Fi l ter when made or when bottled?

[BCPP]

Just curious about what others do.
We run the outlet from our finishing pan through a gravity filter that has 3 orlon prefilters and a felt main filter. The syrup flows into a 3 gal container that we then refrigerate until ready to bottle.
At bottle time we heat the syrup up to about 190 and then place in bottles. Never had any sediment in either the bulk containers or the bottles.
I've seen on other threads where some are filtering as they bottle (not sure if they filter off the evaporator as well).

I'm just wondering what others do? Is there an advantage of one over the other?

[wmick]

I do both..... cone filters off the evaporator and cone filter into my coffee urn bottler.. Not sure if I really need to??, but I have had some sediment in the past, so I figure better safe than sorry.... It doesn't slow my process down any.

[jrgagne99]

I filter syrup from the evaporator by pouring it into my canning unit using 4 pre-filters and 1 felt. At the end of the night, I heat the syrup in the canning unit back up to 195 and then bottle it.

[ecolbeck]

I used to filter off the evaporator, store until end of season, and then reheat and filter again into the canner. Lately though I’ve just been using prefilters to catch big stuff off the evaporator, storing, and then reheating and filtering properly into the canner. That way I’m only handling and cleaning the cone filter at the end of the season.

[tcross]

we filter right off the evaporator, then store it in 5 or 10 gallons containers. at the end of the season, or if we get a slow period between, we'll can/barrel it all. once and a while we'll find a tiny bit of nitre in the bottom of the canning pan (last quart or so if we don't cut the heat early enough)... if that happens we put that aside for our own use.

[NhShaun]

I have always filtered right off the evaporator with 4 or 5 pre filters inside a felt cone filter. Store it in 5 gallon containers until the end of the season then reheat to check brix and adjust if needed and bottle. The last couple seasons i followed the same practice but would reheat to check brix then pour through the top of a Smokey lake steam canner with 4 pre filters and a flat filter. This certainly made my syrup a lot more clear and filtered the 2nd time around much faster through the flat filter. Makes for a lot of filter cleaning which is a pain as i don't have running water or electricity where i sugar.

Most responses were using gravity filtration. Is there is no need to filter right off the evaporator if you will run it through a filter press? I picked up a short bank 7" Wes fab filter press used over the summer and was hoping that would eliminate my need to deal with sloppy cone and pre filters anymore. I just finally sweetened my pans, so hopefully i'll make some real syrup to try it out.

[Crooked Cellars Farm]

I filter off the evaporator through a flat filter setup in a basket. The syrup goes into stainless steel pots. We draw off a bit heavy. When we are ready to bottle we reheat the syrup and check density and make our fixes, then I run it through my filter press and into our Smoky Lake steam bottler. We bottle into glass.
Dale

[NhShaun]

I filter off the evaporator through a flat filter setup in a basket.
Dale

Does this include a flat filter and pre filters? Or are you just trying to get out any of the bigger stuff that may end up in the pans to prevent the filter press from clogging up quickly?

[Crooked Cellars Farm]

Yes, flat filter and 4 prefilters. It is mostly to get the big stuff out but it has seemed to work real well for us this year. This was the first year we've done this. We just got a filter press this year from Smoky Lake as well. And it works great. Very little sediment noticed in our filter cakes. I don't think you necessary need to do it this way of using a filter press but in theory we could filter alot more syrup with less clogging.
Dale

[Crooked Cellars Farm]

I also have a few "spare" sets of the filters/prefilters, as we tend to make more syrup than those filters can handle in 1 stretch.

[Swingpure]

This is a good thread for me, as I was asking the same question. I will filter off the evaporator with my gravity fed flat filter.

If was to filter one more time at bottling and I reheated the syrup to 190, would it not cool down below 185 by the time it made it through the flat filter and in the catchment vessel for bottling?

Thanks

[DrTimPerkins]

If you don't heat the syrup above 190 deg F when canning, there is no need to refilter. You need to be careful about hotspots during heating however, which is why a double-boiler/canner is so handy. Otherwise bring the temp up slowly and stir frequently.

[Swingpure]

If you don't heat the syrup above 190 deg F when canning, there is no need to refilter. You need to be careful about hotspots during heating however, which is why a double-boiler/canner is so handy. Otherwise bring the temp up slowly and stir frequently.

Thank you!

I am always someone who adds an extra rope when tying things down.

If I use my flat filter after the evaporator and then after I have finished it to 67 Brix, that should be sufficient filtering?

[berkshires]

Thank you!

I am always someone who adds an extra rope when tying things down.

If I use my flat filter after the evaporator and then after I have finished it to 67 Brix, that should be sufficient filtering?

If you have an extra rope lying around, there's no downside to using it (unless you're in a rush). However that's not the case with filtering. Every time you filter, you're going to lose some syrup. It gets soaked up by the filter and left behind in the filtering process. I've never used flat filters, but in my cone filters I lose around a half a cup of syrup or more per batch.

If you have six to eight batches over the season, and you filter twice each time, you may be looking at a loss of a half a gallon of syrup. As I understand it, you're planning on 16 taps, so if all goes well, that's roughly 4 gallons of syrup. If you were at a scale where you were producing 100 gallons of syrup in a season, I wouldn't say anything, but a half a gallon is a good portion of your output for the year.

