Food Grade Sap Containers

[Westphalia]

This is my first post to a forum here, but have been hanging around the edges listening and learning for some time. Small operation in Iowa, yes there are trees here between the cornfields! :wink:

I'm kind of taking the year off this spring, only have about 30 taps in, and those with the help of a good friend. We're using the extra time to investigate several things, such as tubing rather than sap bags. I have to say the tubing is a wonderful thing.

We have a local food processing company, Lord knows what all they make but it's things like salsa and salad dressing. Anyway they buy lots of ingredients by the bucket and barrel. I've picked up quite a few 5 gallon buckets that had honey in them which are kind of nice to have around. Then there are the 30 gallon jalepeno barrels and 55 gallon soy sauce and wine vinegar barrels. These seem like excellent sap containers, but I'm wondering if anyone has experience with getting the odor of the original contents out of them. Not sure that jalapeno smelling (or tasting) syrup is a worthwhile end result.

What does the group think?????

Thanks, I'll enjoy reading your comments.

Stan

[WF MASON]

Hi Stan , a friend of mine bought Dr. Pepper 15 gal plastic drums , put a gallon of white vinegar in each one and let thm sit a few months, put them out with tubing to them and collected 200 gallons of sap. It all stunk of Dr. Pepper , he didn't dare boil it, so he dumped it.
Some of the food containers are fine , others there's no way to get the smell out. Beware.

[backyardsugarer]

You can get 5 gallon buckets for about $4 each at home depot. You could also try calling a contractor (dry wall) as they go through tons of 5 gallons pails. They are usually happy to get rid of them. Also try a land scaping/lawn company. They have a lot of 5 gallon buckets of grass seed. Whatever you do, clean em out real good with bleach and rinse.

Chris

[mapleman3]

actually I find the drywall buckets clean up VERY good, and NO smell or residue... My coworkers hold them for me when they are doing a job.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Not to hammer on you guys too hard/But use a bucket that is new that you bought from the hardware store or had some type of ingredient in it that you would eat out of. Plastic is porous and can harbour particles of what ever was in it before and possibly get into your syrup. Would you use a bucket that had say antifreeze in it before even if you rinsed it out well???
Stonyfield Yogurt?? in Londonderry, N.H. used to advertise a lot in the Market Bulletin that they had buckets and covers left over from their flavoring ingredients for .50 cents each-Might be worth a try to get their tele# from information and give them a call? At least you know something food was in it.

[hangman]

I have a related question:

I'm a first time backyarder. (20 buckets)
I have a plastic rain barrel (It from Jacks composting in VT)
Its made from recycled material.
It one of those red terra cotta colored that are sold to collect rain water for irrigation.
Would this be okay fro sap storage?
I'm concerned that it may effect the taste and or odor of the syrup.
Any suggestion would be appreciated

Thanks…

[Johnny Cuervo]

I had some pickle buckets, I tried everything. I found after leaving them out side for about a year the smell was gone.
The local dollar store has 2 gal buckets for $1. If I need more I might try some of these.

John

[mapleman3]

I wash, bleech, tripple rinse all my buckets, even when they are brand new, if there is a smell I won't use it, they need to be perfectly clean!! havn't had an off flavor yet, or dirty sap. with all thing Maple, use your head do it right.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I worked at Chick-fil-A years ago when I was in college and I got about 60 five gallon pickle buckets. Aprox 10 years later, the smell is still in them a little, but it never affects the sap. If you clean and santize them good and maybe soak them with some bleach water, they should be fine! :D

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Go to Walmart and by the Rubbermaid containers with lids on them. They work great, are cheap, easy to clean, easy to access and stack inside of each other after the season for storage.

I bought a 32 gallon one last year for 7 taps I wanted on pipeline due to steepness of hill and it worked awesome and I am using it in another location this year and it is working awesome. It is dark blue, but the sap always looks so fresh.

Costs about $ 8.
:D

[MaineMapleDave]

You want to be careful with whatever you let your sap touch. I too tried the used soda concentrate barrels. GREAT deal: $4 for 15-gallon barrels. Very rugged, great handles and valves. Thought I was really on to something, so I got four.

They smelled, however. So, I filled each one with water and bleach. Let them sit in the sun for a couple of weeks. Rinsed them out. Still smelled like soda. So, I did it again. And again.

After 10 complete rinsings and soakings (with water only after the first time), over the course of a summer, the blasted things STILL smelled like soda.

Even the water coming out smelled like soda. I wouldn't dare risk my sap in them.

6 years later they still smell like soda.

Bakeries often have 5-gallon buckets that only had honey or sugar or something innocuous in them. Drywall joint compound buckets work okay, too--they're the same plastic. Just wash out whatever you use really really really well.

If it smells, it's not worth the risk to your sap.

My $16 worth.

[Westphalia]

Interesting comments, I guess I did not quite expect to see this take off in quite so many directions. A couple clarifying comments and additional questions if I may.

The 5 gallon buckets I got had honey in them, had been washed clean, look sparkling clean, have no detectable odor and IMHO are at least as good as if not better than any I might get at Home Depot since I know they are food containers. They cost me less than $0.50 each and the place goes through up to 300 of them a day, they send most of them to a plastic recycler because it's the only place they can get rid of them. The only thing is since most go to a recycler they had removed the gasket from the lids I got because the gaskets interfere with the recycling process.

I noticed WF Mason used vinegar to attempt deodorizing Dr. Pepper drums. Is vinegar something that should cut odor, and if so does it make sense that the 6 vinegar barrels I have may work fine after a good wash with bleach and triple rinse?

The 30 gallon jalepeno pepper barrels may be a challenge, but the entire top comes off of them and I'm thinking in a year they should air out well. If not, I've only got $20 in 14 or them - I'll have some mighty fine barrels to ice the kegs in! Woohoo, party time in Iowa!

[VA maple guy]

Hi stan, I'm new to this forum to. I use a 55 gallon pickle barrel for sap storage. I let it sit full for a week with a som bleach and water in it, then washed it out with lots of hot water. Just like Brandon wrote there is just a little odor left, but I can't taste any diffefence in my finished syrup from sap that spent a few days in my barrel from the sap that goes stright into the evaporator.
Gerry

[gmcooper]

Hey guys on the 5 gal buckets. Maple inspectors gave us the scoop on pails and barrells. On the bottom of the buckets the will say they are food grade if they are to be used for food. If not molded into bucket they are not. It has something to do with the material used (not recycled) and the possibilty of contamination. Food grade is supposed to be less poreous. Just for collecting if the bucket is cleaned it likely would be fine but to hang on a tree or sap storage the is much greater chance of sap picking up something. apparently a sugar house near us 10-12 years ago had a contamination problem and state traced it back to pails. I haven't checked but for a long time Dunkin Donuts used to sell pails $.25 each. They had fillings and frosting in them and had covers.
Mark

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yeah, the inspector was at our maple meeting in January. Technically, if you are inspected, all your containers must be food grade.

The plastic resin in food grade plastic is less porus and is never made of recycled material.

Those NEW rubbermaid HDPE trash cans are great (I use them too), just don't get a picky inspector, cause the'll say they are still made for trash, not food.

Brian

[Westphalia]

This gets ever more intreresting, though I'm pretty sure my kids would not think so. I'm thinking from what I hear that I'll do the rinse with bleach thing and by next year should be no problem. Actually did make a bit of syrup from sap that was collected in the jalapeno barrel and while the smell stayed with the sap for a bit it is not detectable in the finished product. I suppose though you guys out in real syrup country probable have heightened senses of taste and smell for that sort of thing, so maybe I need to send out some of each and see if you can tell which is which.

Regarding food grade containes, the buckets I got each have a paper label on them that clearly states they contained honey, but I do not see anywhere on the bottom or else where the "food grade container" stamp molded in. It's HDPEand has the recyclable three arrow triangle symbol with a 2 in the middle. So whast gives, how can they use it if it doesn't say food grade? :? :? :?:

Oh, I'm thinking maybe the syrup inspector might frown on my galvanived 40 gallon sheep tank boiler too! :!:

[gmcooper]

Westphalia,
Don'tworry about the honey pails as they are food grade. Dad used to keep bees for years and non of his honey conatainers had food grade stamped on them. they were all purchased specifically for honey. Not sure what the story with them was. With any container you use the best way to judge if you should use it would be, would you let your kids drink from it? Cleaned first of course!
Good Luck
Mark