Hybrid jacketed bottler

[Wanabe1972]

Has anyone built or seen a propane fired and electric element jacketed bottler? I would like to built a 5 gallon capacity bottler that heats the water and syrup up with propane then maintains with an electric heating element to maintain the temp. I would also use my filter press pump to draw from the bottler and fill the bottles. I have used propane to bottle in the past but as the syrup goes down in the tank the heat goes up and makes it hard to maintain proper bottling temp. I think an element with thermo would maintain syrup temp better. I will also try to to filter directly from my draw off tank to the bottler this year. Jeff

[wiam]

I think you will have a hard time maintaining temp in the bottle if running the syrup through a pump.

[Wanabe1972]

Wiam that is an excellent point. I didn't think this through very well. Do you think the propane/electric element would work? I have had problems bottling with the propane keeping the desired temp throughout the bottling session. I think if I got to temp with the electric and propane and just shut the propane off the thermostat would take over. I usually only bottle 5 gallons at a time but if running pints or even half pints 5 gallons still takes a fair amount of time. Jeff

[Sugarmaker]

I think just electric would be much more controllable. I use propane and it is a challenge to keep the temp steady through the entire batch. Would suggest just gravity from the tank to the bottles. The pump may be way to aggressive/ fast/ not easy to control??
Regards,
Chris

[JoeJ]

I have a 16 gallon water jacketed bottler that holds about 8 gallons of water in the jacket. I just put 4 gallons of water in a container on a turkey cooker and and bring it to a boil in about 6-7 minutes. I then dump the hot water into the water jacket and it is ready to go. Turn on the electric heat element to maintain 190 degrees and then add syrup that I have preheated to 185 on the turkey cooker. I have got 2 turkey cookers so it doesn't take too long before I am caning syrup. The hot water and hot syrup is usually ready before I have everything organized to bottle.

To turn on the electric element, I turn on a switch box, I never touch the electric element thermostat now that I have it set for 188-190 degrees.

[wiam]

Friend of mine puts a turkey cooker under his waterjacket to heat up faster.

[Wanabe1972]

Wiam thats kind of what im heading for. Right now i draw off thru a couple of prefilters into 7 gallon ss milk jugs. when its through i flip a switch and send to a 10 gallon stock pot. Once it get five gallons in there i correct density if needed. Then i run through my press and hot pack into 5 gallon syrup jugs. Then when im ready to bottle i crack open a jug reheat to 185 and bottle to what ever my orders are. This is too much heating and bottleing and reheating. I want to go from the evaporator to the press to the heated bottler with out the syrup ever cooling down. Is this realistic for an operation that only makes 3 to 4 gallons an hour? Jeff

[b116757]

I built a water jacket bottler a few years ago I used a 120volt hot water heater element and simple bimetel snap disc thermostat it works pretty well a better thermostat might be a better system however if I ever get a round to it I'll upgrade mine. We filter straight into the bottler and then bottle.

[b116757]

Sorry for the double post I missed that one question. We normally draw off the syrup a little before its done and collect enough to fire up the 2'x4' propane fired finishing pan bring it to syrup then filter it straight into the bottler and proceed with bottling. With your smaller operation a turkey fryer or even the stove in the house would be fine for finishing. Did it that way for many years.

[Haynes Forest Products]

One of the problems with a double boiler style bottler heated with propane is keeping the heat constant and be able to have a thermostat keep it below the boiling point. I use a commercial coffee maker that once it is up to temp I can run my filtered syrup from the press into it and not worry about it boiling or cooling throughout the bottling process. I don't have to worry if its full or down to the last pint the temp is the same. I have found them on Ebay for $250.00 and as low as $100.00 read carefully and make sure you don't get a 3 phase.