Rookie season with a filtering question...

[ShLUbY]

Hello and happy sugaring to all of you out there!

This is my first season in the sugarbush... and I have a little question for anyone who can provide some experience for a small timer like myself.

The first time I ran sap I did a small test batch of the first collection of the year... about 5-6 gal of sap just to make sure I did the process right. Well I didn't have any filters and read that one supposedly could use paper towels, So i grabbed a few sheets, presoaked them in some hot water, rung them out a bit, and lined my mesh strainer bowls with them. I filtered my finished 220degree syrup through them and the final product came out crystal clear. I was so happy. However the next time I attempted with the paper towels I was using a different brand, and things went horribly slow and did not work SO i decided to invest in some real products

I bought A Synthetic cone shaped filter from leaderevaporater, and also the prefilters to go with it. Last night I boiled off a batch of sap to try them out, but with only a little over 2 qts of finished product i decided to just use the prefilters and not the thicker synthetic one, and nested two of them together. What filtered off looked nice and clear (I realized right after I filtered it i FORGOT to presoak the filters with hot water) and even when i jarred it up in the mason jars it looked good So i went to bed happy.

But to my surprise this morning the syrup had that slight cloudiness settling to towards the bottom. the product is 85-90% clear but that little cloudiness is driving me nuts. I suppose two prefilters wasn't enough... and I need to just sacrifice the little bit of syrup loss and just use that thicker synthetic filter with 3 prefilters before it.

Also I know my syrup was to temperature when I jarred it, with preheated jars, and prewarmed the lids, and tipped the jars upside down after I poured in the syrup. Only half of the jars sealed properly... any tips for mason jar "bottling"??

Sorry the post is so long but I wanted to provide the appropriate information for the best answer. THANK YOU in advance to those who reply, I appreciate the knowledge and experience.

Edit: also I dont own a syrup hydrometer, I just use the spoon method, when it hits 220degrees and it sheaths off the edge of the spoon. Thanks again.

[KGodshall]

Will try to hit some of your questions. I'm a "small timer" too, so working through some of the same issues.

On the settling in the bottles: I filter at "near syrup" before I bring into the house to finish on the stovetop. I use a digital thermometer (Taylor probe, cheap on Amazon) and usually aim for 219 on the stovetop for finished product. (depends on air pressure though, but 219 is very close). Then I pour my syrup into gallon pickle jars (glass) and leave them set for a day or 2. When bottling day comes, I pour off as much as I can, without getting any cloudy material to go with it. Warm the canted off portion to 190 and pack in mason jars. You should get better than 75% of your batch in jars with 0 settling and clear as a whistle.

The cloudy remainder, I warm up separate and then begin intensive filtering. Check out this post on jelly bags: http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?19806-Filtering-small-batches-grrrrrr!

I'm still fighting a little settling in the filtered, cloudy material, but I'm going to the jelly bag next year. Otherwise, I will keep letting it settle overnight, or until the next bottling batch, and keep canting off the top clear syrup until I can't separate it anymore.

On Mason jars: I wash my jars and then put them in a 200 degree oven and leave them there until I'm ready to fill them. I also put my lids in there. The temperature is hot enough to kill any bacteria, AND I don't have any left over water to deal with.

Make sure you are hot going into the jars (I'm at 190). Then, before you put the lid on, make sure the rim is perfectly clean: no drips. I tighten my rings pretty tight and spread my jars around the table (dissipate heat). Within half an hour, mine are all sealed. Almost never have any that don't seal (it can and does happen, but it's a rarity).

My re-warmed, ready to bottle syrup comes off the stove and goes in a plastic pitcher with a good spout. I fill each jar to the bottom of the rings and immediately lid and ring each one. (Suckers are hot to hold.....) I do quarts, pints and half pints, all in this manner.

Some of it comes down to experience, some to trial and error, some to procedure. If you read these forums, everyone, small and large, are all working to get their syrup better and better. We've all been where you are, and we're all on the same path.

Best of luck!

[PerryW]

Yes, using only the prefilters will result in slightly cloudy syrup. You can just let the syrup settle for a few days and everything will be fine.

OR, You could also use the main filter and will get nice clear syrup but will lose some syrup in the filter. Also, most people have trouble passing all the syrup through the filter when using small batches. Keeping everything hot helps.

For the record, I never pre-wet my filters or prefilters.

[DonMcJr]

My final filter gets black so I think it catches all fhe smaller particles...thats probally why its cloudy.

[ShLUbY]

Yes, using only the prefilters will result in slightly cloudy syrup. You can just let the syrup settle for a few days and everything will be fine.

