Sugar Crystals or Sugar Sand?

[buck3m]

First off, I was delighted to find this site! I've learned a lot already.

We made maple syrup here on the family farm in Minnesota, on a small hobby scale, for 10 years or so, and then got away from it for 20 years. Now we're back!

This year we finished 4 batches totaling about 35 gallons of syrup. We filter hot syrup through two layers of muslin, then through a paper prefilter, then through an Orlon cone filter. During the final filter it's still about 160 degrees.

Now I notice that a couple of batches have sediment in them and I was completely baffled. After reading through a bunch of posts, I'm thinking it's sugar crystals and not sugar sand. The sugar sand we filtered out was very dark, and this sediment is light colored.

I tested using a hydrometer, with a small "winging it" factor. I pulled it out of the main pan just before it tested exactly right to allow for the voluminous steam resulting from all the filtering and reheating to canning temperature of about 185. I didn't do a final test because I didn't want to bring it all the way up to boiling again.

Do you folks think it's sugar crystals instead of sugar sand?
How best should the syrup we've already bottled be handled? (We sell mostly quarts and pints to friends, but had hoped to sell some to local stores.)
Will the syrup crystalize more?
Can the crystals be settled out?
How can we prevent this from happening again?

Thanks!

[maplehound]

What you have is sugar settlement. It occures when you finish the syrup to heavy. When you bottle you need to adjust the syrup to the right density then it won't happen. If you have sugar in the bottom of the contaner then you can dilute it back to a thin sugar water and reboil it back to syrup stage. If you are bottling in plastic or tin I wouldn't worry about any that is already to sell. But if it is in glass then it will be a problem.
Ron

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Crystals are about 1/16" in size, sugar sand is smaller that sand. Taste it, you will know. Crystals are great to eat, sugar sand, well it's very gritty and doesn't have the best of taste. Either way, neither will hurt anything! :D

[brookledge]

If you packed it in glass then you can tell if its crystals or sediment. With sediment it will be cloudy residue on the bottom and equally distributed. Whereas crystals will be clear like angular formations that usually grow on the bottom but can also start to grow any where in the container.
Either way it is something that you don't want for retail sales.
I think you probably have sediment. Did you disturb the orlon filter? If you squeeze it or milk it it can allow sediment through. Hold it up to a light and look for thin spots. if the filter was ever twisted or rung out you can tear the fibers allowing for sediment to go through
Keith