The Inevitable Cloudy Sap Question

[Ghs57]

I have half a tank (150gals) of cloudy sap collected this week. My last boil was Monday, and we have had above average temps since then. Last freeze was Sunday. Sap smells OK, but not great. Color seems a little off. I have not test boiled a sample, but may do so tomorrow. Forecast for the coming week looks promising. Is it even worth the trouble to test this batch, or just dump it and wait for the next run? I have sufficient wood supply to run it, but would rather not waste it on sub-par sap, or downgrade the sweetened sap in the pan. I would have to run this on Saturday if it's a go.

I'm over half my expected production for the season, but was hoping to beat last year. It's also such a small quantity that it seems inefficient to fire up for an hour or two to cook this off, particularly if better sap is coming.

[Russell Lampron]

Boil a sample and taste it, if it taste good boil it. I've made a lot of nice syrup with cloudy sap, including this week when that's what was coming in mid week.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Nothing wrong with cloudy sap, some cloudy sap may even have a slightly sour after taste but still makes perfectly good syrup. If you don’t have enough sap to fire up that’s a different problem and probably the same one we will have this morning. Time to go check the tanks, I hate dumping sap!!

[bill m]

Go ahead and boil it. Don't worry about the sweet in your pan, it's been partially boiled and sitting there for almost a week. It's going to make strong flavored dark or very dark syrup anyway.

[Ghs57]

Thanks for all the advice. I tested a sample and could not detect anything wrong with it. It wasn't even very dark. So, ran the RO for an hour or so and boiled for less than 3 hrs (shortest this year). This sap pushed out about 5 gallons that were in the pan, plus a little of the cloudy sap (now syrup). All seems good.

Glad I ran it. Forecast looks promising this week, so I'm all set for whatever comes. I'm potentially at 3/4 of my target for the season, but if things hold on, I could easily exceed it.