I'm a small producer and last year i packed into the 20L blue totes from bascom. unfortunately i didn't keep them cool/frozen and seem to have lost a fair amount to spoilage over the course of the year. they were all hot packed at 180+. I dipped one tote and it's no good at the bottom. I have yet to go through the rest of them. I saw some from later in the season last year are still "sucked in". i'm hoping that's a good sign?

I'm trying to decide what i want to pack into this year. as i don't want to waste any more time or syrup going forward. my average boil produces 5-7 gallons of syrup usually. 15 Gal barrels seem to be too big. for now i ordered a few 5 gal epoxy cans to get started but not sure if that's the route i want to take.