Bottling Question

[lfdiaff]

I had just read a post on here about people using big coffee urns to bottle. I went to the local second chance store today and found a 40 cup regal coffee maker for a steal of a deal only paid $3. But here is my issue. I plugged it in when I got home and it heated up pretty fast. I put about 20 cups of water in it and after awhile it seemed to boil out of the heater in the middle where the purcolator spout goes. Now I imagine this is normal for the purcolator but wont this start making sugar sand again. I had my thermometer in it and it stopped at 210. Did I just waste $3 or is this normal. I was thinking maybe I could regulate the temperature with the plug or make a switch to keep the temp about 190. I will be pouring hot finished syrup in here through a filter on the top.

[ckkrotz]

I know there are lots of people who have experience with this, but from what I read, some do mess with the thermostats in them ( I wouldn't have any idea how) while many just heat it up with water then dump the water and pour in the (hot) syrup. If it has a keep warm feature it will hopefully keep it around 180-190 once it's done with the initial heating process... or if not, you may be able to turn it off and bottle it that way. I tested my new one yesterday and it only lost about 10 degrees in the first hour or so of being unplugged.

[Indiana-Jones]

I got a coffee pot like that for Christmas. It has an off on switch and a red light. The instructions say to add water and coffee and than turn on. The pot will perculate to make the coffee and then the red light comes on when the coffee is done. The heating cup in the bottom then is regulated down to the holding temperature. The holding temp is right at 180 degrees. Measure it, I did in mine.

Long story short. Fill your pot about half full of water, put the basket in with no coffee and turn it on. When the perk stops you are ready to filter your hot syrup in to the coffee pot. Get everything ready, dump out the hot water in to a bucket and hurry to get filtering syrup so that the heating cup is only uncovered for a few moments. It will hold temp and not boil. I made a cylinder of aluminum flashing to be an extension on the top of the pot so a cone filter would work. It works for me.

Use the hot water in the bucket to rinse the filters.

PS. Don't forget to unplug the pot when you get down to an inch or two of syrup. I heat a big pot of water on a turkey fryer and put the bottles in to heat up before the syrup goes in.

[RileySugarbush]

If the heating element is attached directly to the bottom of the container that will contain the syrup, then you have a chance of making a little more niter. The thermostat typically turns the element completely on or off, and when on the syrup will be super heated right by the element. If you hear a little hiss, that is micro boiling right there, and that forms niter, even if the bulk of the syrup is much below boiling point. If you want to avoid that, then you need nice even heat and that is best done with a water jacket. I built one using parts ( thermostat, pilot light, sight glass tube and serving valve) from an old Mirro coffee maker. Also needed was a couple of cheap stainless stock pots, some copper fittings and a wood base.


See this thread: http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?12354-Cheap-homebuilt-water-jacket-bottler&highlight=bottler

[lfdiaff]

I got a coffee pot like that for Christmas. It has an off on switch and a red light. The instructions say to add water and coffee and than turn on. The pot will perculate to make the coffee and then the red light comes on when the coffee is done. The heating cup in the bottom then is regulated down to the holding temperature. The holding temp is right at 180 degrees. Measure it, I did in mine.

Long story short. Fill your pot about half full of water, put the basket in with no coffee and turn it on. When the perk stops you are ready to filter your hot syrup in to the coffee pot. Get everything ready, dump out the hot water in to a bucket and hurry to get filtering syrup so that the heating cup is only uncovered for a few moments. It will hold temp and not boil. I made a cylinder of aluminum flashing to be an extension on the top of the pot so a cone filter would work. It works for me.

Use the hot water in the bucket to rinse the filters.

PS. Don't forget to unplug the pot when you get down to an inch or two of syrup. I heat a big pot of water on a turkey fryer and put the bottles in to heat up before the syrup goes in.


If The syrup is being poured in ther hot it should never go through the perculating process. Right? The pot will Just keep it warm? Thanks for the plans rileysugarbush. I will def make one of them next year. Not enought time this year.

[lfdiaff]

Oh by the way the $3 coffe urn had a broken T Stat thats why it got so hot. I bought another one of Clist for $20 that is alot better and only heats to 190. That should work for this year.

[Indiana-Jones]

The coffee pot will go through it's perk cycle (boiling) and regulate down to the serve temp and stay there. But, it will start the cycle over again if you turn it off and back on or unplug it and plug it back in.

So, put the coffee pot on an extension cord long enough that you can move it around ever where that you need to go with it.

The unit that I got came with the instruction book that explained how it worked to make 54235424coffee or tea or just heat water for other beverages

[GramaCindy]

The coffee pot will go through it's perk cycle (boiling) and regulate down to the serve temp and stay there. But, it will start the cycle over again if you turn it off and back on or unplug it and plug it back in.

So, put the coffee pot on an extension cord long enough that you can move it around ever where that you need to go with it.

The unit that I got came with the instruction book that explained how it worked to make 54235424coffee or tea or just heat water for other beverages

LOVE your setup IndianaJones! Ideas, ideas, ideas!

[Indiana-Jones]

GramaCindy, I don't have sugar shack yet and last year I almost lost my kitchen privileges do to the "boil over incident." So, I put some thought into doing the bottling elsewhere, this time the garage.

We used the pre-heater tank from the 2X5 for a finisher, coffee pot for filter box and canner, turkey fryer to preheat the bottles. The little production line worked well.