Just something to keep in mind.

Cheers,

GO

[DrTimPerkins]

If you were at a scale where you were producing 100 gallons of syrup in a season, I wouldn't say anything, but a half a gallon is a good portion of your output for the year.

Interestingly, large producers using filter presses are less prone to loosing syrup while filtering. Many (most) will purge the filter press of syrup after filtering by running permeate through the press to wash out the sugar, and return it back to the collection tank for recycling. Smaller producers can do something similar by putting filters into the sap pan or preheater tank briefly to remove much of the sugar if they are still boiling.

[aamyotte]

Interestingly, large producers using filter presses are less prone to loosing syrup while filtering. Many (most) will purge the filter press of syrup after filtering by running permeate through the press to wash out the sugar, and return it back to the collection tank for recycling. Smaller producers can do something similar by putting filters into the sap pan or preheater tank briefly to remove much of the sugar if they are still boiling.
When you say put the filter in the sap pan do you mean completely immerse it in the pan and the boiling sap will dilute the syrup trapped in the filter? I only had 15 taps last year and my concern was syrup loss in the filter.

[DrTimPerkins]

When you say put the filter in the sap pan do you mean completely immerse it in the pan and the boiling sap will dilute the syrup trapped in the filter?

Yes. Alternatively you could soak it in the sap tank. You don't need to do it real long. It also helps to presoak the filter before using for syrup as it wets it and gets it hot. We don't use this practice (we use a filter press), so perhaps someone who does can elaborate a bit.

[jrgagne99]

I would not pre-soak a filter with raw sap, since that liquid will be going directly into the final product without having been brought to a boil. Same reason not to dilute heavy syrup with raw sap. Use sweet from the flue pan instead. I personally do not pre-soak my flat filters. I find that the syrup wets it out just fine after a few minutes.

As for rinsing filters to not waste the sugar... At the end of the night, I rinse out the felt in a bucket with either sweet from the flue pan or with steamaway condensate, then I cover it and let the sand settle overnight, then decant the liquid back into the sap pan the next time i boil. I don't attempt to salvage any sugar from the prefilters- they are thin, and mostly sludge anyway.

[berkshires]

I use cone filters into a coffee urn and do the following:
- After the coffee urn comes to a boil and then settles down a bit, I use a little of the hot water to dampen the felt and prefilters, then I set them up on top, and cover the whole thing, so they steam a little while I finish my syrup on the stove and get it to exactly 67
- When the syrup is ready, I dump the hot water from the urn and filter and bottle
- After I'm done bottling I put the felt filter in a zip-lock bag in the freezer
- Next time I boil I run sap through the felt filter into my preheater pan, or else just immerse it in the first channel for a few minutes. Then I put it back in the bag and when I get home I wash it, dry it, and start over.

All that said, if I go through two or more prefilters, they can soak up a surprising amount of syrup. Once or twice I've gone through the trouble (if I have a really big batch) to soak the prefilters in distilled water after using them, and then boil that down (that goes in my personal-consumption jug after settling out all the sludge). And that winds up being a half cup of syrup or more.

GO

[Swingpure]

If you have six to eight batches over the season, and you filter twice each time, you may be looking at a loss of a half a gallon of syrup. As I understand it, you're planning on 16 taps, so if all goes well, that's roughly 4 gallons of syrup. If you were at a scale where you were producing 100 gallons of syrup in a season, I wouldn't say anything, but a half a gallon is a good portion of your output for the year.

Just something to keep in mind.

Cheers,

GO

There were a number of interesting posts after this one, but a question about your post.

If I was to only filter once. Does it make a big difference if I filter off the evaporator, or after finishing, or while bottling? I was worried about doing it at the time of bottling, that the syrup would cool below 185° before making it out of the filter.

For bottling I have a brew kettle with a thermometer and ball valve and hose and was going to slowly heat up the finished syrup, and when it reached 190°, using the ball valve, fill my bottles, that had been preheated to 190° In the oven.

I am up to 22 taps and counting now.

[berkshires]

There were a number of interesting posts after this one, but a question about your post.

If I was to only filter once. Does it make a big difference if I filter off the evaporator, or after finishing, or while bottling?

Yes it does. If you're only going to filter once, it needs to be after the last time you create niter.

GO

[Swingpure]

Yes it does. If you're only going to filter once, it needs to be after the last time you create niter.

GO

So for me, that would be after I finished it. If I understand all that I have read on the forum correctly, when I reheat the syrup for bottling, I reheat it between 185 and 190. As long as I do not heat it past 190, I will not produce any new niter.

I order a kettle today, with a thermometer and ball valve and hose for the purpose of bottling. Hopefully the thermometer will keep me in the 185 to 190 range. I will heat it slowly and stir it occasionally. When I get into right temperature range, I will open the ball valve and fill my bottles, freshly out of the oven below, also heated to 190°.

22455

[Super Sapper]

You can heat the syrup up to 200 or more when you are final filtering. Over time you will find how high to heat it to end up with the 185 to 190 after filtering or at least close to it. It will also filter better with higher temperatures.