OR, You could also use the main filter and will get nice clear syrup but will lose some syrup in the filter. Also, most people have trouble passing all the syrup through the filter when using small batches. Keeping everything hot helps.

For the record, I never pre-wet my filters or prefilters.


Yeah hot for sure. I pulled it right from the burner and into the filters.... I had a 1/2 gallon of syrup which i think would have passed through alright maintaining its heat. I was just getting greedy and didn't want to lose a little syrup to the synthetic filter... but now i see that it's a necessity. When I do something, I like to do it right, so a little syrup loss is no big deal for an eye pleasing final product.

I think tomorrow when I cook down some more sap, I'm going to open the jars and dump in the 1/2 gal of cloudy syrup I made last night In with the new batch just before it starts boiling above 212 degrees, and filter it all it when it's achieved 220 degrees, and that way I'll have at least a gallon to filter out through the thicker filter.

^^^ does that sound like a good plan??? I'll use 3 prefilters, and the synthetic filter. the synthetic is a 5 quart size so that should be good to go for a gallon... what do you all think?

[Cake O' Maple]

I fill each jar to the bottom of the rings and immediately lid and ring each one. (Suckers are hot to hold)

Try wearing cotton gardening gloves when handling hot bottles. For this year I bought some with little silicone nubbins to increase my gripping power. Was always nervous hanging onto larger bottles...

[KGodshall]

I think tomorrow when I cook down some more sap, I'm going to open the jars and dump in the 1/2 gal of cloudy syrup I made last night

I would de-cant the clear off the top of the cloudy and save that. No sense having to cook it down again. Just heat the clear to 190 and re-pack it. Take the cloudy, if you want, and re-do that again, but no sense doing double work on something that is already good enough.

Remember the adage: Perfection is the enemy of good enough.

And remember: on batch #2, if you're adding cloudy back, you are doubling the amount of filtration you need to perform. So the results of product #2 will not be indicative of how batch #3 will turn out....... (you're adding another variable to batch #2).

Let us know what you do, and how it turns out. Good learning experience for all of us.

[tbear]

If the bands are too tight the lids won't seal as the pressurized air in the jars can't escape. Ted


I've seen this cause lids to buckle and jars too break. But, now that I think about it maybe it's never been the reason my jars haven't sealed. Wow, forget I've said anything. I'm going to bed! Ted

[ShLUbY]

I would de-cant the clear off the top of the cloudy and save that. No sense having to cook it down again. Just heat the clear to 190 and re-pack it. Take the cloudy, if you want, and re-do that again, but no sense doing double work on something that is already good enough.

Yeah but if I have to reheat the sap and re bottle it anyway if i open it so i might as well add it to the "almost" syrup. and if i make a temperature mistake when i'm reheating it, im gonna have to refilter it anyway. My filter is a 5QT filter, and I think if I put the gallon + of hot syrup through it it'll maintain temp better for filtering rather than just a 1/2 gallon.



Remember the adage: Perfection is the enemy of good enough.

yeah and nothing is ever good enough for me haha but i hear you. I'm always striving to be better.


And remember: on batch #2, if you're adding cloudy back, you are doubling the amount of filtration you need to perform. So the results of product #2 will not be indicative of how batch #3 will turn out....... (you're adding another variable to batch #2).

The hot syrup i poured through the prefilters flew right through them, and i caught a good bit. the jars are 95% clear so i don't think that little bit will bother too for the filter. think about it, if i just boiled down the whole amount of sap, the same amount niter would be in it as opposed to doing them in small batches.



Let us know what you do, and how it turns out. Good learning experience for all of us.

I surely will post my results... cooking down on monday. collecting sap tomorrow... should have 25 or so gal to cook down.

[ShLUbY]

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Here's the result! Everything seemed to work out just fine! I dumped all the last 1/2 gallon in with the one i boiled down last night, and filtered it all at once! Ran through the filter real good, and the first prefilter caught a lot of junk! all the others were fairly clean, but the thick synthetic filter did it's job in the end with no settling niter at all in the final product! hurray, a nice gallon of syrup here for this rookie!

Put the mason jars/lids in the oven on a large cookie sheet to bring them to temp, when the syrup was done filtering, i just pulled out the cookie sheet of hot jars and started filling! great trick.

thanks again to those who replied previously!

[Run Forest Run!]

That's gorgeous ShLUbY! Great job!

[ShLUbY]

Quite a color difference between these two batches. The sap sat a for several days before I could get to boiling it... so maybe that's why? Or is it because we're further into the season? got 3 pints outta this batch... cooking more sap down today. Thanks for the comments and help everyone!




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