Quote Originally Posted by 3rdgen.maple View Post
If you are not finishing directly off your evaporator and then going to the bottling stage then you are wasting your time filtering. Always filter after you have finished the syrup to the right density and then transfer to the bottling stage. If you filter off the evaporator then go to the a finisher to get syrup to the right density you are releasing alot more niter in the syrup while it is boiling. Once syrup is at its final density then filter.
I do believe my filter would disagree with you. Filtering just above the boiling point of water takes out so much sand and niter that it only makes filtering sooooo much quicker at the bottling stage. I would hate to see how long it would take for that thick syrup to get through a filter if I waited and did it only once at the very end!
Infact, I am going to start filtering right after I add the last of the sap to the evaporator because the bottom line for me is that the cleaner it is at bottling time the better it will go through the final filter.

John c.