So much sugar sand!

[RobbieH]

Hi all. New guy here. This is the first week of good sugarin' weather we've had here in central N.Y. for some time now. I made a gallon of syrup a few weeks ago and it came out great. There was some sugar sand, of course, but after filtering it out with those synthetic reemay cone filters, the syrup I canned looks great. Small amounts of sand on the bottom of the jars, but I don't mind. I'm not selling.

So since Sunday, we've had great weather for this and I made another gallon yesterday. This gallon, however, has so much more sugar sand in it. I am heating it up now to filter it, but I'm just wondering if this is normal?

The sap I collected was nice and clear and my pan and pots were very clean. The boil went fine. I don't understand why theres so much more sugar sand this time around. Maybe I'll just have to filter it a couple of times... ?

Also, I know to wet the filters before filtering, and to heat the syrup to 180ish. How many prefilters should I use? Last time, I used 1 prefilter inside the regular filter.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[68bird]

Welcome RobbieH, I use 3, to 4 pre filters! and a wool filter. Hope this helps!
Doug

[TreeTapper2]

Try letting your syrup settle overnight then pour off the good stuff, reheat, and filter.

[RobbieH]

Thanks for the replies. It was in the fridge over night last night and it did settle pretty good. I am done filtering now. I used 1 prefilter in the filter like before, but this time I filtered it a few times because the filters would clog up so much that nothing was getting through. So I rinsed the filters and brought the unfiltered syrup up to temperature between each time. The syrup looks and tastes great! Time to jar it.
Thanks again!

[jake22si]

I think every time you heat the syrup past 190-200? you are creating more sugar sand. Keep it under 190 after the original filtering process. If your filtering at 180 then you may not have syrup because its usually harder to filter as it cools from 219 +.

[Spolcik]

I think every time you heat the syrup past 190-200? you are creating more sugar sand. Keep it under 190 after the original filtering process. If your filtering at 180 then you may not have syrup because its usually harder to filter as it cools from 219 +.


I agree with that the hotter the syrup the better it will filter. I always do mine right when I get it finished then you can store and bottle later if you want. I use 4 per filters and one final filter. Works great for me never have any sugar sand in the bottles. Also sometime filtering from one batch to the next will vary time wise quite a bit.

[Middleton Maples]

I have never used a pre-filter just the synthetic filter and I have never had niter. Just saying.

[RobbieH]

Thanks again for the replies. I finished jarring earlier today and filtering a few times really did the trick. There is absolutely no niter in the jars. Such a pretty sight! I always filter when the syrup is at 180-185F. Again, I am completely new to this but I have read a lot of info about it and have read many times that filtering is easier when the syrup is hot. I have also read what Jake said - that if the syrup is any hotter, it could form sugar crystals. So I'll continue to filter syrup that is around 180F, and if I see more niter than usual, I'll just filter a couple of times instead of freaking out like I did earlier ;)

This is a little off topic, but I figure I'd ask here, rather than starting a new thread. Why is some syrup darker than others? Is there a way to make a syrup come out darker or lighter?

[Williamcarl]

I filter right off the evaporator with 2 prefilters and 1 felt , I change prefilters after 2 draw offs .

[PerryW]

Syrup can be dark for a variety of reasons

- As the season progresses, the chemistry in the trees changes and the syrup will darken

- If you run your pans very deep and boil very slow, your syruo will come out darker (google Browning Reaction)

- If you let your sap sit around too long; especially at high temperatures, the syrup will be darken.

Also, some sugarbushes just seem to produce darker syrup.

[wnybassman]

Tonight I finished/bottled what I drew off the last two days and there was a ton of sugar sand. Very light colored syrup though.

[RobbieH]

Perry- thanks for the info about why syrup varies in color. Good to know!

wnybassman- maybe our NY state sap is just rich in sugar sand this year. lol. I was surprised yesterday, only collected 5 gallons of sap from my 25 taps. I hope to have another week or so of good sappin' before its over!

[wnybassman]

While on the subject of heavy sugar sand, will this affect the density readings before it is filtered out? I was thinking about that last night while finishing and bottling. You would think that a bunch of suspended sand would change the hydrometer readings somewhat.

[PerryW]

While on the subject of heavy sugar sand, will this affect the density readings before it is filtered out? I was thinking about that last night while finishing and bottling. You would think that a bunch of suspended sand would change the hydrometer readings somewhat.

That issue was discussed on a previous thread but not sure if there was a consensus. My gut feeling is that the effect would be insignificant.

Of course, in my case, I standardize my syrup density again during the bottling process after the nitre has been removed.

ALso, my syrup from this season (75 gallons, 70% average crop) so far has had almost no nitre and all been extremly Light Amber. I suspect this will change after Easter weekend with predicted 50 degree temps.

[wnybassman]

That issue was discussed on a previous thread

Ooops. I guess I didn't see that. I'll go look for it. Thanks.

[PerryW]

I would suspect that:

Since the nitre is in suspension (as opposed to solution) that it you added a 4 ounces of nitre to a gallon of syrup, you would increase the volume of the liquid by 4 ounces.
Since the nitre is more dense than syrup (i.e. it settles to the bottom eventually), the nitre would slightly increase the density of the syrup.

But i'm guessing that the density of nitre and syrup must be pretty close, as it takes a long time for gravity to pull the particles to the bottom of the container.