We collected nine gallons of sap with SG of 1.009 = 2.3 Brix
We ran all of the sap through the reverse osmosis system at 60psi and had sap with SG 1.011 = 2.8 Brix
We ran the concentrated sap through the reverse osmosis system a second time, this time at 80psi and had sap with SG 1.022 = 5.6 Brix.
The “pure water” output SG was about 1.003 — we re-ran this through the RO as well.
At the end of the day, we have about 4 gallons of sap at 5.6% sugar, another gallon from the “pure water” run that’s a lower SG, and four gallons of water that’s removed.
Notes for the future:
- We want to see what a single pass at higher pressure does — is it multiple passes that farther concentrated the sap or the higher pressure?
- We took SG readings and converted to brix using an online converter. Next time, we should just take the readings in Brix 🙂
- We might need a different refractometer to get accurate readings near 1 … not sure how accurate our tool is at the low end of the range.