Filtering of Black Walnut Syrup

[Oxford]

I've tapped several black walnut trees and I need to find a way to filter the stuff. Has anybody found an efficient way to filter it? Does it help to pour the hot syrup through a coarse strainer before it hits the filters? If I let the syrup cool, does the filter-clogging walnut jelly float to the top where I can use a strainer to lift most of it away before reheating and filtering the remaining syrup? Does it help to filter the syrup earlier in the boiling process? If anybody has found a way efficiently filter their black walnut syrup, I'd love to hear about it.

[Openwater]

Last year was my first year tapping, 13 black walnut taps. I didn't know what I was doing and only filtered the hot finished walnut syrup thru 1 cone prefilter and 1 cone orlon filter; it was SLOW. I ended-up sqeezing the filters just to get as much syrup thru as possible. Had I known more, I would have already built a shop-vac vacuum filter which I now have for this year. Not sure how it will work, but it will be now filtering a combo of maple and walnut syrup with DE to help the process. I would definitely avoid trying to filter walnut syrup using gravity alone. This year I also plan on prefiltering the nearup before putting it into the finishing pot.

[Oxford]

Thanks. Good luck with the maple / walnut combination. Hopefully your new vacuum filter does the job for you. Please give an update when you've had a chance to try it out.

[Openwater]

Shop-Vac vaccum filter worked well. Only had a little less than a gallon of syrup to which I added 1 cup of DE/filter aid and poured it into the top pot of my vacuum setup. It pulled the syrup thru very well and the DE cake seemed to have pulled out alot of the black walnut pectin before the syrup even hit the pre-filter and orlon filter. Here's a pic of the cake of DE and pectin/sugar sand/whatever that was left on top of the filters.
filter cake.jpg

[Pdiamond]

What does your syrup look like?

[Openwater]

Color: Amber/Dark
Clarity: Clear - no sediment or suspended "stuff"
Flavor: Rich; we really like the little bit of "nuttiness" the walnut syrup adds to the maple.

[220 maple]

Of the Walnut syrup that I have seen finished and filtered this week it is dark! They are running it thru sock filters when hot, they had filter once before they finished! They felt that helped a lot on the final filtering
Mark 220 Maple

[Openwater]

Yeah, I did an initial filter after pulling the nearup from evaporator to finishing pot which did seem to remove alot of the gelatinous walnut pectin making the final filter thru the vacuum filter easier.

[Jeeves]

Hi, I have been doing Black Walnut for several years. I have resolved my pectin issues by adding "Pectic Enzyme Solution" to my collected sap about 12 hours before I boil it.
This product is commonly used in beer and wine making and often sold in home brewing specialty supply shops. I vastly prefer the liquid solution to the powdered form as it is much easier to control. I use it at 10 drops per gallon. It is tasteless. The product I use is distributed by "BSG HandCraft" of Shakopee, MN and I buy it in .5 oz. squeeze-dropper bottles.
I usually make only 3 to 4 gallons of Black Walnut syrup annually and 2 of the .5 oz. bottles is always plenty (keep it in the fridge). Home Brew Ohio sells it for about $3.00/bottle.
Best of all, Johnny

[Openwater]

Johnny, thanks for the tip. I'll have to see if my local brew-shop has any in stock. I'm boiling this weekend and would like to try it.
When you use it, do you still filter your syrup?