Temperature and Process for Packing Bulk Syrup

Hello all,

I am making lots of workflow and equipment changes in my sugarhouse for the 24 season. I work solo in my operation - no help. Last year I made 171 gallons of syrup. I have been drawing off into a four gallon pail for many years. Last year with my 2x8 boiling 8% I was struggling to keep up with the filtering and hot packing. The process has been that I mix my DE in with the first full pail of syrup that's drawn off, pull the pail out from the auto-draw off and replace it with another, carry the full one to the filter press location, and filter it into a 16x16 canner. When the canner is full at about 10 gallons, I fire it up, heat to 185-190, and pack it into stainless 15.5 gallon barrels. In the off-season, I pull a barrel, heat it to 190 in my canner, re-test the grade and density, make any adjustments I need to make, and bottle it for retail.

This coming season, as we grow, I would like to streamline that process if possible. The 2x8 evaporator is being upgraded to a propane fired 3x10 H20 (the 2x8 has been sold). I bought a 19 gallon filter press tank, a cart for my filter press, and a larger 16x24 gas canner and burner stand (which I needed anyways for bottling off-season). I'm going to use silicone milk tubing directly from the bottom fitting on the 19 gallon draw-off tank - to the press. And from there I was going to send it to the canner to get it to 185 as usual.

However...I have seen a lot of sugarmakers packing bulk drums right off the press, but I won't likely have 180 degree syrup coming out of the press with the volume of syrup I am expecting. I was getting 3-4 gallons an hour off the evaporator with the 2x8. I expect to double that with the 3x10 but still don't think it will be 185 degrees by the time it gets through the press. Especially if I am waiting to get 5-6 gallons in the draw off tank before I send to the press
it's not an insulated tank).

So...is it safe to bulk pack syrup in barrels at less than 185 degrees if I am heating it back to 190 when it's bottled? There are times when I don't fill a barrel in a night, and I am packing 185 degree syrup into a barrel with cold syrup the next night - and that has never been an issue. I've never had mold in any of my barrels when they are opened in the summer. So I am wondering if I really need that high of a temp on the bulk pack. If not, I could eliminate the canner from the bulk packing process by barreling it right off the press, and make my life easier. Again: It's ALWAYS heated to 190 before it's bottled for retail. This would be just for bulk storage.

Like many of you here, I take a lot of pride in providing high quality maple syrup to our customers, and I do not want to take short cuts and compromise that.

Thoughts?

You are doing fine. However I suggest you only heat it to 185, just the 5 extra degrees can result in darkening of the syrup. Then test for density and adjust as needed, then grade it (color). When you fill your 15.5 gal barrels, they should be at or above 185F, then seal them. That way the syrup will keep for years if desired. If you can't keep up packing bulk, you may want to do it right after the season. The issue then is that you need to reheat it which gives a risk of making the syrup darker (every time you reheat it the syrup gets darker)
I do similar to how you are trying to go, but I heat all bulk syrup in my 2x6 propane fired finisher, then it is drawn off into my mixing tank (a 7 gal SS tank with bottom drain) then I add the filter aid, filter it and send it to either the bottler or if sending it to a barrel, I will have heated it to 200-205 so it comes from the filter press at 180 or more. When I do this I preheat the filter, to do that I heat to 200-205, filter and send it back into the finisher until the filter is hot. Then I start filling the barrel. In my case, my 2x6 finisher can hold well over 50 gal, and I'm filling 26.5 gal SS barrels. I have my draw off tank (off the evaporator) plumbed to the filter press, but I don't filter then, I just use the filter pump to move the syrup and I bypass the filter and send it to the finisher. It often takes a full 6 gal going thru the filter to heat it up (my filter is a Lapierre 7" with 5 sets of plates) When I have hated the filter I then make sure the syrup in the finisher is at or above 190, and I filter into a barrel, if I have enough syrup in the finisher, I fill a second barrel. I do not do partial barrels. If I'm going to do barrels I try to have 60+ gal in the finisher. I've never had enough to do 3 barrels in succession, but most often do 2. I suspect the producers you see filtering directly into barrels are big enough that they can keep the syrup hot enough, from draw off (219+/-) mix in filter aid, then filter with a still hot filter and into the barrel. It doesn't sound like you will be at that level yet.

I will top off barrels that have been sitting for a week 1/4-1/2 full. The trick is to mak it a point or a point and a half heavy, that way it won't ferment. Never had a problem. Learned it from Glen Goodrich. I will switch barrels if the grade changes too, then go back and top them off later when the grade changes back or next start up. I had some barrels of fancy sitting around the sugar house since 2018 that I bottled last spring and it was perfect. I never heard of reheating syrup in a canner to put into a drum until this summer my neighbor told me they did it this way. In 2004 we got our 4x12 and filter press we always went from our drawoff box to the drum. Our first drums were Dr. Pepper 15 gallon drums.

Brian is spot on I've done it for years with no issues. There is no way I would reheat a partial drum just to add to it (there is a partial drum every boil) and reheating cuts profits pretty fast. If you really want to hit full drums every night, I recommend getting smaller drums and using a diaphragm pump and just slow you filter press down to match the draw off speed (or close to it). Continuous filtering it so much easier and efficient and everything stays hot the whole time.

I believe it's pretty standard for most producers to fill partial barrels. Might have to keep a closer eye on it in a heated sugarhouse but non-insulated ones stay pretty cool that time of year even if the days are warm. With that said, when we worked for a larger operation we did have some of the 5 gallon pails around and would fill those at the end of the night if we were going to have less than 10 gallons of syrup after a barrel was filled. No rhyme or reason for the 10 gallon rule, just how he did it. Those would then get dumped into the bottler the next day, reheat and bottle. We would get most of the retail syrup bottled for the season that way- by using the end of the boil syrup.

I guess I stand corrected, Those who replied after me are true veterans of making lots of maple syrup. I just never tried anyway but full barrels.

Alright - Thanks for all the replies.

What I am getting is that THIS method won't work ...

Into the barrel at say - 150 degrees, sealed and stored until post season (sometimes June or July) and then pumped from the barrel to the canner and bottled at 185 for retail.

As one poster suggested, I could use my diaphragm pump to move syrup from the evaporator to a finisher (I have a Leader gas finisher) and heat it there before I send it to the press and into a barrel. I've been doing it the other way around and heating AFTER it goes through the press. It goes through the press at probably 140-150 degrees.

Anyways - I have some options I guess.