Sediment in finshed product-HELP!

[Pete S]

I/we would like some good advice to "clear" this situation up.

Yesterday we ran off our final batch for the season. From the first batch, we learned a lot, but ended up with different results, as the first batch was what we considered "perfect".

First off, the sap in the barrel was frozen soild, and was gathered within the week including that day. We thawed it out, and boiled down about 40+ gallons, over a very hot fire. We finsihed about 8:00 last night with about 1.5 gallons of Syrup.

When we had the syrup as close as we needed, we drained it through a Tee Shirt, then to the house. From there, TWICE through coffee filters. We boiled and canned.

Our jars range in "not too bad" to "not real clear" with sediment on the bottom, and some suspended sediment. It looks like the floating stuff that ice cubes leave behind in a glass of water, some as deep as a 1/4"

We know that something needs to be done, as in reflitering, but BEFORE we start to "re-can" we need to know any "tricks" that may help correct this.

Thank you in advance for any/all responses.
Pete

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Pete,

I wouldn't worry about it for this year as all of it will settle to the bottom in a few days. For next year, you need to invest in one of the felt filters from a maple supplier. You can get a cone or flat one for around $ 16 and you might want to pick up a pack of paper prefilters too. :)

[Pete S]

We aren't too awful worried about it as far as consumption issues, but was wondering about if we could "filter it out" with another run through the coffee filters?

I'm sure the flavor isn't altered..............it just don't look right!

The most frutrating thing is that we did essentially the same routine, the second time..............BUT the first batch is just as clear as honey and was made with almost two week old sap!!!

Pete

[royalmaple]

Pete-

Just sounds like you got sugar "sand" not too worry, but if you use one of the felt filters it will come out. If you have a dealer nearby you can pick one up and just reheat the syrup and rerun through the filter.

Also if you wring out the filter to get every last drop of syrup you can force the sand through the filter.

Even if you try to refilter make sure the syrup is hot, and it helps to have moist filter.

If you don't get to refilter and you want to give some away and not be ashamed of your product or get the 100 questions about the "crap" in the syrup, buy some plastic jugs and no one will even see it.
8O

[Russell Lampron]

Pete if you brought the syrup up to a boil again after filtering it it released more nitre. When steam rises of off hot syrup it is getting more dense which means it is unable to hold the minerals suspended in it. When you can syrup you need to get it to 180 degrees and stay below 200 degrees.

As for filtering like Brandon says a flat or cone filter with paper pre filters works the best for a small producer.

Russ

[Pete S]

Well, you guys are hittin' the proverbial nail on the head.

1.) Yes we did squeeze the coffee filters to get some of the syrup out. (we found filters that are about 18" across)

2.) We had this batch boiling hard, then right into the jars.

Thank you so much for your input. We'll make the needed corrections today and I'm confident that the results will be worth our efforts!!

Again, Thanks!
Pete

[maple flats]

first of all coffee filters are not fine enough. You need the real thing with a few pre filters on top. As you add syrup and the top layer starts to plug up you slide it out gently and use the next layer. This year i find more sugar sand than other years and I filter it 2 times while hot and just before canning. I have also done something for the first time ever. I used a small pump to suck syrup from the front pan thru a pre filter and back into the front pan between boils ans this removed a lot of niter. Also this year I am drawing off thru a cone pre filter to remove more before it gets dumped into the filter rack with all of the filters mentioned above in the canner.

[Toblerone]

Pete,

For this year, I would just let the jars settle for a few weeks, then pour off all that you can without getting the sediment. Then heat to 180 or 190 and repack it. Just make sure you don't go over 200 or you will get new sediment. Also, go ahead a mix different batches (of the same grade) for a more even taste and less work.

For next year, definitely invest in the $20 for the orlon felt cone filter and one or two prefilters. This is my third year doing this and we finally have crystal clear syrup in one, fairly hassle-free step.

The first two years, we filtered using retaurant grease filters, and packed into 1 gal jugs. The sediment settled after about a month leaving crystal-clear syrup which we poured off, reheated to 180 and packed into bottles. It does work, but it is slow and there is a fair amount of syrup that is wasted (i.e. I take it home for me).

Oh yeah, also get a hydrometer too. My first two years, we used a digital thermometer and even though we tried to do everything right (e.g. measure bp of water on the same day, add 7.1), our syrup came out thin! I won't trust a thermometer again.

