Sugar sand and my filter

[huntingken111]

This may only be my secound year but thanks to this forum I read about the types of filters to buy. Last tried to filter thru a couple dish towels and didn't work lots of sugar sand. I bought a 5 quart synthetic filter and put 4 pre filters in it and out of 4 gallons I just filtered here is sugar sand. A whole bowl full7423 Thanks everyone

[Rrwws]

Hi, Im in my second year as well and I have tried a few different filtering techniques. Ive tried cloth coffee filters and cheese cloth, the coffee filters are too fine to allow the syrup to go through, it comes through one drip at a time and the cheese cloth still allows sand and sediment no matter how many times I filter. I think I found the solution, the coffee filter made me think to try the wire mesh coffee filter that came with my caffee maker. This works so good! I also use a canning funnel because I store syrup in Mason jars. I put the funnel in the jar and then slowly pour the finished syrup through the wire coffee filter, the canning funnel allows the syrup to not spill. The funnel mouth is bigger than the filter bottom. When it gets dirty just rinse it out and continue filtering. Ive also been told on here to let the finished syrup cool a little before filtering. I think I saw between 180 and 200 degrees. Hope this helps, keep us update on your progress.

[spencer11]

There is a lot of niter in the syrup, it doesn't look it but there is a lot. I filtered 5 gallons of the evaporator through flat filter in about 2 minutes, and that collected a lot of niter, it will filter best the hotter it is, so right of the evaporator it goes through fast

[DonMcJr]

I have a Scoop mesh strainer that I skim all the foam off when boiling. Then I dump the foam in a 5 gallon Bucket after I skim it every time. My bucket looks worse then Ken's Photo and my filters don't get near as dirty anymore....

[TreeTapper2]

We have been wrestling with this filtering issue yet we are making strides. Our latest method which has gotten the best results so far is cooking down the sap to near finish. Then we poured it into a pot and let it set over night so that it could settle out. The next day I poured off the good stuff and through out the day skimmed the remaining as it settled. That night we finished it out to syrup on the stove and filtered through a fabric fruit strainer than flat paper filter from TapMyTrees.com. It came out crystal clear. We did have to wash out the filters a few times but it was not nearly as bad as previous methods used. I would like to get a different flat filter beacuse the syrup does not pass through the ones I have very fast.

[DonMcJr]

Here's what I use from http://www.sugarbushsupplies.com/

1st Pic is the Hobby Kit from them and 2nd is what I made to make Filtering easier...

[happy thoughts]

That's basically what I do but instead of a pot I put it in a glass gallon jar and store it in the fridge at least overnight. Then carefully pour off the clear stuff. You can flood the dregs with fresh sap and let that settle in the fridge again. If you thin it down with enough fresh sap it will usually settle much more quickly and be thin enough to pass easily through a couple of coffee filters folded in a funnel though I'm sure your flat paper filters work better. This filtered sweet stuff starts the sweet pan for the next boil when I have enough sap to fire my block arch.

[huntingken111]

Wow forgot I started this thread never recieved an email that people responded. Thanks for the response

[maple flats]

Anytime you boil more after you filter, it needs to be filtered again. Sugar sand is mostly the minerals that precipitated out because the syrup was super saturated.

[HardWayMike]

What do you do with the sugar sand? Is that where maple sugar comes from?

[happy thoughts]

What do you do with the sugar sand? Is that where maple sugar comes from?

If anyone has found a use for it I haven't heard of it. :) It's mostly insoluble mineral salts and not where maple sugar comes from. Another less confusing name for it is niter. It tastes pretty gritty. It would probably make good grout :) It generally isn't harmful to eat as long as you're not using old lead containing buckets and/or taps because lead will end up in the niter. I just add mine to the compost pile:)

[huntingken111]

My kids tried it and I thought my boy was going to throw up just the look on his face and you would probably toss it too.

[Sengelaub Farms]

I keep it in a pail and use it for deer bait in the fall. Pour it over corn or sugar beets. The deer will actually eat the dirt where it drips down.

[fishman]

I run mine thru a cone prefilter right off the pan in to my finishing bucket. I usually draw off about 4 gallons of almost sap and sometimes can get it all thru one filter. This gets most of the crud out, then I finish boil and filter thru 3 prefilters and a orlon felt filter.