filtering syrup

[jrthe3]

dose anyone have any idea what the micron rating is on a syrup filter weather cone filter or filter press or how fine is the syrup filtered to

[H. Walker]

I have the Lapierre "Sirofilter", their design of filter press. It runs with a 5 micron pre-filter and 1 micron final fiter, NO filteraid. The syrup comes out sparkling!

[Haynes Forest Products]

Walker
I can run my filter press without filteraid also I just cant run it very long. How many gallons can you filter before it stops working? And does it stop filtering or does it blow the papers?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Lappierre also makes a nice stanard filter press in addition to the sirofilter. I think some of the sirofilter users use filter aid also, but I could be mistaken.

[Brent]

I don't recall a direct reference to micron ratings needed but from what I've learned 5 micron isn't quite good enough. If you have a 5 micron filter and add DE, then the rating gets a bit better and the amount you can filter before it plugs also goes up.

A DE filter, ( uses filter aid ) will filter down to about 0.5 to 1 micron and does a great job.

[H. Walker]

Walker
I can run my filter press without filteraid also I just cant run it very long. How many gallons can you filter before it stops working? And does it stop filtering or does it blow the papers?
The 12" unit that I have filter 20 to 30 gallon of syrup before I have to change the pre-filter, depending on how dirty the syrup is. I never had to change the 1 micro filter in a run. There is no papers, the filters are washable orlon type fabric.

The 5 micron pre-filter is similar in weave and thickness of a orlon cone filter.

[Jim Powell]

The batches I did through the 5 micron filter, where I filtered at lower temp, back into gallong jugs, and then refiletered at higher temp into bottles came out "krystil klear" pun intended!

It was more work, but for me, loosing much was overiding factor in the approach. I also didn't see any increase in color.

[peacemaker]

heres a ?? for any filter press guys .. is there a noticeable color chage .

i thought i was told by someone that they could lighten there colors alot with a filter press .

[Brent]

heres a ?? for any filter press guys .. is there a noticeable color chage .

i thought i was told by someone that they could lighten there colors alot with a filter press .

this is my first year with a filter press but I can't say I noticed any color change.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I have my filter press set up so I can recirculate from the finishing pan draw off back into the back top corner of the pan and Ill filter the syrup for 10 min just to warm up the plates and get all the gunk out and I dont think I change the grade. I think the color is the same just not cloudy. If I look at the sedement in the press with the filteraid I dont see the color change from the start of the filtering to the end of the process it doesnt look layerd.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Peacemaker- It is true that you can sometimes lighten the color of the syrup with a filter press. This season comes into memory pretty good (1996) where most of the producers in our area were making Dark and B syrup right from the get go. Running some of the seasons first syrup through the press it came out like a High B and i was like what the heck? so i added more filter aid and recycled the batch through the filter press and out came syrup about 1/4 of a grade lighter=made it into the dark amber color range. I Don't think you could pull that off all the time??/but a filter press will put out clearer and lighter filtered syrup then a felt hat or flat filter any day of the season.

[peacemaker]

cool thats what this guy said when its just not say fancy but barely amber he can run through twice and can bring it down to fancy ... i ran filter aide and cones and flats this year and it really made it shine and thought maybe it lightened it a bit but not sure if it was pure hopes ..lol

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Probably if you had sample bottles to compare with a before and after you would have seen if there was any difference in color change?. That was the way i could tell that it did make a difference from my first sample to the 2nd sample taken off the press's hose. Other then that time i haven't run syrup through twice again/except i think we tryed that last year up at the captain's on some Mersh..... Short for commercial grade type syrup.

[maplecrest]

if you are making dark syrup to start and color lightens as your boiling day goes on, if you do not change the press papers your color will remain fairly dark. if you are making borderline fancy, shut down press clean and change papers you will make fancy. the darker in the press will hold the grade down. before i got the big press, i had a better handle on lighter syrup. now with the big press and being able to run 150 gallons plus between changes, i make alot of tweener. between fancy and med. because i dont want to shut the press down and change it and spend the money on papers.

[royalmaple]

Yeah, we were running some used waste oil type stuff through and after a couple of passes we might have brought it up to a 10w-30 with 5,000 - 6,000 miles on it.


I noticed that my press was black as night when I broke it down for the night after running some syrup through, most runs was 10-15 gallons.

[brookledge]

Thats the nice thing about presses, they can be used year round
Keith