Maple Syrupers: anyone use Star-San for taps & tubing?

[Wooden]

Hey guys, anyone who does maple syruping - is it OK to use star-San for your maple syruping stuff (buckets, taps, tubing, etc?)

Just cleaning some stuff about to put out my taps wondering if that is OK or would cause problems with foam and residue once boiling.

Anyone know? I figure there must be plenty of guys on here that would know.

Thanks!

 

[dmcman73]

Why would you need to use StarSan if the parts will be on during the boil process? StarSan is not a cleaner, it's used to sanitize.

 

[Wooden]

I want to make sure the parts are sanitized before I go out, as it may get a bit warm this coming week.

It is possible that bacteria could grow in these temps, so if any part of the system (taps, tubing, buckets, etc.) that is in contact with the sap during the collection process, it could sit a few days at relatively warm temps (up to 50's maybe) where bacteria could grow BEFORE it is boiled.

IF bacteria/wild yeast grows in the sap before it is boiled, it can a) spoil the sap, or at minimum they could eat away at the sugars in the sap buckets, really cutting into the amount of syrup produced.

Remember, sap has to be boiled down to about 1/40th it's original volume to make syrup so having not a lot of sugars to begin with, it wouldn't take much for it to go bad.

Thought a soak of Star-San might be an effective way of getting rid of any nasties that would be hanging out in the tubing etc. That has already been "cleaned" after last season.

 

[Quaker]

I haven't bothered. I just made sure they were clean when put away the prior season. I didn't bother tapping this year, but kind of regretting it now. I just used up he last of my prior stock in a cocktail last week,

 

[JimRausch]

I used starsan to sanitize my gallon jugs before hanging them. Also the bucket that I'm storing the sap in before boiling. No foaming issues. Maybe overkill, but if my collected sap sits for more than a couple days, and especially if the weather is above 40, I pasteurize the sap before adding to the collection bucket. I don't want it to sour before I get a chance to boil.
I used 7G of sap in a Caribou Slobber batch last weekend, and boiled down 8G sap yesterday and today to get 3 pints of syrup. My 1st attempts at syrup making since I was a kid helping my grandfather.