Reheating cold finished density syrup to press and bottle

[Minnesota Tapper]

My first year of making a decent amount of syrup. My routine has been to draw syrup off my evaporator slightly heavy over density into a pre filter that sets on top a stainless pot. At the end of a boil I will then add near up syrup to the pot from my draw off until its 67 to 67.5 brix. Once pot is cooled to 100° I pour into a new food grade plastic 5 gal pail and store it in my root cellar which is 37 to 40 degrees right now. When I get time to bottle, (usually within 1 week) I will reheat to 200 ,filter press into my steam tray bottler, bring temp back up to 190 and then bottle. This has been working great but I'm worried I should of been bringing it to a boil after taking it out of the cellar. Or is it okay to just reheat to bottling temps because it was already finished density? Dont want to find mold in a couple months .Anything wrong with my method?

[buck3m]

My first year of making a decent amount of syrup. My routine has been to draw syrup off my evaporator slightly heavy over density into a pre filter that sets on top a stainless pot. At the end of a boil I will then add near up syrup to the pot from my draw off until its 67 to 67.5 brix. Once pot is cooled to 100° I pour into a new food grade plastic 5 gal pail and store it in my root cellar which is 37 to 40 degrees right now. When I get time to bottle, (usually within 1 week) I will reheat to 200 ,filter press into my steam tray bottler, bring temp back up to 190 and then bottle. This has been working great but I'm worried I should of been bringing it to a boil after taking it out of the cellar. Or is it okay to just reheat to bottling temps because it was already finished density? Dont want to find mold in a couple months .Anything wrong with my method?

It's okay to just reheat to 190. If you reboil you'd have to refilter. We like to preheat our bottles to make sure the syrup is good and hot.

[motowbrowne]

I will say though that the syrup sounds like it will be over dense. If you dilute it to 67 or 67.5 while it's still hot the first time it will lose water as it cools (unless you have a tight fitting lid) as well as when you reheat it and put it through your bottling setup. A little thick is okay, but you don't want crystals forming in the bottles.

[Minnesota Tapper]

Yes, your right. I typically reheat, run through press and then sometimes will have to add distilled water in the bottler to get it back to 67. thanks!

[maple flats]

The state of Vermont requires syrup to be at 66.9-68.9% sugar at 60 degrees F. As such my guess is that 67.something might not sugar out (sugar crystals) or Vermont wouldn't approve it that dense. I pack mine at 66.9-67.1.

[buck3m]

The state of Vermont requires syrup to be at 66.9-68.9% sugar at 60 degrees F.

That's interesting. 68.9% seems really high.

FWIW, I found this quote: "Large crystals, called rock candy, which represent one extreme, are formed when slightly supersaturated syrup (67° to 70° Brix) is cooled slowly and stored for a long time without agitation." http://www.nnyagdev.org/maplefactshe...e%20Syrup1.pdf

[Minnesota Tapper]

I use a Murphy cup with smoky lakes vermont certified hydrometer.double check with refractometer As I understand it, if my hydrometer floats where the Murphy cup tells me it should be floating.....that would be exactly 66.9 brix. I often will go .25 to .50 over density from what the cup tells me. Last year I purposely bottled a few small batches for my self at 68 and 69 brix. I will say that 69 brix had no crystallization whatsoever all year long. It did however crystallize soon after opening and being in the fridge. Not bad just a fine coating of the bottom 1/16" of the jar.