when to filter?

[tadams]

Hello, this is my first year doing Maple Syrup on my own, and i have a few questions about filtration. I bought a couple cone shape filters at the store two thin ones,, and one made of wool. I'm using one of the thin ones to filter my sap before i boil, and then i took the other one and put it inside the wool filter and filtered the syrup before bottling.

What i'm unsure of, is when to filter before bottling? I've only bottled once so far and the filter worked so slow, i removed the inner filter, still slow. I had to reheat several times, and in the end i have some crystallization forming in the bottles. I find the syrup is a bit too thick, taste great,, but thick and with crystals tells me something isn't right. Suspecting i over cooked it. ??

troy

[John c]

Yeah, id say you over cooked it. Some might not agree with me, but there are only two ways to be sure your syrup is perfect every time and that is with a hydrometer or a refractometer.
As for filtering,...I never filter the sap before boiling because I am always skimming and this does the trick. I do however filter through high thread count bed sheet just before I begin the finishing process because that gets rid of a ton of niter and saves a lot of hassle when filtering for the final time. Keep in mind that more niter formes while finishing though and once your syrup is to the right density filter through your wool filter. I myself do not use a pre-filter and my results are perfect!
Be sure your wool filter is rather damp with water or sap before you run the finished product through and you will be much happier with your filter!
Good luck my friend.

[tadams]

thanks for the info!! I will filter before the finishing process starts the next time for sure!!

troy

[adk1]

I only filter once, and that is through 3 prefilters and a synthetic cone filter. THen I dump into a pot, bring up to 185 and then that gets dumped into my preheated 30 cup coffee urn and into the jugs. Getting a filter tank next year though. Too much toting syrup up to the house!

[wnybassman]

I only filter once, and the filters are attached right to the top of my 30 cup coffee urn. While I wait for syrup to pass through the filter, I can be filling bottles. I only filter sap if there are a lot of bugs/ants.

[Vermont Creation Hardwood]

I use a synthetic cone filter with a prefilter on the sap as it runs into my pan. It's easy and filters fast.

I filter the syrup right after boiling. It goes through hot till there is a pint or so of really thick stuff that won't filter. This I pour into a bottle and let the niter settle out. Each boiling I pour into the same bottle and keep decanting off the syrup. I rinse the prefilter out with hot water. It catches most of the niter. Then I use the syrup laden synthetic filter with a washed prefilter to filter the next batch of sap. That way I don't waste the syrup still in the filter. When done filtering sap, I pull the prefilter with all of the dirt out and lay the synthetic in the hot sap to remove every bit of the syrup left in the upper part of the filter.

I rinse filters and prefilters in hot water and reuse them many times. Once or twice during the season I'll run both filter and prefilter through the washing machine without soap, on the lowest water level, using just hot water. That gets them nice and clean and they come out from the spin cycle almost dry.