first boil for the season filtering issue

[voluntucky tapper]

100 gallons of sap put through RO gave me 40 gallons of concentrate to evaporate down to four gallons to finish off filtering along the way several times at transfers and then again into the bottler ,four cone prefilters dampened andinto wool finish cone ,again, dampened ,3/4 went fine ,one prefilter to the next till just the wool filter remained .and would not give up the last two quarts .what a pain . is it just me !!!!! we ended up with a gallon and a half or so ..no sap yesterday

[Pdiamond]

My guess is that it cooled down to much to filter well for you. It has to be hot to get thru those pre filters and wool filters.

[maple flats]

Back when I did gravity filtering I found it fastest if I didn't filter before the final filtering. I don't know if that might contribute to the issue.

[fisheatingbagel]

In my opinion, the most effective way to filter small volumes of syrup for your own use is by decanting. Let the syrup sit for a week or longer if the temperature allows. You should be able to use almost all of your syrup this way. The 5 gallon food grade buckets from the big box stores work well for this. You should still prefilter before decanting. Good luck!

[wobbletop]

I agree that letting it settle for a week is the best/easiest way for the small producer to filter.

Also, when using cone filters, use the "center punched up" method to enable full use of the filter material.

[buckeye gold]

Never in any world will I ever use cone final filters again. My experience is bad. Try smaller batches and like someone said it's cooling too fast. The whole cone needs to be inside a container and covered. I went to flat filters 12 years ago. I found a wire basket to hang inside a large stock pot and my wife sews up custom fitting filters that hold about a gallon each. I have had no problems filtering since. Some years it seems syrup filters slower then others and in those years I do smaller batches, number one rule in gravity filtering is "Keep IT Hot".

[voluntucky tapper]

thanks for all the feedback