Newbie needs some advice

[Cappy1075]

Upgraded system this year from homemade barrel evaporator to 2x3 Mason XL have a separate propane finisher bottler with flat filters and separate a cone filter tank. I'm confused as to which equipment to use and the order for best filtering to bottles. When should I draw off? What equip to use next and when? The home made version use to cook for days until condensed 5 gal then boil in 5 gal pot then filter andvrepeat to bottle. Hoping for advice with new equipment
Thanks

[lords sugaring]

There's multiple ways to accomplish this, do you have one big pan our a bigger one than a syrup pan in front of it ? Not really sure how a mason is set up. You can always pull syrup directly off the pan in very small amounts right into your cone filter tank, once your done boiling for the day you can open up the valve/plug on filter tank and transfer it into the bottler/bring up to temp and bottle right then. Or you could do like you've been doing and pull near syrup off finish in the house or what have you transfer to cone tank then to bottler.... There's really no wrong way to do it as long your at the proper density when your finished. It's what ever you feel comfortable with doing. I got a new rig this year too, going from something similar boiling all day into the night just to reduce to 4 gallons and finish in the house. I'll be finishing it in the rig from now on and drawing off into a ss pail. As you expand so won't your equipment, if you can nail down making syrup right in the pan now it'll be way easier down the line when you upgrade your rig. Hope this helps

[bowhunter]

With the Mason 2x3 XL you should be able to draw syrup off the pan. I believe it's a 4 pass pan. When you start up you want to more or less continuously add sap to the pan to maintain a constant level and as you continue to boil the syrup will start to concentrate at the syrup draw end of the pan. For best results you should have a syrup hydrometer, however you probably can get by with just measuring the temperature at the draw off point for home use. Syrup boils at 219.5 F at sea level. For my location I usually have to draw at about 220 F, sometimes a little higher. When the draw gets up around 220F you can draw syrup off the pan into the hydrometer cup and check the density. If it's not syrup yet you just dump it back into the syrup section of the evaporator and let the temperature continue to increase. When you find the temperature at which you get the correct density for syrup you can draw syrup until the temperature drops below temperature required to get the correct syrup density then close off the draw. As you continue to boil the syrup will continue to concentrate and the temperature will increase. You can draw again when you get to your target temperature. You can draw off into the cone filter and hold the syrup until you're ready to do a final filter. I usually filter and bottle at the same time. First I heat the cold syrup I have collected over a couple of runs to 215 F and take a final measurement with my hydrometer. I either add water to reduce the density or boil to increase the density. If the red hot line is below the surface of syrup it's needs to boil more, if the red line is above the syrup it's too dense and you can add a little water. Be very careful when you add back water because it is easy to overshoot and the only way to correct it is to boil the syrup more. During this step the hydrometer should be read at the top or hot red line. Once the density is proper I filter it into my canner. After filtration I reheat the syrup to 185 F for bottling. I keep the temperature between 185 and 200 F to properly can the syrup and to prevent formation of too much niter. I'm sure there are several other ways of making syrup effectively, but this works pretty well for me.

[Cappy1075]

Thank you .

[Cappy1075]

Thank you. If I want to save the syrup to bottle later thru finisher at what temp do I have to store the syrup?

[maple flats]

You can store it at room temperature for a few days, even a few weeks as long as the temp stays cool, if it gets very warm the time you can hold it shortens. Some producers even store it until the end of the season, then process it all at once. My only comment for bottling temperature is that after filtering it should not be heated over 190, 185-190 is good. Over that you will often get new sugarsand (niter).
I have done it few ways in the past, but as I got a bigger operation I settled to one way. I now draw off at syrup density, send it to my finisher just to accumulate enough to either fill a barrel or fill the bottler. Then I bring it to about 205-215, verify density, filter it, grade it and send it to either a barrel or the canner. I used to go slightly over density and then thin it to proper density with sap, almost syrup off the evaporator or with distilled water. I try not to do that now because it takes more time and energy.