how long do you hold your sap before boiling

Just wondering how long yall wait to boil im getting backed up got hit with a bunch of otthe last few weeks at work i have been boiling on my one day off but having a hard time keeping up my next question is how do you know if the sap has spoiled this is only my second year so still learning alot pulled my taps last night but i still have alot of sap to cook and cant boil till sunday evening im worried what i have stored will spoil i have a 55 gal drum full with jugs of frozen water floating in it then theres the 15 or 20 5 gallon buckets so far it still tastes good it is a touch cloudy lookin into the drum but ifi remember correctly it looked slightly cloudy when i got it all dumped in there thanks for any help

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Originally Posted by austin357

how do you know if the sap has spoiled

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Ask yourself this; How do you know when the milk has gone sour? You just know. You will open that barrel one day wondering if its good still... one good whiff and you've got 55 gallons of NOPE.

I have let mine sit up to 7 days at temps between freezing and 45ºF and while i could tell from the smell it was turning, i boiled it anyway and the syrup was still good. not great, very dark but its perfect for sweetening my coffee.

Makes sense thanks was not sure didnt have this problem last year at least i know im still good it dont smell bad and still tasted good so hopefully it will hold a few more days. My so called backup help bailed on me i dont have much choice other than hope it holds cant do much after work i work 12 hour shifts and drive a hour each way so that dont leave me much time to sleep and see the kids. Goina have a setup and plan and helper next year lol thanks again

I can only boil on the weekends. I tap a little earlier than others to take advantage of the cold weather. Two weeks ago we had a real warm week and that ended my season.
Your sugar content will drop as the days go on. But if it doesn't smell sour, boil it. Rinse your storage barrel good when it's empty as to not transfer bacteria to the next batch.

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Originally Posted by psparr

I can only boil on the weekends. I tap a little earlier than others to take advantage of the cold weather. Two weeks ago we had a real warm week and that ended my season.
Your sugar content will drop as the days go on. But if it doesn't smell sour, boil it. Rinse your storage barrel good when it's empty as to not transfer bacteria to the next batch.

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This was a big lesson I learned this year. I have a lot of good tasting but coffee black syrup this year because I did not clean out tanks between boils.