Siro Filter

[3rdgen.maple]

Who's got one? Have used one? What are your thoughts on them? Also do you use the 5 micron or 1 micron filters? Any settlement in the bottom of your glass after some time? Im just thinking here, for some of us guys who only produce 5 to 10 gallons of syrup a day is this a better choice than dealing with a filter press? I am having a hard time convincing myself if a filter press is worth the effort for a small producer. I would have to hold syrup for the whole day to make it worth running a filter press and having to reheat it all to filter it at the end of the day just seems time consuming when I can filter as I produce it. Im pondering the Siro filter. If Im am wrong I would like to hear some thoughts on that as well. I have always used cones succesfully but bottling more and more in glass now I would like a better quality end product.

[Sugarmaker]

3rdgen,
Sorry for not having all these things in my head. But is the Siro filter the round canister type? If so this looks like a nice system. Of course they are not cheap. Will be watching this thread too.
Regards,
Chris

[3rdgen.maple]

Thats the one. They are about 12 to 16 hundred depending on where and size from what I have searched. 12 inch and 24 inch models. The 12 needs 2.5 gallons to filter and the 24 5 gallons. I like the 12 inch myself but want some input from guys who actually use one or have used one. Seems pretty comparible in price to a filter press but Im thinking it takes some of the hassle of the filter press out.

[murferd]

We have one & think it's great. We used to use cone filters, it was an awesomw upgrade. It's easy to setup, & cleanup, just wrap a cloth felt with velcro around the inside cylinder. We use some filter aid, some people don't, we think it helps with getting syrup through & clean up. It appears to be alot less work than a filter press. We have run 10-12 gals through at one time no problem. We bottle in glass, it's very clear & a great time saver over cone filters.

[3rdgen.maple]

Thanks for the feedback. A couple question I have is, do you get any settlement in the glass after a few months on the shelf and are you using the 1 or 5 micron filters?

[murferd]

I've never seen any settling. We've used both felts, can't say that we saw that much of difference. I think that's because the filter aid helps so much.

[WMF]

Theres a video on the Lappiere site showing the Sirofilter. I wouldn't want one after seeing how messy / involved the cleanup is.

A plate and frame press is more durable and is easier to clean on the fly.

A box of filter papers will filter a lot of syrup and are cheap.

[Sugarmaker]

I have seen both types in operation. I did go watch the Siro video, and Jim Bortles brought over his nice 5 inch plate type and it worked very well for small batches ( several gallons).
Is the CDL version of the canister filter similar to the Siro?
For some reason to me it seems that the canister type might be easier? I believe the filter is able to be cleaned and reused for some time.
Be interested to hear more opinions/ recommendations, especially for the smaller producer.
We have used the felt 'boot' for years but considering a upgrade in that area sometime in the future.

Regards,
Chris

[DrTimPerkins]

Who's got one?

We tried one at UVM PMRC one year for an experiment. We've used a plate filter press for years. We found no compelling reason to switch. The filtering surface area is nowhere close to a plate filter press, so you can't get nearly as much syrup through. For a smaller producer it might suffice and it worked fine as long as you are careful putting it together. You should use DE with it for sure. I though the clean-up was a bit more difficult than a plate press.

[3rdgen.maple]

It is not the cleanup that concerns me at all. The claim is it doesnt need to be cleaned as often as a plate filter but something in my head tells me unless you stick that filter in a freezer you are going to have to do a cleanup daily. So my thinking is not at all with the cleaning but rather with the small producer in mind which one is better suited for running a few gallons through. I am as unfamiliar with a filter plate press as the siro so what has me boggled is the amount of syrup that is needed to just start up a plate filter. I personally dont want to be holding a days worth of syrup or more and have to go back heat up the syrup and run the press. I want to filter hot off the finisher as I make it. So after typing all that can this be done on a plate press? A 5 inch hand pump one doesnt tickle me in the right spots. It just seems to me there is a void in the filtering options a small producer has.

[DrTimPerkins]

...I am as unfamiliar with a filter plate press as the siro so what has me boggled is the amount of syrup that is needed to just start up a plate filter. I personally dont want to be holding a days worth of syrup or more and have to go back heat up the syrup and run the press....

Any type of pressure filter (plate or canister) will require a certain amount of syrup to operate, will have a certain "hold-up" volume, and need to be kept HOT to operate properly. Just running a gallon through each hour or so won't work very well unless you can keep them really hot. So basically, unless you either are producing a large amount of syrup/hr to allow continuous filtering, then you will need to batch a certain amount of syrup and either reheat or keep it hot to begin with in order to use a pressure filter. Many producers draw off a tad light and hold the syrup in a finishing pan until they have enough for a full drum, then reheat, standardize the density, then run it through the pressure filter. What you're suggesting...running a little bit through every so often, will probably not work well due to the press cooling off. Also, you run the risk of more contamination/fermentation since you're not truly "hot-packing" the syrup in the container by only filtering a small amount at a time.

[powerdub]

I have the smaller one and it works great. We get no settling of anything at the bottom of the jar. You have to use DE with it and we get about 30 gallons through it before you need to pull the filter out. We have two filters going all season so when it gets plugged up we switch. That is where this system shines compared to a press, it only takes about 3 minutes to change a filter out. We do clean it every night and have no problem running small batches through sometimes up to an hour apart.

