Niter?

[eustis22]

I notice some niter in my syrup (pre finishing) pan on my evaporator after my first boil wednesday. What caused this?

[heus]

Normal to have in the syrup pan. Just make sure you clean it out from time to time.

[trevor]

niter-sugar sand, who knows what causes it, it is normal and some years seem worse than others. it may make filtering a little harder too.

[Brent]

It's not only normal, it's an inevitable curse. Basically the same process as getting calcium deposits in a kettle or coffee maker.

If you let it get too thick it will not conduct the heat from the bottom of the pan into the sap/syrup. The it overheats next to the pan and scorches. Then you've lost the batch of syrup and a half a day cleaning off the scorch because it must be cleaned before the burnt taste will go away. It also flows out of the evaporator with the syrup and plugs up your filters ... it why you need to filter. You'll learn to hate it as much as the rest of us.

The best way to clean is with a safe acid ... if you can get double strength "cleaning" vinegar, it's as good as anything else and
safe. The trick to getting it off the pan is heat. You can leave the acid in a cold pan for 24 hours and almost nothing happens. You can light a VERY small fire under it and the scale will come off in 15 minutes.