buddy sap that's not buddy

[SilverLeaf]

My trees are finally waking up this week, and for the first time giving me some sap. I'm noticing a smell, though, in my holding tank, that is the same potent smell I've always associated with "buddy" sap. When I was collecting I noticed the same smell in a few of my buckets, and so promptly dumped them instead of mixing it in. But I maybe missed one and so the whole batch has the smell now.

But the goofy thing is, I did a little "test batch" of a cup of sap to check the buddiness out for real, and for the first minute it gave off that buddy smell, but then after that smelled normal. The little batch seemed to taste alright (though I didn't go all the way to syrup with it). So it's as if it it smells buddy but isn't actually buddy.

I dunno. Anyone else ever have an experience like this?

[PerryW]

If your trees are just waking up, I doubt it's buddy sap. The sap won't get buddy until around when the peepers come out.

You might just need to wash out your tanks. I dump a 5 gal pail of water in the tank and use a spash of unscented clorox. Rine the tank well and the smell may go away.

[SilverLeaf]

If your trees are just waking up, I doubt it's buddy sap.

That's kinda what I thought too. But like everybody else we've had really bizarre weather this spring. It hasn't gotten below freezing for about 18 days straight. But it hasn't been warm either. We've been melting off an enormous snowpack, which is why the trees are slow to wake up.

I'll just keep an eye on things. First boil on my brand new evap is on Saturday. :D