Bleachy/Detergent flavor in finished syrup

[Ohio Maple Blaster]

Both batches of syrup I've boiled this year have had a bleachy almost detergent taste to them at first, and then you get the strong maple flavor. The first week was pretty strong, wouldn't give it to anyone. Round two, it is still present, but not as noticable. Trying to figure it out..

My first thought was that the filters are contributing, but they are all washed twice in hot water/hot rinse, ran as an extra larger load with no detergents or bleaches. and air dried. There have no smell when they are all dried out.

I am also using the atmos defoamer, but very lightly. I am only boiling 50 or so gallons of sap at a time, and using around 5 small drops throughout the day.

Using 5 gallon buckets, sparkling clean with only very hot water. Everything else it is handled through past the sap stage is metal or glass.

It's gotta be the filters, but anyone else with more knowledge and experience, I would really appreciate your input!

Cheers!

[Tweegs]

I’m betting on the filters.

Don’t machine wash them.
Anything left in the washing machine from normal laundry will make it to the filters.
Hand wash filters only.
Hot water, air dry, but that you already knew.

Wash brand new filters also, else you might wind up with a chemical taste.

[DrTimPerkins]

How did you clean your buckets, spouts, or tubing? Was everything rinsed extremely well?

Never use a clothes washer to wash your filters. There is always some residual soap in the machine. Soaps used in machines are highly scented. When boiling you concentrate the residual soap that ends up in your sap about 40X.

[Sugarmaker]

Taste the next batch prior to filtering, if good prior, then its your filters. get a couple new filters. hot water hose clean and rinse/ soak filters, as Dr Tim notes washer doesn't sound good.
Another thing is that it could be some metabolic flavors in the sap. you would taste this prior and after filtering, can be very strong.
Regards,
Chris