To throw ice away or not ?

[maple6275]

Yeah, I'm an ice-chucking back-yarder. My rig's slow enough that I'm willing to lose the 1% ice in exchange for cutting hours off my boil.

On a related note, you can use this same freezing trick to make the world's best apple cider! Just throw a gallon in the freezer and let it freeze partially, more or less depending on how you like it. Then pour out a glass of the sweetest cider you've ever had!

[PerryW]

I filter all my sap as it goes into my gathering tank. I also filter the sap when it is transferred into my sugarhouse holding tank. Personally, I can't see any easy to deal with the ice besides putting a separate box in the back of my truck and filling it and emptying it by hand.


soooo, i chuck it, usually like a Frisbee.

[Ausable]

as far as hydrometers go, will one for beer making work?

You serious? If You are - it is ok to check the sugar content in your sap - beer or wine. But - will need a syrup makers hydrometer for maple syrup and they work great..... Mike

[smokeyamber]

The research paper helped a bit, great discussion here. I did some chucking last night when I boiled. It was the thin ice on the top of the barrel, it was nice and clear. Seems like it freezes much slower as mentioned, my guess is on buckets on trees with a thin layer it too froze slowly so chucking it is ok too... I will do that as well. With the temps in the single digits that froze the collection buckets solid I know they froze FAST, they will have to thaw and the bergs melted down.

Heck I even skimmed ice off the back pan that formed overnight. The almost syrup pan didn't freeze.

Boil went much nicer last night, warmer out ( 20's ) and I didn't freeze in the shack.

Almost caught up... ready for another run. Hope the wood holds out !

[supersapper]

sorry for the dumb question. i didn't know if there was a difference, thats why i asked.

[steve J]

Smokey brace yourself as all hell is going to break loose tomorrow with them there trees running hard and looks like we should fireing the rigs for several days. I hope enough of mine has unthawed that I can start tonight otherwise I will go to the deer meeting in Montpelier tonight.

[DrTimPerkins]

On a related note, you can use this same freezing trick to make the world's best apple cider! Just throw a gallon in the freezer and let it freeze partially, more or less depending on how you like it. Then pour out a glass of the sweetest cider you've ever had!

Or add in some brewer's yeast to the cider, let it work on the sugars for a while to produce hard cider (also called apple wine, several websites detail the procedure). You can then freeze it and pour off the liquid portion and you've got Apple Jack (concentrated hard cider) -- although technically this is not legal as the freezing process is considered "distilling", which you can't do without a license. Sweet and potent. Great stuff (so I've heard ).

TP

[Ausable]

When I was in the Navy - about 50 years ago (wow - I'm getting Old) A Chief told me a story about boring thru the ice into a keg of hard cider on his Grandfathers Farm and that it was one of the best alcohol drinks he ever had in his life. Until now - I've never heard of anyone else mention the possibility of doing this - Thanks Doc - and no - I'm not going to try it - getting too old for anymore experiments with alcohol..... LOL --- Mike

[Wardner in Tewksbury]

I wanted to get a better feel for the sap ice and sap sugar content/controversy.

I partially froze about two ounces of 2.6 sap in the freezer section of my refrigerator. It was chilled to approximately 50/50 ice and liquid sap. I poured off the liquid and measured it at 5.7. Melted slushy ice came in at 1.6. Melted solid ice came in at 0.7. All measured samples were allowed to reach room temperature in the test well of my Hanna digital refractometer. Repeated activation of the test button did not change the values.

I see no reason why I should save solid ice unless the weather forecast and my schedule indicate sap spoiling conditions.

[KenWP]

I know a lady who makes 1000s of gallons of wine a year.She freezes it all and pours off the strong stuff and throws the rest away. Probbably why she's so bloody old.