syrup in barrels

[Fred Henderson]

Say on any given day in sugar season I make 7 gals of light amber and put it into a 15 gal barrel and put the bung in. Then the next day I make another 7 gals of the same grade, is it ok to put it in the same barrel that I used the day before?

[maplehound]

Fred
I have added hot syrup to the top of cold before with no problems. I am using 5 gallon containers though. I put my syrup in the 5 gallon pop conaitners. They work great and weigh much less than a barrel. My dealer tells me that Dellair is coming out with a box that will have a 5 gallon bag inside. Just like the health barrel only in the 5 gallon size. with them you can put in as little as you want and still seal it air tight.
Not sure yet what the cost is on them.

[Fred Henderson]

I have one and can get all the 15 gals SS DR Pepper barrels that I want or need. One of our member's also said that he was using SS beer kegs. The box with the bag should prove to be interesting.

[brookledge]

Fred
I use 15.5 gal kegs. I only hot pack them all at once though. As I make the syrup I wait till I get enough syrup to fill the keg then re heat and check density the final time then run it through the filter press into the canner to make sure it is still over 185 and then into the keg.
If others fill there containers as they go and have no problem with fermenting and molding then try it. I personally feel safer knowing that I have hot packed mine. I have opened kegs that where 3 yrs. old and it looks as good as it did when it went in.
Keith

[lew]

We add syrup to barrels until full with no problems. What we do is put our hot syrup into barrel straight from the filter press. Our syrup sits for approximately 5-10 minutes before it goes through the press. when we are done boiling I seal the barrel, lay it on its side and slosh the hot syrup on all surfaces of the barrel, theoretically pasturizing the barrel. The next boil, I open the barrel and add syrup to finish filling and seal again. No problems so far (been doing this for at least 10 years). I should state that we use 30 gallon barrels and that I don't open a barrel to complete filling it unless I can add at least 10 gallons. If I already have 25 gallons in the barrel, I just set it aside and consider it full enough, unless I plan on using it within the next couple of months. It goes without saying, that if you do end up with mold on your syrup, just skim it off, bring temp to over 180 degrees and refilter. Just like new.

[Fred Henderson]

I am not a big producer maybe in the past 100 gals that we sold at the door. In 07 we are going to tap more so more syrup. Maybe 200 gals or more. The wife wants to jug it all and I say no, because it will change color in the plastic jugs(no oxygen barrier). My canner only holds 8 gals. At least now with everyones help I have a little more insight.