What's that cloudy stuff in my syrup???

[seanbutler]

Hi folks,

For a couple of years now, I've been having problems with cloudy particles appearing in my syrup. It's not sugar sand cloudiness, which is distributed evenly through the syrup, but "fluffy" particles floating in the syrup. They are not there when I first bottle it, but appear several months later. If the syrup is left undisturbed, they will eventually settle on the bottom and look like a fuzzy coating down there. If you shake the bottle they'll spread around it. I've uploaded a photo so you can see what I'm talking about. I've never read or heard about anything like this.

After the first year of this happening, we upgraded our filtering system from orlons to a filter press. But the problem had been just as bad this year. I'm stumped. What could this be? How can I fix it? It doesn't affect the taste, but it doesn't look good bottled in glass.

IMG_7398.jpg

[RileySugarbush]

I think it probably is sugar sand. It can show up a while after bottling as it cools. I had similar things happen, but almost always reheating. One year I pulled some out and looked at them under a microscope. It was really cool, pretty crystals. Very tiny. Very frustrating.

To solve the problem, I only heat to 195 or so after filtering. And only in a water jacket bottler so there are no hot spots when heating for bottling.

[JoeJ]

Seanbutler,

Do you heat your bottles before filling with syrup?

Joe

[seanbutler]

No, we bottle into cold bottles, in a cold room. We've been having some mold problems on the surface of the syrup in the tops of the bottles, particularly the half litre bottles, so we have a plan to build an insulated bottling shed, where all the bottles will be stored at room temperature during maple season, and the bottling will happen at room temperature.

Could the cold bottles also somehow be causing the cloudy issue?

[seanbutler]

We aim to not go above 195 too. We'll let it drop as low as 185. Last year we used a propane heater over water, this year we switched to a water jacket bottler though. We've been having some mold issues in the tops of our bottles, likely because we're bottling into cold bottles in a cold room, so we try to push the temperature as high as possible without causing sugar sand to form.

We also put our bottles back into their boxes upside down immediately after bottling, so the tops can get good and cooked, before taking them back out of the boxes to cool on a counter. I wonder if this treatment back in the boxes could be causing small amounts of sugar sand to form.

[johnallin]

The cold bottles are not good. I set mine up against the sides, and on top, of our water jacketed bottler. Stack them about 4 rows deep along the sides and they can get too hot to touch.
Placing your freshly filled bottles next to each other in that box may cause what’s called stack burn. Likely only a change to a darker color but not the best practice.

[n8hutch]

195 is too hot to pack in glass if you don't want that really finite sugar sand to form I would stay below 190, I keep my glass in 200+/- degree water until i am getting ready to fill them, about 5 minutes or less before I fill them I tip them over and let them drip out before I fill them, they are still almost too hot to hold when I go to fill em.

I struggled with that fine fine sand for awhile until I finally lowered my bottling temps.and I'm carefull not to heat too fast, even with the water jacket.

[JoeJ]

Seanbutler,

Kathryn Hopkins at the University of Maine Extension Cooperative did extensive research on the mysterious floaty things that appeared in some maple syrup packaged in glass. After a lot of expert testing and research, she found out by packing in cold glass bottles, the temperature of the maple syrup dropped so fast, that the maple syrup was actually being sealed in the cold bottle at a very low temperature relative to 185 degrees. I don't remember the exact temperatures, but the syrup placed in the cold bottles dropped to somewhere around 145 degrees in just a few seconds. The cold glass sucks the instantly sucks the heat out of the syrup. Results: syrup packaged at the wrong temperature and mold growing in the glass bottles.

Solution: Heat your bottles to about 200 degrees as N8hutch does.

Joe