Some help please,

[wvmapleclan]

My family has been making maple syrup for about 5 yrs now, no fancy evaporater we boil in a flat 37x54x4" stainless steel pan usually make between 15-30 gallon a year. We put it in pint and quart jars. My question is, when you hold a jar up to the light to check the clarity , it seem to have an oily substance in it. Can anyone tell me what it is? It doesn't affect the flavor at all and you can see it more as the syrup cools. Any information anyone could give would be greatly appreciated thanks

[5050racing]

Do you filter it?and with what?

[wvmapleclan]

Yes we filter several times through wool filters purchased from Leader

[5050racing]

Welcome to the Great site of the addicting hobby! I'm just a little guy with 34 trees but there is alot of help on here.What temp do you filter it at,I use the synthetic orion filter and a couple pre filters,someone that knows more then me will respond or search the topic and a lot of thing will pop up.

[SDdave]

I may not be able to help at all...but. Is it seperated like oil and water, or is it a "ribbon" that is suspended in the liquid column? I had a "ribbon" that was suspended in a few jars, could not find out what it was and it did not affect clarity at all either. I seperated those jars and observed them over a few months. Those "affected" jars were grade A fancy and in a few months time they precipitated a lot of niter. I reboiled, refiltered, and rebottled and it had disappeared. I chalked it up to a lower Brix, and poor filtering.

The following year made darn sure that Brix was correct and used a few more pre-filters and haven't had a problem since.

Hope this helps.

SDdave

[wvmapleclan]

Yes it is like a ribbon, we filter at 210 then hear up to 216 before putting it in the jars, what gets me is its not in all the jars just a few here and there. We filter it thru a prefilter before putting it in the finishing pan then we filter thru a prefilter inside a wool filter. Thanks for all the information it is greatly appreciated

[happy thoughts]

Yes it is like a ribbon, we filter at 210 then hear up to 216 before putting it in the jars,

I think the high temps after filtering are what is the problem. More niter can form at temps above 190-195ish so you want to try to keep reheating temps below that after filtering. syrup packing temp should be between 180-185 for safe packing and a good seal. You don't need to bring it up to 216 again.

[5050racing]

That's what I thought,just wanted someone else to say something about it

[wvmapleclan]

Thanks for the great information everyone

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

i thought niter only happened once you boiled sap (219)+/-

[happy thoughts]

i thought niter only happened once you boiled sap (219)+/-

No it can happen any time sap becomes concentrated enough that the substances the sand is made of can no longer be held in solution. At that point sand will begin to form and settle out. If you've ever partially concentrated sap and held it for a few days you may see niter has settled on the bottom. This partially concentrated sap will have never seen 219 because it needs to be at syrup density to boil at that temp. It's the concentration of sugar in solution that causes an increase in boiling point. Only syrup at proper density will boil at temps that high.

When or if sand forms will have a lot to do with how many minerals etc. are dissolved in the sap to begin with. We all know that can vary from tree to tree and year to year. But high temp can also cause sand formation which is why it's not recommended to reheat syrup to anywhere near boiling after filtering because more sand can form again.

[jputney]

Took me a couple years to figure this out... I had the same thing and I started bottling at 190 and it went away. Every time you get it back up to 195-200 you will have to filter it again.

[nymapleguy607]

Does it have an oily sheen to it or just dark particles. If it looks like an oil slick I would guess you added defoamer to the draw off and it didnt boil out, or you are using too much defoamer. If they're particles then it would be a filtering issue like eveyone else said