Skimming the Foam

[clw]

Does anyone skim the foam from the boiling sap and near syrup? We skim off the dirty looking foam that we assume is niter collecting on the top. But we generally leave the white foam alone. Is there any reason we should or should not be doing this?

Thanks for your replies.

[Sugarmaker]

Skimming the foam off gives you something to do between firing and drawing off!:)
In open pans you will get lots of dirty foam in the rear pan. If you have hoods you don't get any foam. Seems the steam in the hood reduces the foam. We get a little foam in the front pan. I may skim it off about four times during the season.
Your not doing anything wrong!
Regards,
Chris

[red dorakeen]

I've read here that foam can reduce your GPH boiling rate. I guess that makes sense.

It's sort of like having a lid on it.

[supersapper]

I look at the side of my pan and figure I will eventually have to filter it out. So I skim it off.

[tbear]

We don't use a defomer so skim sevrral times during a boil. Got to thinking about how much sugar we were tossing on the ground so started dumping the "skimmings" into a steam pan, periodically we strain those "skimmings" to remove the syrup and toss what's left. Over the course of a long day I wonder how much sugar/syrup is saved? Ted

[Brian]

That is what deformer is for and Keep your pan clean between boils. GOOD LUCK!!

[grapestomper]

I tried defoamer for the first time yesterday. One little drop and all the foam went away.
It was actually amazing.

[clw]

Defoamer works great on small bubbles and sticky small bubbles in the syrup channel. Also works well with larger bubbles in the near syrup channel. But when I get fast moving, rolling, small bubbles that looks like foam at the drawoff, defoamer doesn't have any effect. That's also when the niter is thick and starting to stick to the pan. Does anyone else see this?

[clw]

Grapestomper, do you have a flat pan? Can you make light syrup? All I can make is dark syrup, but it's very good.

[bowtie]

I used to skim all the time with my 2x4 but now with my 2x6 I use defoamer, I can't even begin to skim without scorching my hand/arm from the steam coming off. Next evap will have steam hoods and pre-heater, so I am done with skimming.