New to tapping sap, a few questions...

[Mike Swally]

I've always thought that the hobby of making maple syrup sounded kind of fun. I'm home brewer, so I have a Cajun cooker & 9 gallon cooking pot. On March 7, 2013, for the first time I tapped 5 maples trees in my yard with the plastic spikes and a hose leading to 5 gallon buckets buried in snow. I only got sap from 3 trees. I did get 10 gallons from each of the 3 trees, so that was 30 gallons total. When I filled the buckets, I would bury them in snow in the back yard. This past Saturday I boiled 10 gallons of sap in my 9 gallon brewing pot and a Cajun cooker. It went okay. I finished the boil on the kitchen stove with a smaller pot. I got to the 217 degree mark. Then I tried to filter with the coffee filters, but that did not go too well. So I didn't completely filter the syrup. I managed to can about 6 half pint jars. There ended up being a little sediment on the bottom of each jar. The maple syrup was a golden color and tasted lightly maple. I liked it, but I think I would like a darker color and stronger flavor. I decided to boil another 10 gallons on next day, Sunday. I think I had a stronger boil with the sap. Everything went okay, until I noticed while I was finishing the boil on the kitchen stove the sap/syrup seemed very cloudy colored. I think I might have even boiled a litter bit past the217 mark to see if it would clear. By that time it kept foaming. I then tried my filtering, but didn't go so well again. I canned 6 half pints. The syrup looked like there was a lot of suspended stuff. The next day, today, there a lot of sediment. Not sure why there was so much sedimentIMG_20130407_213949.jpgIMG_20130407_175807.jpgIMG_20130407_120538.jpgIMG_20130407_120509.jpg. Maybe I could re-can this batch, after decanting the syrup off of the sediment and try a different way of filtering. I read somewhere that the gold colored metal coffee filters work good? I still have 10 gallons of sap buried in snow that I want to make syrup with 5 gallons and and use the other 5 gallons to make a beer with.

[PerryW]

The sediment is Nitre or sugar sand. You can just let it settle out for a few days and pour the clear syrup into another container.

Earlier sap runs usually produce lighter syrup with less nitre and later runs make a darker syrup w/ more nitre.

The gold metal coffee filters would probably not be fine enough to filter out nitre.

[BriJack]

Mike

Looking at your pics....your "syrup" isn't quite syrup yet.....need to buy a candy thermometer for boiling or you have the probe to close to the flame. It's 7 degees above the boiling point of water....which will change every day or even hourly. Try to boil water and check what your thermometer reads...I have found that a stainless steel hydrometer cup and a syrup hydrometer that measures the brix (thickness) of syrup is the best way to go, just be careful with it, I rarely use a thermometer any more.

When you are finishing the syrup.....lots of bubbles, is the key, to where they will boil over the edges of your boiling pan means you will be close to syrup....

when you are ready to filter your syrup it's worth to buy the Orlon /wool filter plus a half a dozen paper pre-filters......dampen all the filters three pre filters so that when the syrup slow down in the first pre filter then you carefully pour it into the next one till you have it all filtered....this will clear up all the sediment in your finished syrup.....in my mind you can't filter enough from the tree to storage to boiling to finishing and so on.

Hope this helps ya....

[Mike Swally]

Thanks for your information. I'm only tapping the few trees in my yard, so I'm small scale. Letting the sugar sand settle then decanting it into new containers sounds like the way to go. That sugar sand is kind of annoying, maybe I could use cheese clothe next time? Also when do you pull the spiles /taps out of the trees? I'm starting to see the leaf buds on some of the trees.

[Mike Swally]

Hi BriJack, thanks for you reply. I was using my home brew thermometer , so it only goes to 220. I'll have to buy a candy thermometer. I like to use a refractometer, but mine only goes to 30 brix, so it went off the scale. I'll have to also work on filtering better, where do you buy the Orlon/wool filter? What does filtering from the the tree to storage and storage to boiling filter out, since I didn't do that either.

[PerryW]

Mike, you can get the filters from The Maple Guys who operate this site.

there a couple cone filters on this link (A synthetic filt cone filter for $17 would work fine. They also make the paper prefilters that make cleaning easier.

http://www.mapleguys.com/index.php?category=15

I filter my sap when I pour it into my gathering tank and then when it goes into my evaporator feed tank. Fltering sap just gets any pieces of bark, pine needles or other junk out ofthe sap and keeps everything cleaner. You can use a piece of white cotton sheet to filter the sap.

[Mike Swally]

Thanks Perry again for your reply. I'll take a look at the Maple Guys filters :-)

[Schnep's]

Anderson's in Cumberland ,Ws. is a good place to buy filters and many other good stuff. They are also very helpfull with anything you want to know.

[craig101]

orlon filters is an option, but it will suck up a lot of your syrup and for small producers, it can be a significant amount. I use a prefilter and instead of orlon, i have a heavy almost canvas like dish towel (it's tight weaved). i get crystal clear syrup. i pull my sweet sap off at 215 and filter it, then i reheat and bring it up to 59 brix (hot test) and then can right away. this is my first year as well. the first batch i did i pulled the "syrup" off at 219, then later in the day reheated to 222, and then wasn't convinced it was syrup, so i bought a hydrometer and reheated it again and i actually needed to go to 224 degrees before I got 59 brix.

some people here use a prefilter and a jelly bag to filter, my method is close/hybrid to that. you might be able to use a dish towel (the flour sack kind) as a filter along with a prefilter. that might work.

the last batch that I finished last night had A LOT of niter in it. I actually poured my sweet sap in quart jars (anything taller and narrow) to let a lot of the niter settle and then reheated the sap and then filtered. took a while to filter, all night long in the oven. it can take a while, but the end result is worth it.

[Ausable]

Mike - I notice You batch boil - Just about all of us Backyarders start making syrup batch boiling and some never switch to a continuous flow evaporator - it all makes maple syrup. I still finish near syrup in a deep restaurant steam table pan on a turkey fryer propane burner. Ok - When I batch boiled I would have sap in my pan and boil it down some and add more sap and repeat this process till I either was bored or out of sap. This way when you finish your syrup - you will have a much larger amount. If You can preheat the cold sap prior to adding to the boiling sap - so much the better. You need a Maple Syrup Hydrometer and some kind of test cup. I was cheap - and didn't use a hydrometer for a long time and made thin - second rate syrup. If You don't buy anything else - get a maple syrup hydrometer as has already been suggested. The average thermometer is ok for ballpark estimates - a hydrometer lets you know you have syrup. -----Another----Mike----