Anyone run their syrup through a pre filter as they draw it off the evaporator?

[michiganfarmer]

When I bouight my filter press I only had enough money to buy half a bank. I can only get about 5 gallons throuhg it so last year I hung a cone type pre filter in my draw off bucket, but clothes pins werent strong enough to hold the filter as it filled up.

Any one doing anything like this?

I hear that a lot of people dont make syrup in their syrup pan. They draw it off early, and finish it in another pan. I wait till its syrup because I dont have a seperate finish pan.

[VtSugarhouse]

We draw off and pre-filter all syrup in a 18X36 flat filter. The syrup goes to a 4 foot stainless finisher and directly through a 10" long bank filter press into 40 gallon SS barrels ready for canning later in the season. In doing this you can filter at leas 100 gallons of syrup before you need to break down the press.
Bottom line all my syrup gets filtered at least 3 times before it reaches the public.
Thats how we do it!

[Haynes Forest Products]

Michiganfarmer:I have the same short bank and get 25 gallons threw it but that is when its hot and using filteraid. I used to filter from the evap but with the press I dont anymore I got tired of pulling the filter to dump and the prefilters would glog and I would have syrup all over the place. When my finisher is full and hot I dump the filter aid in and mix it and start the filtering and recerculating till its good and clear and hot. Dont try and restart a warm filter press that has dirty filters.

[maple flats]

I was told not to pre filter with a filter press. The dealer said the fine stuff you would remove helps make the filtering better. SO, I draw into a few pots (SS) and use 2 turkey fryer burners to heat them to 200 degrees. Then I dump them, one at a time into a funnel bottom pot (from a dairy farm with dump stations rather that pipeline), mix in the filter aid and run the press on recirculate back into the funnel pot until the discharge stream is perfectly clear, I them with the filter press still running move the discharge hose from the pot to the canner while catching the discharge in a ss pitcher i have, I dump the pitcher into the pot and run until the pot is almost empty. I shut it off and do the same with the second turkey frier heated pot. I continue this until the canner is full (about 15 gal min) At this stage the canner is usually at 180 or near it. I heat it to 195, verify density and adjust with near syrup off the evaporator, run thru the filter press. I always need to bring it down some because I draw off a little too heavy. On rare occassion i have to draw a small amount from the canner because it gets too full before reaching desired density from adding near syrup but that is truly rare and if I need to do it the draw off goes into the next batch. I then bottle and re light the burner when the temp goes down to 185. I i am bottling bigger sizes i don't need to re heat what is in the canner but smaller ones do. Filtering like this I get at least 2 batches or up to 30 gal if that much is done in the same session. I always clean the press at the end of the session even if it was still flowing. I have a short bank 7" press. This works until the end of the season when I don't even get 15 gal per set of papers many times.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Maple Flats: all makes sense except the moving from one tank to the other while your still filtering. I have my bypass hose into my finishing tank and when im done recirculating/filtering and all is clear I change the 3 way valve to buypass move the filterd hose over to the bottler and let it hang there till im done bottling. As the level goes down in the bottler I hit the switch and fill it back up. I dont prefilter into the finisher only because Im lazy. Now I do wonder if it would be better to filter into the finisher only to keep from cooking with dirty syrup. would it stay lighter??? filter aid and papers are cheap so why not.

[brookledge]

I made a pre filter out of stainless wire cloth(I think 60X60). Anyways I like it alot because it keeps the corser sugarsand out which in turn keeps the gearpump in better shape.
I got the wire cloth from McMaster-Carr a long time ago.
Keith

[sugarnut]

i just bookmarked the mcmaster and carr website last week while checking out stainless cloth, lol. awesome site.

i wonder what size mesh could be used or how effective very fine mesh could be? perhaps only as a prefilter? they have some dutch weave that is pretty fine.

[gator330]

I don't have a filter press (YET) so would I filter right of the evaporator, finish it to density. Filter again and bottle and/or hot pack bulk??

Would filter aid help with out a press??

