Sap Ice?

[SeanD]

What's the consensus on frozen sap. I keep it when it's in my buckets and in my holding bins to keep the sap from spoiling, but should it get melted and added to the boil? Does it have sugar in it, or is it a poor man's R.O.?

[twigbender]

Well, I've always kept it as a means to help keep my sap cool in the storage tank. It works well for that. However, I talked with Dr. Carl Vogt of the Univ. of Mn a couple of weeks ago and asked him the same question. His response is that the ice contains very little sugar and it's best to get rid of it. In fact, he said that if you could freeze your sap after collection it would be just what you said, a poor mans RO.

[pennslytucky]

anyone here with a sugarometer ever tried it to see if th thawed chunk of ice actually is nearly sugar free?

[VtSugarhouse]

Evryone might be suprised to see the sugar content of their "Sap Ice"

Just melt some "sap ice" and check it with a sap hydrometer....It wont be 3.2% but I bet you will be surprised.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Ice is really a great way to condense sap, however in order to really do a study on it one must consider the extremes. If it gets cold enough a 2%-4% sap will freeze solid, i have had many occasions where my buckets were 4 gallon ice blocks, this would mean the ice contains all the sugar. When you get a 3-4" hollow ice block this is ideal as it takes a substantial amount of water out while keeping most of the sugar.


I think someone last year thawed some out and it came out to be .8% sugar? its all preference, for small producers almost 1% sugar is a lot to be throwing away.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

FYI Larry Harris took some ice out of his sap last week and let it melt and then tested it with his refractometer and it tested at, GET THIS, 0% sugar.

This was of course with partially frozen sap as was pointed out earlier, sap especially in buckets and bags will freeze complete rock sold and you will have to melt the whole block of ice as probably most if not all of the sugar is in the center of the block of ice which was the last to freeze.

Now you know.

[mapleman3]

BOIL IT ALL !!!!!

Yes it is nice to keep the sap cold, but anyone doing buckets know it's a pain in the ... when the ice slides out and fills up you gathering tank or your dump tank on your truck... sometimes I dump it sometimes I leave it if I know the next few days will be warm

[Brent]

I understand that our native indians used to make sweet water by taking ice off sap.

I can tell you from tasting the unfrozen parts in buckets, that it is much sweeter than whole sap.

Both of these support the toss it side of the argument. If I need to chill my sap I'll be using frozen water in bagies this year.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

right on BRENT
i have taken a layer of ice off the buckets and melted it and then tested .4%
not worth boiling.

RICH

[Sugarmaker]

If the ice is really frozen I believe it has very little sugar content. I have brought some in and thawed it and tested and never had above 1% . Usually much lower. The other way to look at is dump the ice and check the remaining sap if you have 4% or even 3% when normally you have 2% then mother nature is helping by freezing it for you.

I vote to dump it!

I used to go dump all the ice prior to a big run. Now I have much bigger ice cubes to work with and not sure how I will handle those?

Chris

[jemsklein]

Sugarmaker have you taped yet i was just wondering on how well you would do with 400 taps so that i can be ready

[Brent]

Last year we collected with 3 gallon and 5 gallon pails ( wife and I ) and had 16 of the 5 gallon water cooler jugs in the gator, with a funnel for the jugs.
When we got to the buckets, if the ice was a big chunk we'd pick it out and toss it. If it was all fractured chards, we'd pour it into the funnel and let the sweeter sap drain off while we went off to the next buckets. When we got back to the gator we tossed the ice that had drained.

Seemed to work pretty well ... had too .... we had too much sap for the Half Pint even with this.

[NedL]

This is a great thread. I'm taking ice out of my storage tanks and I hope it makes the boiling time quicker this weekend. Haven't checked it with the hydrometer, yet.

[mfchef54]

have tested in the past and never found it to be more than .5%. this year my barrels have been frozen and sap has been in the 4% range. Mother nature is a reallly cheap RO

[jemsklein]

this is all very usefull information so instead of buying an RO buy a deep freezer get a stainless steel box made up with a in and out fittings plug it in and ever 2 hours take the 2 or 3 inches of ice of the top filter and then boil or store then fill it up again and repeat

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

James,

You are right and could truly do that. Wouldn't be too feasible for a larger producer, but very good for a smaller producer.

[jemsklein]

well you could also go out ever morning and take the ice off the top of the tanks too

[Sugarmaker]

Jems,
We tapped last week end and severl others have tapped also or will tap this week end I think its time to get them in.
We gathered 620 gallons off 440 taps and sugar content averaged 2.2%. Made 11 gallons of syrup last Monday.
We have always dumped the ice. When we have the sap sometimes is 4%.
Chris