off-coloured sap

[skenk]

This is my families first year of making maple syrup. We have only 21 taps. Two of the nine trees produce off-coloured sap - almost like someone peed in the buckets. Each of those two trees have 3 taps. The taps facing almost directly west have clear sap, the buckets facing south-west have a little darker sap the ones facing south have the pee coloured sap. I don't know what would cause the colouring. I have dumped those buckets in fear something was wrong.

Should I be worried or should I just right those few taps off this year.

They are high producing taps (compared to all the other taps). The sap does not have a weird smell or anything.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Sean

[3% Solution]

skenk,
Boil it!!
Everyone has the same thing, there's nothing wrong with it.
Could be caused from alot of things, water dripping off the bark into the bucket, sugar in the sap, ............

Dave

[3rdgen.maple]

Almost sounds like rain water dripping from the trunk or branches into the bucket myself I would dump it. It takes alot of rainwater to make nothing from it. Everybody does things different. The way I look at it is if I wouldn't drink it out of the bucket I wouldn't boil it either.

[Stickey]

I had some yellow sap too. Tasted it... not bad to me... added it to the rest. I was probably the kid that ate the yellow snow though.

[ackerman75]

Sounds to me like rain water running down tree and getting in, that is why those buckets had more sap. I was wondering if you do use some of the sap with a little rain water "yellow" will it make your syrup darker ?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Taste it and if it is fine, boil it. Like others said, if water runs down the tree, it will cause the sap to be off colored!

[Russell Lampron]

Are you using metal buckets and are they rusty? That is another cause of discolored sap.

[skenk]

I am using new plastic pails with metal lids and new spiles. What was confusing to me was the other buckets on the same tree - they are mostly fine. I have limited boiling capacity (weekends only) so maybe to be on the safe side I will toss it.

As I was collecting the sap with my kids I mentioned it was the same colour as pee. Their young imaginations have not taken over - they are thinking it is one of deer, squirel or racoon pee.


Thanks for the replies.

[Tweegs]

I’ve noticed an off color on several buckets too.
This being my first year, I’ve been keeping detailed notes.
My wood lot is divided into three sections, I can see all of the buckets in each section from most any given point within that section. The trees each have a number.

I use this system more as an educational exercise than anything, to help me understand what is going on in my lot. It helps me determine which trees produce more sap, less sap, location, amount of sun, higher elevation, lower etc.

I took note of how many gallons of off color I had. I did taste it, found nothing wrong and boiled it. Of the 260 gallons of sap I’ve collected thus far, 40 gallons have been off color. So far I’ve produced 3 gallons of “Fancy”, with no “off” flavor.

I attributed the off color to a different enzyme the tree was giving off. After reading this thread, it is possible that rain water is getting in. I’ll pay closer attention to that when I collect tomorrow.

Based on my experience though…..boil it!