In the past I would let it sit till I had a far amount then poor off leaveing the sediment, always had sediment, never had great filters. Never maid more then 3-4 gal in one season, this year going to try for 30-40 gal. But also have better filters.

[Chad802]

I filter right from the rig to the barrel or canner. Gotta love that filter press.

[220 maple]

Michiganfarmer,
We filter right off the evaporator, however it is not syrup yet, we run it into milk cans, we attach are cone filters to a small piece of plywood with a circular hole cut in it. the filter attaches to small nails that are driven thru the board and stick out and up, once the filter starts to clog we change it out by lifting the plywood and the filter off the milk can and put a new one on, we have several plywood rings, just are cheap way of filtering off the evaporator. I need to post some pictures of are two dollar filter holder I guess.

Mark 220 Maple

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mountainvan uses filteraid with flat filters and prefilters and I think he states he can do 15 to 20 gallon without changing filters. He will probably chime in later with more info.

[mountainvan]

I saw my code name. Yes I use filter aid with flat filters and have filtered a full barrel worth of syrup without changing anything for the day. Most days I get 15 gals through before I change the filters.

[Amber Gold]

When I was making my rounds of sugar houses this summer I met a guy operating something big like a 5x15. He drew off into delaval milk cans with a flannel type filter over it. I forget what the material was exactly, but it looked like a flannel if I remember correctly. He swore by it. He drew off light and had a finishing rig next to it where he got it to density. It went from there into a stainless canning box he had made up with holes for 4 cone filters. I'm not sure why he didn't have a filter press being that large, but he did have a vacuum filler his son made up which was pretty cool.

[michiganfarmer]

I wonder why I cant get 5 gallons through my 12" bank filter press.

[Haynes Forest Products]

MichiganFarmer: Have you ever put a filter in upside down. I have heard about it. LOL I can get 30 out of my 7" Westfab are you circulating through the pump first then stir the filter aid into the boiling syrup keeping it suspended. Then start filtering back into the finisher and then over to the bottler. When I empty my finish pan about 30 gallons I have a lot of fiter aid and crud that settled and never made it into the press. I think I overdo the filter aid but its cheap and doesnt seem to hurt anything.

[michiganfarmer]

MichiganFarmer: Have you ever put a filter in upside down. I have heard about it. LOL I can get 30 out of my 7" Westfab are you circulating through the pump first then stir the filter aid into the boiling syrup keeping it suspended. Then start filtering back into the finisher and then over to the bottler. When I empty my finish pan about 30 gallons I have a lot of fiter aid and crud that settled and never made it into the press. I think I overdo the filter aid but its cheap and doesnt seem to hurt anything.

I am not circulating it. I take a gallon of hot syrup, add 3 cups of filter aid, stirr it up well, suck that into the filter press, then I start filtering syrup.

I havent put a filter in upside down. YET.

[nudlebush]

We draw directly from our syrup finishing pan into wool filter and pre-filters and achieve great results. Our filters are mounted in and old sap bucket with the bottom cut out, I popped rivetted pcs of allum channel to the inside of the sap bucket to keep the filters from touching the sides of the bucket, the filter then sits on top of a milk pail.
Back home we re-heat syrup up to 212F and bottle. We remove 99.9% of nitre and the bottom of the milk pails are clean even after the syrup sitting for days

[Burnt sap]

Yes, As it comes off than triple filtered into bottles or jugs.

[steve J]

Any time I transfer the sap/syrup I filter and drawing off is transferring the sap

[ennismaple]

I them with the filter press still running move the discharge hose from the pot to the canner while catching the discharge in a ss pitcher i have, I dump the pitcher into the pot and run until the pot is almost empty.

Dave - We used to do this for a season but we bought a 3-way valve to switch from re-circulating to sending it to the canner with the turn of a lever. Waaaaaay simpler and no mess! I have a video on our YouTube channel that shows our Sirofilter in action and the piping.

We were also told not to pre-filter but have found that some pre-filtering gets more through before we need to change the cloth on the Sirofilter. Results are the same.