Cloudy Syrup

[lfdiaff]

I bottled 16qts 4 days ago and they came out crystal clear grade A amber. I noticed today that they are a little cloudy. When I hold it to the computer screen I can still read through it but it is not as clear as it was. Any Ideas?

[Asthepotthickens]

Let it sit for a day or two it may turn clear. Did you let the temp lower itself to 190 before filtering?

[lfdiaff]

No I poured it in the filter 2gal at a time right off the stove but as soon as it hit the canner it went to about 170 then I had to plug in the canner to heat it up to 185 to bottle.

[lfdiaff]

The last bottle that I did was a half bottle because it ran out has sugar crystals in it. I end up pouring these bottle back into a batch then filtering them but it has me worried. The last little bit did sit in the canner for about 1 hour longer then the rest as I was waiting for it to go throught the filter. I hope this is what caused the sugar crystals.

[PerryW]

sometimes, the reheating process creates more nitre. A typical burner produces local hot spots that are higher than the overall syrup's temperature. More of the big guys use steam to heat their canners to avoid this.

You could try to keep the canner warm before dumping the syrup in. I do 5 -10 gallon batches at a time, so the syrup has enough mass to warm up the canner and stay above 185 for the entire process without added heat.

[lfdiaff]

I made a water jacket bottler so it shouldnt be heating it up enough to make nitre again.

[Springfield Acer]

I was interested in the comment about letting the temp get down to 190* before filtering. I have always gotten my hydrometer reading where I want it and then poured into the filter at what I am sure is still over 200*.
What happens if I filter too hot?

[bowtie]

the same thing happened to me yesterday, i had made about 8 gallons of grade a fancy then, yesterday while bottling in a glass jar i noticed that while the syrup tested med amber it still looked to have particles suspended in it. i may have let go a degree on my hydrometer but i filtered the same way i have been. i filter my sap then boil down to get it fairly close and then filter that upon draw-off, i then filter through my cage on my finisher and then finish the syrup where i filter it again but only with 2-3 pre-filters and then bottle. i can not believe that i am getting nitre after that and am hoping that it is just some sugar particles in it.

[maple marc]

I feel your pain. I'm carefully filtering my syrup before bottling--at about 185 degrees--then reheat on the stove to 185 and bottle. I filter into a 5 gallon stock pot fitted with a tap. In previous years this setup worked just fine--nice clear syrup. This year my glass bottles have a slight haze--big bummer. Apparently my stock pot canner is causing niter to form. Why this never happened before is a mystery. I reheat slowly. I'm now considering making some kind of water jacket canner.

I have more niter in my syrup than ever before....perhaps this is the problem, and I just can't get it all out.

[seclark]

I had some bottles that were a little cloudy and read somewhere on this site that they do not filter the syrup but let it sit and draw off only the clear as the sediment stays on the bottom.My question to those that do it that way is how long do you let it set before drawing off and do you refrigerate or leave it room temperature.I only do small batches at a time but loose a lot in the filter so I would like to try this method for a trial to see the results.Thanks for any help.

[happy thoughts]

I had some bottles that were a little cloudy and read somewhere on this site that they do not filter the syrup but let it sit and draw off only the clear as the sediment stays on the bottom.My question to those that do it that way is how long do you let it set before drawing off and do you refrigerate or leave it room temperature.I only do small batches at a time but loose a lot in the filter so I would like to try this method for a trial to see the results.Thanks for any help.

In my case, I let it sit in glass gallon jars in the fridge. Glass helps you see where the sand stands. A day or two usually does it. Then I carefully pour off the clear stuff, heat to about 190F and bottle. Any leftovers get mixed with fresh sap. If this mix is thin enough, sometimes it will filter through a couple of folded coffee filters placed in a funnel. The keyword here is thin as coffee filters generally do not work well. The filtered clear stuff gets poured into the next batch. You aren't going to get perfectly sand free syrup this way, you may notice a very thin film of niter on the bottom of some bottles on longer standing but it won't be much.

You could also hot pack the cloudy syrup just as you would for normal syrup if you don't want to refrigerate. As long as it's packed under the recommended temps it should safely sterilize the container and seal. Then you can decant and rebottle at any time during the year.

edit to add some things I forgot to mention

If you finish on the stove when it's syrup. take it off the heat, prop the pot to tilt it. Let it stand 15-20 minutes. A Lot of niter should settle to the bottom.

Carefully ladle the clear stuff into one clean jar. Put what's left into another. You can thin this mucky jar with a good amount of fresh sap to help the niter settle faster. Put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning or as soon as possible that day, pour off the clear stuff and filter what's left however crudely you can do it- in my case, doubled coffee filters in a funnel into a jar.

Give what you have a quick boil for a few minutes to kill off anything that may have been in the fresh sap. You can throw any mucky stuff left from your other bottle into this and boil it all together. Then throw this sweet stuff into your next batch. It should keep a few days in the fridge. More niter may fall to the bottom in which case you can again carefully pour it off.

[Yellzee]

Probably something everyone one knows... but..

I had this problem for years, and finally someone mentioned not to touch the syrup while it was going through the filter. Ie. if it starts to slow down or clog in the filter I used to stir the syrup or scrape the sides of the filter to get more through. Now I never touch it except to top it up and carefully pull out the pre-filters as they clog and my batches are clear. I normally use two of the orlion (or whatever that is) filters and about 5 pre-filters,,, I carefully pull out each pre-filter as it clogs up.. do about 2 gallons at a time of syrup. If I have some syrup that just isn't going through the filter, I dump it back in the finisher to go with the next batch.

I carefully rinse off the pre-filters and let them drip dry so I get quite a few uses out of them, just put one new one on the bottom each time.

[seclark]

Thanks for the response.I will give that method a try and see how it goes.

[Burnt sap]

I use 1 heavy cloth filter and place 5 pre filters in that as the pre filter gets sandy I just remove 1 and so on until you are left with one. Then I start with a fresh bunch of filters and so forth. End of sandy syrup.

[Galena]

Well, my 5th batch of syrup is a fine cloudy mess, which sucks, because it looks like it could have cleared up to a nice pale amber. Instead, it looks like apricot jam...will take a couple snaps and post later when I get back from town.

Also, curious to know if anyone else gets clear, pale gold syrup? This is the 2nd year that I got a batch of this lovely, perfectly clear honey-toned syrup. Last year I got two consecutive batches, 5 and 6, that are identical to this year's batch 3.

[Galena]

In case anyone is interested...

http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=1007184
http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=1007185

There are details about these images written in the box below each photo.