Filtering

[farmerEd]

What do you guys use to filter your syrup/sap? and at what stages do you do the filtering?

I do a real rough filtering of my sap before it goes into the evaporator (to get the big things out) and then one more time before I finish it using several folds of cheese cloth...it does an OK job, but I think if I ever bottled into a glass/clear bottle it wouldn't be good enough....

If I wanted to improve my filtering, but not step up to those $1000+ dedicated "filter presses", what kinds of (cheap) improvements could I make to my setup and my workflow?

Thanks.

[backyardsugarer]

Get a cone filter and some disposables. I filter mine at draw off and again before I bottle it. The cone filters run around $15 or so but well worth it. The only thing it does not get is that darn sugar sand. You will need a press for that.

Chris

[MaineMapleDave]

I bottle all in glass and filter the living bejeebers out of the syrup, and have never had any residual sand in the bottles. I finish the syrup in a small finishing rig, so have a lot of control over the filtering.

Here's my sequence:
Sap: filter once just to get the bugs and such out.
Syrup(really, just super-concentrated sap) at draw off: I draw off the hot concentrate from the evaporator into a disposable prefilter cone inside a felt cone inside a filtering tank. You could rig up something comparable with plastic buckets.

I then finish the syrup to proper density in a small propane rig.

Then: draw off the hot syrup through the now-rinsed prefilter and felt filter cones into the filter tank as above. Then, from the filter tank through a flat prefilter on a flat felt filter back into the finishing rig, heat to 200 and bottle.

So, the syrup itself goes through 4 filters, and the concentrate prior to finishing goes through 2.

Hope this is useful--never had any cloudiness or sand, and we bottle it all in glass.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have a 16 x 24 Leader filtering and finishing unit and love it. I use 1 synthetic wool flat filter and start out with several prefilters and pull them off as they get dirty. I can do several gallons without any problem and I don't have any sugar sand. I filter the raw sap, but I only filter the finished syrup once and I have finished over 32 gallons in my finisher this year and I don't have a trace off sugar sand in the bottom of it as I have not completely drained it or cleaned it yet.

I have always used a wool cone filter in the past and several prefilters inside of it. The cone filters are about $ 15 and a dozen prefilters are the same. One thing I would recommend doing that will save you a ton of time is to draw off the syrup off the evaporator and store it in five gallons buckets for about a week. Over 90% of the sugar sand will settle to the bottom and you can pour off the syrup and dump the sugar sand. I drew off about 4.75 gallons last Monday and put it in a sealed five gallon bucket. I was back over there on Sat and finished it down to 3.75 gallons of syrup. I reheated the syrup and poured out the sugarsand and I filter almost 5 gallon of syrup in about 30 seconds because there was not sugar sand to block the filters and it ran through like water.

One thing that will help a ton is get get your filters really wet with tap water before you filter and ring out the excess water. The water in the filters will help the syrup suck right on through!

Hope this helps!

[MaineMapleDave]

I forgot to add that you need to boil the heck out of the filters before filtering--gets rid of any stray manufacturing residue that may be in them. May not, but it's not worth the risk.

Then, wring them out really really well (great for forearm development) befor you use them. The wet filters will let syrup through a lot faster than a dry filter. Make sure that the filters are really well wrung out for the last filtering and double- or triple-check your density before bottling. A wet, non-wrung-out filter can change the density of your syrup a hair.

It's kind of like an undending mad science experiment...............

[powerdub]

Dave hit on a very important thing there that they don't tell you when you buy the felts. Boil them in water first. They do treat them with some sort of waxy stuff so they will stay dry and not mildew. If you don't your first filtering through those will not go so well and you may pick up an off flavor.

[michaelh05478]

I use a big industrial shop vac wool bag for filtering my sap.........They work great!!!!

[SUGARSMITH]

I went to home depot and bought a cartridge type water filter with a clear body. You can get different micron filters for it. I have it rigged so that it is continuously circulating the sap in the holding tank, with a float that takes what is needed by the evaporator. My thought behind this is cleaner sap will result in cleaner syrup. Since doing this I have had a lot less foreign matter in the pans and less work with the cones and filter press at finishing.