questions about a hobby set up I just got - please help!

[westgard]

This year, I have graduated from a bunch of homegrown equipment into a half pint leader evaporator and a bunch of additional gear. I bought all this as a package from someone who was moving out west - it also has a nice finishing cooker with a rectangular stainless steel container, along with a long SS container for filtering with the conical filters. So here's my question(s): as I draw the near syrup off the evaporator do I filter it immediately through the conical filter and into the vessel for the finishing? Is it that easy? I know that I have to prep the filters - it just doesn't seem that the conical filters are going to stay hot since I'll only be dumping in relatively small amounts of near syrup from the evaporator every 20-30 minutes or so. I assume that I just let it drip into the finishing cooker and then when I get a big enough batch of that, heat it up, finish it , and then move it directly into the final bottles. Is that correct or do I finish it first, and then put it through the conical filter in a big batch and then go right into the bottles?
THANKS!

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

If I were you, I would try to filter it at both points. If you only filter once, do it after the syrup is finished. Every time you raise the syrup temperature above 195 degrees, more sugar sand will be released. If you filter at 2 stages, there will be less to remove at the final filtering.

[sweetvt]

My experience with a half pint size evaporator, was if you can get it with in a degree or two of syrup draw it off and use that finishing pan with a propane fire under it to get it to final syrup. You will get frustrated trying to get it to syrup in the main pan and it will often dilute itself before you can get a significant draw. it wont take as long as one might think to draw off a gallon or so of close to syrup (within 1-2 degrees) and then finish it over a propane fire it doesn't have to be filter at this time but you can if you want. Keeping track of how much sap has gone thru the main evaporator is the key once you have fed somewhere between 30-40 gallons of raw sap thru you can draw near to a gallon of lite syrup and finish it off. Then filter it once and you can can it or hold on to it until you get a couple gallons to can up.

just my two cents....

[Dennis H.]

What I do is when I get close to syrup, with in a degree or two I will draw off about 2 gals worth and filter that as I draw it off.
Then I use a propane burner to finish it. Once I got it just right I put in about 6 spoon full of filter aide and mix it in.
Then I will pour that thru my flat filter. I put the lid on and set the pan on my stove with the temp set to low. I just want to keep the heat in the syrup. The lid keeps the steam form escaping making the syrup heavy. It took about 1 1/2 hrs for the syrup to go thru the flat filter with very little wasted in the filter.
Keeping the steam in the pan with the lid seems to help get the syrup thru and out off the filter.

I am not saying that this is the best way but it is the way that I found that works for me.

[westgard]

Okay, It looks like I have a plan, I am boiling on Saturday, so i have my fingers crossed!!
Thanks!
Matt

[MapleME]

Dennis, you dont NEED to use filteraid with flat filters do you? I have never used it and this is my first weekend going from cone gravity filter to a flat filter rack.

MapleME

[PerryW]

I've been using the flat filters (24" x 36" I think) for 20 years in my 12 x 20" 10 gallon filter/canner and I have never used filter aid.

I just change the prefilter for every draw-off and change the main filter for about every 5 gallons.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

We follow the method Sweetvt describes. We preset our front pan thermometer prior to boiling and then drawoff at 5-6 degrees. We drawoff into a stainless milk can with 1-2 prefilters. When the can is full, we pour that into a pot set atop a propane burner like those show in Northern tool. Once we reach syrup, we pour off into a filter cone set up with 3-4 prefilters and our wool.

Russ

[Gary R]

I do what sweetVT and rustybucket describe. Remember what Thompson Tree Farm said. If you reheat above 195 sugarsand will reappear. You want to can your syrup at more than 180 degrees. This is so it won't spoil. When I can, I am only doing about 1-2 gal. at a time. I monitor the syrup temp in the canner. I usually have it all bottled in a couple of minutes. The temp never goes below 180 by the time I have it canned. Possible the last pint might be low on temp. But that goes in the fridge to eat! I do have an electric burner under the canner in case I need to keep the heat at 180 if needed. If the syrup starts coming out of the cone filter slow, carefully dump the top prefilter into the one below. Keep doing it until all the syrup is in the canner.

Have fun:)

[MapleME]

I've been using the flat filters (24" x 36" I think) for 20 years in my 12 x 20" 10 gallon filter/canner and I have never used filter aid.

I just change the prefilter for every draw-off and change the main filter for about every 5 gallons.

Perry, for 2 or 3 gallons, how many pre filters do you load on top of the felt filter?? 2, 3?

[PerryW]

MapleME,

I put one prefilter in at a time on top of a single felt filter.

I use 6 metal clips (clips for holding something like 50 sheets of paper together) to hold the filter/prefilter in place.

I draw off a batch (anywhere from 0.5 gal to 2 gal) and put the cover on and wait for it to pass (10-15 minute). When I see that another batch of syrup is getting close, I open up the canner, remove the clips. If there is any remaining syrup in the prefilter, I will carefully gather up the edges of the prefilter (being careful NOT to spill any unfiltered syrup on the Felt filter) and slide in another prefilter under it. Then I set the old prefilter on top of the new prefilter and clips the whole mess together. Usually by the time the next syrup is ready, the old prefilter is empty.

You will sometimes find syrup that is difficult to pass, but you can always dipper the unfiltered syrup back into the evaporator if necessary and install a clean felt and clean prefilter.

[Brent]

we had a Half Pint for 2 seasons and I have to agree with the comments above. It's almost impossible to finish in Half Pint. Get it close and finish on a turkey fryer rig. It is easier to go a bit over density and then boil and dilute on the turkey fryer, but you've got to stay out of the Sugar Shack Soda and pay attention or you can get in trouble and scorch.

[johnallin]

I'm in my second season with a half pint and have no trouble getting finished syrup....so far.

Once pan is sweetend I can normally take 3-5 draws off within 2 hours and then - if I have good wood and sap with decent sugar % - about every hour I get another 4-5. A draw for me is a hydormeter cup which holds about 10 oz.

I use a Leader thromometer set into the pan next to the draw off, watch it, wait til it reads in the 7º range and test each draw with a hydrometer until I can't see the red line- then I stop drawing.

Draws are poured into a leader filter tank with 3 paper cone filters over the wool filter. Close the top after each draw and let it do its thing.

Once I get down to 5 gals sap left, I fire with small 2X2 pieces of softwood so there is little to shovel out as I shut down, it just burns up. Leaving the pan close to syrup and letting it cool off leaves about ¾" depth next day which comes back up to the 1" depth I like to boil with when I begin letting new raw sap in the pan. That also seems to help push concentrate to the draw off section and re-establish the gradient in the pan.

After 2 boils or so, I draw the filtered syrup off the filter tank into a camp style coffee perculator and bring to 180º on a hot plate and pour into bottles. Works great for me, just my 2 cents.

I think for 35-50 taps the Half Pint is one tidy package and tons of fun to run and play with, but I am hooked and as we have trees to support many more taps I am now looking at a leader 2X6 for next year.