filtering

[jwmiller]

Hello - newbie here. This is my first time syruping on me own. I live in NE MN and tapped 23 trees this spring. I made just under a gallon of syrup this spring using a homemade set up consisting of a 55 gallon barrel and two stainless steel pans with 6 gallon capacity. I filtered my sap multiple times both before boiling, as well as after taking it off the wood fire before bringing it into the house to finish up on the stove. Now that the syrup is bottled, I noticed a decent amount of niter sand has accumulated on the bottom of the jars. How can I filter this again to remove the niter sand? I tried using a coffee filter and that didn't work as barely any syrup moved through the filter in 30 minutes. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.18605

[lyford]

If it were me I’d just decant the syrup off the niter sediment. With that small of a volume of syrup you would lose a big percentage of your product in the filter. Next year you could just pour your finished syrup in a big half gallon mason jar and let it settle from a week to a few months then pour off your clear syrup.

[Cedar Eater]

Filtering small volumes is a waste of time. The only products that work well for small hobby operations are used in conjunction with each other. That's paper prefilters and an orlon or wool felt cone filter. They soak up a lot of syrup, so typically they are allowed to soak in the next batch of sap to recover the syrup, until you produce enough syrup to justify rinsing the loss away. It makes more sense to let the syrup settle and then decant it. Then bring the temp up to 190 before canning. Any higher will produce more niter.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I wouldn't say its a waste of time I just wouldn't use a beach towel to filter 1-2 gallons of syrup. letting it settle is fine if you suck the syrup off the top till you hit the crap layer and then you still have as much loss as gravity filtering. Filter hot and let it sit for a day until every drop gets thru. Don't start out with the fine filter first use a course one first. Dontt use a big store bought cone filter that will wick the syrup up into the sides and hold 1/2 gallon. Use a small cotton cloth the first time and if you can get some a small amount of DE yea just a 1/2 cup and when your done squeeze the dregs out with your hand in a separate jar. When you make 1-2 gallons its precious so don't use a big filter. Wash cloth size banded over a warm pot. Pour the boiling yea BOILING syrup into a warm pot on the stove and the steam from the filtered syrup will help the filter work. Remember any syrup that is to density will steam up and wont be lost so its your helper in the process. Keep the filter tight on the filter container so you keep the heat in...........Cover with lid and no peeking. Plus turn the heat off after all is in the filter it can burn even on medium.

[regor0]

Hello - newbie here. This is my first time syruping on me own. I live in NE MN and tapped 23 trees this spring. I made just under a gallon of syrup this spring using a homemade set up consisting of a 55 gallon barrel and two stainless steel pans with 6 gallon capacity. I filtered my sap multiple times both before boiling, as well as after taking it off the wood fire before bringing it into the house to finish up on the stove. Now that the syrup is bottled, I noticed a decent amount of niter sand has accumulated on the bottom of the jars. How can I filter this again to remove the niter sand? I tried using a coffee filter and that didn't work as barely any syrup moved through the filter in 30 minutes. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.18605Try this method.
http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?t=3851