Science Question

It takes a lot of energy to beat a sap with a cane.

I am not certain of the process with beets, but with cane, the material must first be milled and then boiled in water and then the water reduced until the product is dry... With maple syrup, boiling is also done, and since I live where that is much done, in Michigan I have often asked people why freezing is not use preliminary to the final reduction and sterilization of the product...As you may know, sugar is heavier than water and settles out of it, and when maple sugar was first discovered by the Europeans, the Natives were using that process... Since the sap is gathered when the weather is going from freezing to thawing anyway, the amount of energy required to bring the sap to the freezing point would be small, and then when the product freezes the ice at the top could be tossed as it was by the Natives...

sugar beets are processed in a fashion similar to cane. Theres a lot of scorching of the cane and beets, then grinding and extraction with steam and then driving off the water to crystallize. Maple syrup is at a ratio of 40:1 water to "syrup" SO, the sap water is boiled away by two days of boiling in a "Sugar house". WE have 5 sugar maples that we will tap every third year or so. WE get about 25 gallons of sap and have to boil it down until its volume is reduced 40:1. SO we get about 3/4 of a quart of good maple syrup which lasts us for about 6 months .

Its a pain in the ass to boil it down without burning at the end. AND, if you dont boil it down fairly soon after tapping, it gets rancid real quick. You could add yeast and actually make maple sap brandy.

Natives kept the sap in large bark vats and simply discarded the ice that formed on the top... Considering the temperature when the sap is drained, this would seem a very cost effective addition to the early process...

Ive seen that used in the very northern ends of the sugar belts. But here in the southern end, we get days that the temp spikes and the sap will spoil and go rancid so cooking off is ususally done withiin 3 days of tapping or else theres a constant boil off and fresh sap is added to the kettle.
I like the 3 day rule cause we do have in our neighbors dairy cooler to store the sap till we get enough for a boil down.