[3rdgen.maple]

Thanks everyone for the input. Im not worried about contamination/fermenting as the filter syrup would go into the bottler and brought back up to bottling temp. So with a plate press I would have to hold a days worth of syrup maybe more, heat it all and bring up to grade, filter, reheat, bottle, Siro pretty much same deal Im guessing, just dont have to hold as much syrup. How about somebody just invent an evaporator that makes syrup, filters and bottles on its own and then clean itself lol. Now Id buy that.

[mike z]

Oh, but then you'd be only two steps away from buying syrup in the store:o. What exactly is filter aid? How does it work? I know people that drop in eggs or use cream. Would that be considered "old school filter aid" I take it that's not legal?

[ennismaple]

We've got a 10" Sirofilter and I love it. We've put over 50 gallons through, using no filter-aid, before having to switch out the felt filter. Replacing the felt filter takes very little time. It is slightly messy, but so is every other method of filtering syrup - you're going to get your hands sticky cleaning filters and switching them out for a new one.

[DrTimPerkins]

Oh, but then you'd be only two steps away from buying syrup in the store:o. What exactly is filter aid? How does it work? I know people that drop in eggs or use cream. Would that be considered "old school filter aid" I take it that's not legal?

Filter aid, AKA DE or diatomaceous earth, is the remains of diatoms, a unicellular phytoplankton (microscopic plants/algae) that live mainly in oceans. It is basically the silica (glass) bodies of these organisms. DE is mined, cleaned, washed and sorted. It is used in a pressure filter press in combination with papers (or cloth). The filter paper catches the DE that builds up in a layer on the plate. Syrup can move through the DE/paper through microscopic pathways, but particles of sugar sand are caught. The use of DE in a pressure filter press is very common for liquid filtering. It is relatively cheap and efficient, and results in excellent removal of particulates.

If you use a filter press, you should use the proper size DE recommended by your manufacturer and should always use FOOD-GRADE DE. The use of pool DE is not acceptable.

DE is also great at killing slugs in the garden. Care should be taken in the handling of DE to prevent inhalation.

Use of eggs or cream in defoaming or filtering of maple syrup is no longer considered acceptable practice due to the fact that these are allergens. Illegal....depends on where you are....good practice....absolutely not.

[mike z]

So, this filter aid material leaves no "off flavor"? Sorry to keep beating this dead horse.

[DrTimPerkins]

So, this filter aid material leaves no "off flavor"? Sorry to keep beating this dead horse.

No. Not unless the DE itself is allowed to get musty (cool and damp storage).

[3rdgen.maple]

We've got a 10" Sirofilter and I love it. We've put over 50 gallons through, using no filter-aid, before having to switch out the felt filter. Replacing the felt filter takes very little time. It is slightly messy, but so is every other method of filtering syrup - you're going to get your hands sticky cleaning filters and switching them out for a new one.

Okay so that size is a new one I havent heard of. Only seen adds selling 12 and 24 inch ones. If you dont mind me asking how minimal gallons does it take to fire that one up? Also the claims I have read say you dont need filter aid, but some use it on there first batch through a clean filter.

[SWEETSAP]

We have a 12" press and find cleanup to be a breeze. The trick to this is to empty the unfiltered syrup through the feed hole (grey hose removed). If you drain it completely you can remove the top and change the filter without any real mess.

[markct]

i rarely make more than 10 gallons syrup a day, usualy take about a gallon an hour off the evap. my 5 inch filter press works great and is a breeze to clean just take the plates out and discard the papers and cake and throw it in the sink or wash it with the hose on the porch

[Sugarmaker]

Still watching this post. Those with 5 inch press. Are you still using the hand pump or a Oberdorfer type pump with pressure gage, relief valve, and bypass?

I like the idea of being able to filter small batches like 2 gallons, but it looks like we grew out of the small batches this year. We had several days at 10, 15 and 20 gallons of syrup. But did have a couple days when we made less than 5 gallon too. After 193 gallons this year I am going to be looking into this filtering thing much more seroiusly.

I have ran the 5 inch press [with hand pump] at the beginning of the season and gravity felts later. I loved how the syrup looked from the filter press. I like the size of the 5 inch too.

I agree that any or all systems that fiilter syrup are going to be somewhat messy: comes with the teritory! When filtering with gravity, the felts needed to be cleaned changed and maintained often too, and Cheryl and I hate to clean them.

Main thing for us is that when we are making lots of syrup, I want to get it filtered while hot. I want Cheryl to be able to clean, operate it and maintain it too. Then I can be doing something like firing or setting on my butt which I seem to do a great job of:)

Chris

[markct]

i am still using it with the hand pump but may change to a gear pump next year. i drawoff into my finish pan and then reheat and get it to density, usualy pretty close, and then hook up the hose and pump it thru the filterpress. the nice thing about a filter press is that if you have less syrup just use less plates and papers, at the end i had a 3 gal batch to do one day so i simply used about half the plates and papers and it worked great

[Russell Lampron]

Markct brought up the point that I was going to make. For smaller batches on a filter press just use fewer plates. I have a Wes Fab 7" filter press that had a hand pump on it when I got it. I changed it out for a diaphragm pump and that made it a lot less work. It was a learning experience to figure out how to run it after the pump change though. Now that I have figured out the leak and paper blowing issues I am liking it. I have filtered as little as 4 gallons with it and as many as 16 without having to change papers. When I have large batches to press I just change the papers and get back to filtering while the syrup is still hot.