1st time bottling

[fruitguy]

We tapped 17 trees in our yard for the first time. They are all sugar maples. Evaporated outside to about 214 degrees and then brought in the house to finish. Water boiled at 211 so I figured to take it to 218.5. While bringing up the temp it boiled over and made a huge mess. Lessons learned. Cleaned it up and brought it up slower. Hit my temp and pulled off. Poured it through cheese cloth and a small strainer. Bottled while still hot into pint bottles.

It looks like bubbles throughout the bottle and then let sit. It looks like some of the sugar settled to the bottom of the bottles. If I shake them it goes back into suspension.

What did I do wrong. Any guesses?

Thanks
James

[wnybassman]

That is niter and sugar sand you are seeing. Cheesecloth does not make a good syrup filter. Even a stack of three or four prefilters will do a pretty good job compared to cheesecloth.

Those last couple degrees you cannot take your eye off the pot even for a second. :D

[ecolbeck]

Probably what looks like sugar is actually niter (sugar sand). the cheesecloth was not fine enough to catch it. Also, it's impossible to know the true density by measuring only temperature. Syrup that is under density will not store for long periods at room temperature.

[fruitguy]

Can you post a link or suggest a filter membrane.

[wnybassman]

Can you post a link or suggest a filter membrane.

https://www.smokylakemaple.com/product/cone-filters/

[fruitguy]

Can I reheat the bottles we already did and run through the filters or should I just use what we have for us and on the next run filter better and share with family and friends.

[ecolbeck]

You could definitely reheat and refilter but saving it for personal use would certainly be easier. Out where I am garden/farm/hardware stores all carry basic syrup supplies like filters. Amazon has them too.

[barnbc76]

Tractor supply has some, though not the best. I bought my cone filters from leaderevaporator.com (prefilters and synthetic cone filter)It is annoying to have to rebottle to say the least. I also read Agway carries it though I cannot confirm they have it in the local store.