Press by Daryl

Next year I'm going to change the way I press:

1. No charge. Instead, I'm going to heat all of the filter press plates in a pot of boiling water just before I put them and the filter papers in my press. And I'll put together my press just before I filter. I'll get my press very hot without diluting my sap with charge water.
2. Press at 210 degrees. I'll put all 4 cups of the D.E. into the syrup as soon as it becomes syrup then I'll press as soon as it gets down to 210 degrees. It will lose another 10 degrees while being pressed, but should still be hot enough for the jars without any reheating.
3. Heating empty jars. I'll warm my empty jars in the oven while I press. That way they won't much cool the syrup that gets put into them.
4. Bulkhead on my collection pot. I'll put a stainless steel bulkhead with a downward pointing stainless steel elbow an inch and a half from the bottom of my 10 gallon collection pot. Then I'll use the valve on the bulkhead like a faucet in order to quickly put the syrup into jars while it's hot.

There was maybe 4 gals in that batch.
I also used 3 pint mason jars full of filter aid.
It has been like this for me for about the last 2 weeks. At the beginning of the season I was able to get over 6 thru it with out any problem and it took well under 5 min. With this last batch it took at least 5 min for that 4 gals.
I still have the end of the season syrup to finish and filter yet and it is some really nasty dirty looking stuff. I am tempted to try the precharge thing with water and filter aid. The way I have the filter press made up with the gear pump I should have no problems getting most of the water out before pushing the syrup thru.
Otherwise it will have to be multiple batches with tear downs in between.

Quote:

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When you draw off do you use a pre filter before running it through the press?

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No I do not, but I am thinking that I should. It might be one of the changes that I make for next season. I just have to reconfigure my drawoff setup to be able to have the filter under the drawoff spout and the small syrup tank I am using.

Dennis H.,

6 cups of filter aid in one batch! I didn't know that would work. We're really testing what people say about using this press!

We have a 15 gallon gallon leader canner that we use with daryl's press. We draw off the evaporator at syrup and dump into the canner. Canner has a screen on top that holds paper filters. We use 2 paper prefilters for each pail of syrup into the canner. The prefilters take out a whole bunch of niter. When the canner is totally full we bring it up to 219 and connect the inlet side of the press to the outlet of the canner. The press is charged with 3 cups of de and about a gallon of syrup. We bottle right off the outlet of the press - the canner burner stays on and maintains maintains 210+ through the batch. Got over 17 gallons through the press yesterday using this method.

We set the prefilters covered in niter and syrup aside, later rinsing with hot sap in 5 gallon pail. When all syrup is pressed, dump this pail into the canner and press out. Pushes last bit of syrup out of press and captures sugar off prefilters. Dump this pressed sap back into back pan, or front. It's high in sugar content.

Oh, it fits but just. All the plates are basically filled. Maybe a 1/16" gap in between the cakes.

Howard, I really like your scientific approach to our problem. Thanks for your testing ideas. Thanks to others as well. We have a full range of ideas here--from no DE in the heating of the press, to charging it with 3 cups DE. Maybe it all works--to a point. Seems like most of us can't get more than about 4 gallons of late syrup through. It's hard to believe that the press can hold 6 cups of DE. One of my last batches I used Howard's approach of 1/2 cup of DE in hot water to charge, then 3.5 cups in the batch of 4.5 gallons of syrup. Barely got all through. But then the next batch of 3.5 gallons would not go through--very dirty, I guess. One thing I try to do is let my syrup settle at least overnight, then pour it off the dregs, leaving the sediment behind. It seems to help a little. But next year I will try Howard's latest idea of not charging the press, but simply heating the plates in hot water (I have those Orca gloves which should help handling).

One big improvement I made this year was to upgrade my hoses. No more clear hose with the white fiber in it. That lousy stuff collapses and kinks. I got the milk transfer hose, 5/8" ID. Great stuff, may be silicone. No kinks or collapse. Very flexible as well.

I still don't understand how Bosworth can charge as much for upgrade parts as they can for a full new pump. It guess it's like cars. Maybe Daryl can buy a bunch wholesale and give us a deal. Daryl, are you listening? :) Still, I'm disappointed that I can't get more than 3 or 4 gallons of late season syrup through. Hoping for more ideas to come. Thanks all.

I just filtered the last syrup of the season and decided to try to precharge the press by running water with filter aid thru it first.
For me I did not get good results.
Since I have an oven in my sugarhouse I threw the filter press plates into the oven set at 200 degrees. I then precharged with 2 cups of DE with nice hot clear water.
And since all my hoses have camlock I was able to drain off most of the water before filtering the syrup.
I then put about 2 cups of DE into about 3 gals of syrup and filtered, It almost did not make it all thru.

I took the filter press apart and got it ready for my second batch of 3 gals of syrup, this time I took 6 cups of DE and mixed it into the syrup directly.
While keeping it mixed I ran all 3 gals thru it without any problems.

The second way that I did it I can tell you that the plates were completely full and the DE looked the same color thru out. The 1st batch I ran thru had very dark sediment right next too the papers.
Maybe I should have put more DE into the 1st batch after precharging, not sure but Since it was still another step that I had to do I most likely will continue with placing the DE directly into the syrup and keeping it mixed as I am filtering.

maple marc,

I've never heard of orca gloves. Can you tell me where you get them? I went through three different pairs of waterproof gloves this year.

I have had my press for 2 years now all I do is add 3 cups of De to anywhere from 2 to 3 gallons of syrup circulate till syrup is clear then put in canner just did last 2 gallons no problem make sure syrup is hot

This is our second season and we don't do quite as many gallons as most. Instead of charging with water we charge with the syrup we are about to filter. Our process is 2 cups of DE into our syrup which is at 219F and circulate it back into syrup pot for until the syrup in the pot starts to clear up. we then add somewhere between a 1/2 cup and 1 cup of DE per gallon we are filtering and move the hose from our syrup pot to a new pot to hold the filtered syrup.

Love the press, just need to figure out where to source the filter papers for Daryl's press. I don't really need any yet, but just curious if I need to get them through Daryl of if they are readily available through other supply houses. Does anyone with Daryl's Press know about the filter papers?