This year we also got the orlon felt cone filter and prefilters. If you search this forum you'll find lots of info on using thim. For what it is worth, this is the method I have found works best so far:

* Get some kind of a deep pot, or a stand over a smaller pot to hold the large filter.

* Fold the orlon bag in half horizontally and clip/clothespin it to the top to hold it. Then fold a prefilter in half horizontally and instert it into the already folded orlon bag. Then fold a second prefilter in half and place it into the first.

* Pull/draw your syrup from the evaporator before it is finished... at 6 or 6.5 degress over boiling point or so. The thinner pre-syrup filters easier and you can remove most of the sand.

* Filter it using one or two grease filters (I get them at restaurant supply store, 50 for $6), This will remove a fair amount of the larger sand particles. They are so cheap that I don't try to wash these filters.

* Finish to correct density on the stove. Use a hydrometer. While finishing, heat a separate pot of sap to boiling.

* When sap is boiling, dump it into the filtering rig. Try to get all parts of the filter wet. The hot sap also brings up the temperature of the filter and the rig so your syrup stays hot too. Let the sap drain fairly well and dump it back into the same pot you used to boil it in, we'll use it later.

* Now you can pour in your hot, just boiling, syrup into the filter. It will drain quickly at first then slow down considerably.

* At this point, your inner-most filter is folded in half, so just pull up on it slowly. (The orlon is still clipped and folded in half.) As you pull up on this center prefilter, the weight of the remaining syrup in the prefilter will gently unfold the prefilter giving you a "fresh" filter surface to use. Keep filling the filter as it drains.

* After the inner most prefilter is completely unfolded and you still have stagnant syrup, you can pour off or "milk" the syrup into the next prefilter that you folded. It is okay to "milk" it here, since you are going into another filter.

* Do the same for the next prefilter, pulling it up when the filtering slows. Okay to "milk" here too.

* If you still have stagnant syrup, you can now unclip and unfold the orlon bag. It is NOT okay to "milk" this last filter. Doing so will likely contaminate the syrup with sand. If you have some stubborn stuff that won't filter, just take it home for personal use.

If you do all of this into a large coffee pot with a spigot, you can just pull the handle and fill your bottles. Oh, by the way, we use the hot sap that we boiled earlier to pre-heat the bottles before filling because the thick glass can really take a lot of heat out of the syrup and bring it below the 180-degree hot-pack limit. Just dip the bottle (outside only) in the sap before filling.

To clean the filters, just use your kitchen sprayer and lots of hot water. You should get many uses out of them.

Good luck,
Dave

[maple flats]

another thing about milking filters. Do not milk the final orlon or wool filter because you damage the fibers and the damage allows sugar sand thru. This damage is permanent, fibers are broken. You can squeeze it but never twist it to get out the last drop. I find that supporting it over the evaporator and pouring preheated sap thru gets the huge majority of syrup in the filter. After this wash it with just clean water, no detergent or anything else. Keep doing this til you get clean water after you squeeze it out. This year I tried washing mine in the washing machine, filters and pre filters, just water, 2 times thru. I have a tumbler washer and no agitator to twist and pull fibers. It comes real clean this way. Remember 2 times thru, warm or hot water. When putting syrup thru to be filtered make sure it is HOT and fill the filter, not just the bottom on cone filters. I never tried the folding method. I am however going to get a filter press as soon as I can justify it.

[Toblerone]

Maybe my step-by-step above isn't quite the way to do things! I just noticed after my bottles had sat for a while that they have all developed a very very fine cloud of precipitate. The top 1/3 of the bottle is crystal clear with the other 2/3 very slightly cloudy. In fact, if it were not for the difference in clarity, you would probably never guess there was anything particulate in the syrup. I tested with a refractometer and it read 66.5% so it shouldn't be sugar crystals.

I don't know what I did wrong. Any suggestions? Does the orlon cone filters usually do this? Maybe it was the folding or the milking. (I milked prefilters not the orlon.)

Maple flats, regarding the folding method, with 300+ taps, I am sure you have enough syrup at a time to keep the filter full. I have a mere 25 taps, so at the end of a day of boiling I am filtering 2 gals, tops. And folding did allow me to get the syrup thru the filter before it all cooled and thickened.