Coffee urn

I'm new to maple syrup but I was reading about using a coffee urn for bottle syrup. I was thinking about a stainless steel urn that would keep the syrup between 183°F to 188°F.

We are small and only tapping about 20 trees this year and wondering what everyone thinks about using a coffee urn (pros/cons) for small time hobbyists?

Great idea and they work well. I have a fellow producer that bottles everyday using a $15 rummage sale percolator style one. He does 400 gallons a year all thru the pot. Now a word of caution about the electric element. If you put cold syrup in the pot and crank up the heat to get it to boiling temp you will start to hear a small rumbling and slight squeak and I call it micro boiling and it can cause small amounts of niter. I would only filter warm syrup in to it and only work the temp up slowly.

They work great for bottling. But Haynes is correct.....you should get syrup up to temperature another way. If we are boiling while bottling we will put the urn over the evaporator to heat it up. Your syrup can lose 10-20 degrees going into an urn at room temperature.

Here’s a video of my urn setup a few years ago. Hope it helps. https://youtu.be/9kdVThgyq_M

Thanks for the video. I can see me doing something like this.

My thinking is that sap and RO concentrate especially doesn't keep. So if I boil down the concentrate to near syrup, can I finish the syrup in the next couple of days?

I would then finish several days of near syrup on a propane burner and then filter it when putting it into the coffee urn. I would heat up the urn with water prior to putting the finished syrup. I like the idea of steaming the filter while the water heats up the urn...seems like a waste to not make use of the steam. And if I can finish several days of partially finished sap then I would end up with a fair bit to put through the filter and into the coffee urn (40 cup model).

Does that sound about right?

You can save up to finish all at once but will need to still be careful of temperature when storing. The closer to syrup the better it will store.

Supper Sapper is right about getting it as close as possible to syrup. Your better off going over density and adjusting down than storing almost syrup. Don't waste the heat and ability to get it there on the evap.

If you go over density (my problem is usually being under density) what do you add to bring in back to the correct density?

You add raw sap or distilled water back into the syrup

Would the distilled water or permeate from a RO system be the better option opposed to raw sap? I thinking the raw sap might introduce bacteria into the syrup. Or am I over thinking things.