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Thread: Foam while bottling

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Howell, mi
    Posts
    820

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    You never get all of the niter out with cone filters.

    So happens I’ve got a gallon we bottled that day sitting on my desk here at work (coworker purchase).
    It’s been 10 days, there is no niter build up on the bottom of the container and it has been sitting here, not moved, since last Thursday (6 days and the jerk hasn’t claimed it yet ).
    It’s acceptably clear, as are the others we bottled, and there is only a very fine/thin ring of foam at the surface, which is not at all objectionable.
    It got bounced around a bit on the 36 mile drive to work and did foam up a bit, but has since settled.

    We did note that at the last two farmers markets, when the half gallons and gallons were exposed to direct sunlight they started to foam. The smaller glass containers did not.
    Couldn’t say one way or the other with the plastic, obviously.

    As I said earlier, after the first foam up fiasco, we broke everything back down, reheated, ran the syrup through an orlon filter and rebottled.
    After that, we didn’t have anywhere near the trouble we had the first go around.
    This suggests that we may have filtered out something, but it’s not conclusive as we can’t rule out any number of other variables or just plain coincidence.
    All we really know is that it worked, this time.
    42.67N 84.02W


    350 taps- 300 on vacuum, 50 buckets
    JD gator 625i Sap hauler w/65 gal tank
    Leader 2X6 drop flue

    Homemade auto draw-off
    Homemade preheater
    Homebrew RO, 2- xle-4040's
    LaPierre double vertical releaser
    Kinney KC-8 vacuum pump

    12X24 shack
    Lots of chickens and a few cats.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Temperance Mi
    Posts
    411

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    Do you remember if this syrup foamed up bad when boiling it in the evaporator? Also did you use any defoamer in the draw off channel. I have had this issue in the past and its always been with end of the year syrup that is hard to keep in the pans.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Howell, mi
    Posts
    820

    Default

    I’ve found it funny that we don’t use near the amount of defoamer that others seem to use. On our 2x6 we normally use 3 or 4 drops on the inlet side of the flue pan every second or third time we fire. Could be because we don’t run as hard as everyone else, though I wouldn’t really know. I’ve never seen another rig running during the heat of battle.

    Notes from the day we made this batch didn’t indicate we were having issues with foam. In the past it wouldn’t have been unheard of to put a drop in the syrup pan to stave off an attack from the froth gods, but we read something from Dr. Tim, or one of his partners in crime, that suggested doing so was a bad thing. It slowed the boil, darkened the syrup or had some other adverse effect, the actual reason escapes me at the moment. We took the advice of the column/paper/article/post and increased our defoamer use at the flue pan. It had the desired effect and I don’t remember adding defoamer to the syrup pan at all this year. Of course, my memory is, at times, suspect. I wouldn’t rule out a drop or so in the syrup pan, but I know we were making a concerted effort not to.
    42.67N 84.02W


    350 taps- 300 on vacuum, 50 buckets
    JD gator 625i Sap hauler w/65 gal tank
    Leader 2X6 drop flue

    Homemade auto draw-off
    Homemade preheater
    Homebrew RO, 2- xle-4040's
    LaPierre double vertical releaser
    Kinney KC-8 vacuum pump

    12X24 shack
    Lots of chickens and a few cats.

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