 times, shook like crazy, dumped it and set it in the living room, uncapped to dry. I never got any slime that I noticed. As for the evaporator that year I had a Leader Half Pint which I bought 2nd hand. That I cleaned using white vinegar as needed, I don't recall how often.
After that season I built my currant sugarhouse, and I got an old SS milk tank for a head tank, I placed it on a wooden platform on the north side of the sugarhouse, and ran a copper pipe from the valve thru the sugarhouse wall and into the float box. To clean the head tank I used clean water (cold) and a dairy tank brush, it worked well, again, I cleaned the evaporator (now I had a 2x6 drop flue) as needed, using white vinegar. The only problem was the copper transfer line between the outside tank and the evaporator, it froze a few times, but being copper, I used a propane torch to thaw it. By the next season everything remained the same except I found another SS milk tank for sap storage (I now had about 185 taps). I had a Honda WX15 pump and it transferred the sap as needed. Again I cleaned as before. Then the next year I added more taps and when I reached my max ever, I had 1320 taps. I was tapping 2 leases at that point and I had gotten a 1 ton truck to haul a 16' gooseneck trailer. On that trailer I carried 2 IBC totes plumbed together and a third tote which hauled clean water (by then my clean water was permeate. As I pumped sap from my leases I then hooked a hose up, and pumped clean water into the now empty tank, the pressure and a good hose nozzle cleaned the tank, the cleaning water drained onto the ground. By then I had gotten more old milk tanks and I plumbed the 2 biggest together, my head tank was then a SS sap tank, 150 gal, made by NGMP (Next Gen Maple Products). It was butted up tight against the sugarhouse, (I had changed the arrangement after having the transfer line freeze 2 seasons. At the sugarhouse wall I had a cut out thru the wall large enough for the 1.5" pipe, valve and I was able to thaw the short line outside by using the torch thru the opening from inside, I think I only had to thaw that line 2 or 3 times over the year. The transfer line in the sugarhouse which fed the pre-heater was drained every night, I only had about 12" of vulnerable pipe. My line from the 2 tanks tied together had pipe insulation on it and it had good quality heat tape in it. A few times it froze but about 20-30 minutes and I got it flowing. I still used the same dairy tank cleaning brush to clean all tanks.

[buckeye gold]

I have a 2 gallon garden sprayer with a chlorine solution (made from pool shock)mixed at 200 ppm all the time. If I get a couple warm days I empty the tanks spray them on all sides with the solution and use a long handled brush to brush what I can. I need to rinse them after that but it rinses easily. If it stays cold I may clean the holding tanks once every 10 days. I usually don't have a lot of sugar sand, so I clean the pan well about every 6 - 8 boils. I use the same calcium HYpochloride solution to clean lines/

[DrTimPerkins]

55gal plastic barrel at the 4048 pump.
275gal IBC for storage at the Shack.
2 x 55gal plastic barrels as head tank

Plastic is always more challenging to keep clean. Keep at it throughout the season with a mild bleach solution whenever tanks are empty and be sure to rinse well afterwards.

[bryankloos]

Thanks All.

Always learning, and trying to improve.
I appreciate your guidance.

Bryan

[ennismaple]

Hi All,

As a contnual learner in this game, I'd lke to focus some attention next year on sap storage and tanks cleaning.

My system as of this year:

55gal plastic barrel at the 4048 pump.
275gal IBC for storage at the Shack.
2 x 55gal plastic barrels as head tank

As the season goes on, things get slimey. My cleaning routine has been historically poor.

I'd like to make a regular habbit of draining all tanks periodically and cleaning. To do this, what is the best process. What type of mechanical cleaning (scrubbing, power wash, etc) is advised? What tupe of sterilizing compounds are recommended? How do you plean all your transfer lines? What frequency is optimal?

Additionally, for the pans, how often do you drain the sweet and when you do where/how do you store it? I have a chest freezer that can fit the 20 gal or so of sweet.

Looking forward to hearing your opinions and improving my process for next year.

Thanks in advance.

Bryan Every tank in our bush and at the sugar camp is washed every time it gets drained - so daily (or more often) when the sap is running. It's really hard to get the IBC totes and poly tanks clean so you need to be extra vigilant.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Ennis,
What do you use to clean the tanks in the bush? We have upgraded to stainless tanks everywhere and next drain I know they should be scrubbed. Thinking of carrying some 5g pails of water and a brush we use for tanks at the shack to do the best I can. You have a good setup for cleaning or rinsing them?

[johnallin]

What works for me is a scrubby pad on a swivel and long handle, scrub away and use sap coming in to clean.
Knocking down the foamy residue and rinsing with incoming sap works very well.

[ennismaple]

We use the last few inches of sap to give the sides a wipe-down as the tank is being drained. We'll take 5 gallons of drinking water to the tank on the ATV or gathering wagon and use that for a better rinse.

Tank brushes are the key to keeping the slime down! We have one in each tank house in the woods.

CDL sells them, or look up "Vikan 70395 8" Polypropylene Bristle Hand-Held Tank Brush, White" on Amazon.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Thanks guys, I'll bring our brush and a 5g pail of water to do some scrubbing and use the water to rinse the brush. I'll probably order and try that brush head ennis, thank you.

[christopherh]

I also haul 5 gallon buckets of water to my remote tank, and clean them fairly often. I do have a 3/4 inch sap transfer line which I can hook up to the water in the sugarhouse. This works well to.