Thank you!
I sat the buckets outside overnight, and they were thawed enough for me to boil.
I am a bit disappointed in my batch though. I did everything like I did last time. My first batch has a butterscotch flavor, with a little bit of a smoky kick.
I made a half-gallon of syrup on my second batch. The taste is throwing me off though. The initial taste is very sweet, butterscotch/vanilla flavor. But it has a strange aftertaste, almost an alcohol taste to it. I have no idea what I may have done or what would cause that. I tested the syrup when I was finishing boiling with my hyrdrometer, and it was well within the range of syrup. Anybody have anything similar happen?