What did I do wrong?

[Bad Bunny]

I have a very small operation in NJ (tapped 40 red maples in 2016). I use a Leader half-pint and finish indoors on the stove. I triple filter the syrup (two paper filters and a synthetic cone filter) before bringing back up to 180*F+ for bottling. This year, when I pulled a bottle out to sell, I discovered that there was a significant amount of sludge in all of the bottles. Is this sugar sand? Did I get the syrup too hot after filtering? Or did I do something else wrong? Can I fix it? If so, how? Thanks in advance!

[psparr]

Couple things to consider. When rinsing out the filter, don't ring it out. That will cause it to allow sediment to pass. Also when reheating the syrup to bottle, heat low and slow. Even though the syrup in general doesn't get hot enough to produce niter, there's a hot spot on the bottom of the pan that will.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

my opinion is you have to use indirect heat to keep your syrup at 180 for bottling. Direct flame on the pan will cause syrup near the bottom of the pan to make niter. A stem pan is a must for me

[Zucker Lager]

Last season I had one batch that I was finishing / bottling. I had it filtered crystal clear and kept it hot on a turkey fryer while I was bottling and it got away from me and over heated just a few degrees probably up to 200?. I ended up with a half batch of crystal clear bottles and the other half cloudy that settled into a sediment mat on the bottom. gotta watch that temperature I guess. Jay

[johnpma]

What are you using for a thermometer?

[Bad Bunny]

Thank you everyone. I hadn't considered the uneven heat in the pot.

- I actually did know about the filter and bought a new one for last season since I heartily wrung the first one the year before.

- I am using a candy thermometer, which can be very hard to read. Is there a better one that I should add to this year's purchase list?

- What is a stem pan?

- Can I "rework" this year's syrup? (Refilter, reheat, rebottle?). Or is it toast?

I am planning to almost double my efforts this year (going from 40 taps to around 70!! Lol) and would very much like to NOT repeat this mistake.

[Sugarbush Ridge]

My preference in thermometers are digital ones. I like Thermoworks. stem pan is,,, steam pan kind of like a double boiler.. Yes you can reheat and re filter your syrup. Now it will darken some being heated up again, but may give it more flavor.

[johnpma]

I have been through so many thermometers in the shirt time i have been sugaring. I'm ready to bite the bullet and build one with a thermocouple, and a display unit and just wall mount it in my shack. Last year I finished out the season with a candy thermometer as well.....

Don't know how the heck my great grandfather did it with no thermometer, or hydrometer consistently for many years, and made darn good syrup

[brass maple]

Any thermometer will work but first you need to put it in a pan of water and bring it to a boil. When it starts to boil check the temperature it is showing if it says 212 then it's good. If it reads higher or lower then you have to adjust. For instance if it reads 2 degrees lower than 212 and you want to bottle at 180 then you need to heat to 182. If It is 3 degrees higher than 212 then you need to bottle at 177.

Johnpma
Thermocouplers do work good and if you surf the net there is some cheaper one out there. First thing to do is check it against boiling water like I did discribed above