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View Full Version : Advice on our finishing/Bottling



SevenCreeksSap
12-03-2012, 09:10 PM
Trying to come up with a slightly better way and don't have the $$ for a water jacketed bottler yet, so here's what I'm thinking. I do have a stainless water heater we use to bottle, but it creates hot spots and niter if I just use it to reheat. Its like a coffee urn without the percolating guts, just a flat round element on bottom. last year we were drawing off the evap just before syrup, bringing it home ( 4 miles away, not set up yet for finishing in the sugarhouse) finishing on gas in the pan, then trying to filter hot in a cone filter directly into the urn and bottle before it got cool. not too smooth and burned fingers trying to filter it quickly. also late nights for my helper wife.

I am not going to have it all in the shack this year either, maybe next year.

would this work - draw off and finish the same, use flat filters and steam pan to filter and let it sit, not worry about bottling yet. I also have two large stainless soup pots, one will nestle inside the other( 4 and 3 gal). I'm thinking put water into the outside pot and heat the finished, filtered syrup back to 190, then directly into the (water preheated) urn for bottling. Hopefully this would prevent more niter. If I could figure a way to pipe the syrup out the bottom and add a thermometer plug, I'd build these into a water jacket bottler.

actually the more I think about it I could do it all in the shack since the reheating is gas, but if its cooled and reheated there's really no rush, right? does the step process sound like it would work?

spencer11
12-04-2012, 06:16 AM
search for a homemade water jacketed canner, i asked about one earlier this year and a couple people had build one, i would have build one but didnt get around to it and bought a finisher instead

rayi
12-04-2012, 06:21 PM
I use a set of large stainless pots. The largest sets on a turkey frier with a few inches of water for the steam. The next size down sets in the bigger one and is held off the bottom by the handles. I also found a stainless steel splatter guard (screen) for a frying pan that fits into the top pan real tight so it goes down about 6-7 inches. I put a filter in with prefilters on top. Of course there is not fancy tap but it's worked for me for a good many years.

seclark
12-05-2012, 07:12 AM
SevenCreeksSap, that's how I do my reheating and bottling.When I put the hot syrup in the pre heated coffee urn I do not use the electric heating element for fear of forming niter and so far it has worked for me.I assume that the handles on the smaller pot will keep the bottom off the larger one's bottom a inch or more,if not place canning rings under the smaller one to keep a little clearance. It takes a bit longer to reheat this way but is well worth the extra time for clear syrup.

SevenCreeksSap
12-05-2012, 06:05 PM
Okay cool. glad to hear the method works even if it is a little more work. My goal this year is to make enough on syrup to buy a canner, so this will help us get by. I Like the idea of a strainer to hold the flat filters, so it can sit and drain through. doing the cone filter was the "bottleneck". by the time it drained through, it was cool enough to set of the thermstat on the urn and start the heating, which would cause the niter.

spencer11
12-05-2012, 07:03 PM
i got a finisher from andy at wegner metal works for this year, they are very inexpensive and they are very good quality, i dont know if he makes a steam tray but im sure he could make you one

noreast maple
12-05-2012, 09:59 PM
GO to sugarbush info and buy a couple of raffel tickets to win one , other cool prizes also . tickets are ten dollars each :cool: