I draw-off through a prefilter clamped right onto the spigot. When it clogs, I lift the bottom point of the filter and clothespin it up to the top to get the last syrup through.
I find that filtering at 190 is harder than at 219. I like to get my sugar content right (add some sap, usually) and get it up to a good boil (careful it doesn't boil over - a thermometer with alarm is helpful for multi-tankers) before final filter and bottle at 180-190.
Late in the season there's more niter, so I forego the draw-off filtering and decant after a day or two of settling off and save the sludge off to the side to get the bulk through filters easily. I'll eventually filter the sludge, but might combine it with another batch or two before the battle.
Finally, I dip the bottoms of those used filters back into the hot sap pan to recycle all that sugar.
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