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Been doing this for a couple of years and still havent got a sap hydrometer yet so I have a question. If there is ice in my buckets is there any value in that ice? Should I melt it or throw it away? There are lots of opinions but has anyone ever melted the ice and actually taken a reading on it?:confused:
A few weeks ago I tried this: took sap and ice from the same tank, melted the ice and put them on the refractometer. The sap was 2.4% and the melted ice was 0.6%. Good to hear from Kearney - I used to live in Sprucedale and boil on a box stove in the yard.
I used to live in sprucedale about 8 years ago. Glad you did that reading on the ice saves me wondering. Tells me if I am starving for sap i could melt and boil , but if i want to conserve wood toss the ice. Grate! info people on here call ice natures R.O. just wanted to make sure there was something to back it up.
FWIW I save the ice and put it next to the stove in a separate container so it gradually melts, then measure how much I have and add it to the current evap/boil.
when I picked up sap today any buckets with ice in I tossed the ice ,always do
Yes, tossing ice in buckets is the poor man's RO. Why would you boil .6% sap? It will take 143.33 gal of .6 sap to make 1 gal of syrup. Did you consider that? Do the math, 86/0.6=143.33.
My test was with sap in a 250 gallon tank, maybe buckets would be different and maybe one of those hard freezes where half the bucket is ice would have a different ratio. Will try if I get the chance.
I agree with slammer, do the same if possible, maplebergQuote:
Originally Posted by slammer3364
I've always found it difficult to get the ice through my sap filter :lol: so I always toss it.Quote:
Originally Posted by slammer3364
I collected from frozen buckets Sunday. I skimmed and tossed teh ice with a 7" SS kitchen strainer. Near the end I did some quick testing and found that the sap with ice removed was running 3.4 but the ice that I collected measured 2.0. Problem is the ice had not yet fully melted. I have this bucket in the cabin at present and intend to retest this weeken now that it's melted down. Could have been skewed results due to volume of ice versus "clinging" sugar residue from the unfrozen.
There was a good chart on this in another forum. Basically if it was above zero and doesn't get any colder than -9 ceclius chuck the ice. If it gets colder than -9 some sugar starts to form in the ice.
so ice is the poor mans ro
exact same idea as a metal going from liquid to solid... if it doesn't get to a certain temperature elements starts separating out in the mixture.