Filtering off of Evap at Draw

[adk1]

What does everyone seem to use as a filter medium when drawing off of the evap into your SS pail? I have seen alot of things from white cotton towels to the cone syrup filters. I have the 5qt cone filters and prefilters. could use one of these, but was thinking about saving them (i have 2 filters and 12 prefilters) for the final filtering..

[SadSams]

What we have done is filter directly off the evap. into a cone filter setup. We used the thicker one in the tank first then we take the thinner paperlike filter and put that in, then we take another thin one fold it in half, bottom of cone to the top. Spread it open and clothes pin it to the sides of the tank. That way you use more of the filter. When to filtering slows, take off the clothes pin and it will unfold on its own. Now that should be enough to get you through that draw. You'll have more then one set of filters going throughout the day. We are constantally washing filters. We put a stainless sink and an inline water heater in last year so we didn't have to go back to the house all day long.

[fishman]

I use two paper prefilters and pull one out when it plugs up. I clothespin it to a frame and turn on the valve. I'm only drawing off about 4-6 gallons at a time so this works pretty well for this little batch.

[adk1]

4-6 gallons at a time? Meaning in one draw??

[fishman]

That's not finished syrup, just what I've boiled down from 70-100 gallons of sap. I boil in my 2 x 4 flat pan and usually draw off when I get down a little under an inch in the pan. I'm afraid to go any lower for fear of scorching it. I then finish in a turkey fryer. That 4 gallons or so will usually result in around 2 gallons of syrup.

[vtwoody]

As an added question for everyone: Has anyone using gravity filtering ever thrown a little DE in between pre-filter paper layers to help grab some of the niter? Seems like it could work but them again I've had a lot of "GREAT" ideas in my life that didn't exactly pan out...lol

[jmayerl]

I draw off and filter into a cone prefilter. After finishing, mix in our DE and run though our flat filters into the bottler.

[johnallin]

I don't filter during a draw - but wait until I know the density is right.
I draw off into a stainless pail, check density by stirring with short hydrometer cup, then dip and fill the cup, then test with the hydro.
If I'm heavy; I draw some more - check it and stop when I'm at 66%.
Syrup is then put through a small 9 gal cone filter tank. This dosen't take long at all and I know what's in there is right.
Something a freind showed me last year and it works very well.

[adk1]

I guess I dont understand why you dont get up to temp (whatever that might be at that time) the ndraw into your hydro cup. check with hydro, if good, crack her open and keep drawing till the temp goes below where you were originally??

[SPILEDRIVER]

im curious about the D.E. with gravity filters as well??anyone do it???and how???

[jmayerl]

DE works great with gravity flat filters..........I'm guessing not as great with cone filters.

[johnallin]

I do first draw into hyrdo cup when temp is up; and if we're good - I like to be a bit heavy at that point - continue the draw into the pail.
I stop when temp begins to drop and then test the batch adding if needed to bring it down to 66%.
Good luck with your new rig.