Small Batch Filtering

[For_the_kids]

I use the settle method also. I take the near-up off the evaporator and run through a pre-filter (new white dish cloth) to catch only the biggest stuff. I let it settle in a cold spot for 5-7 days. I pour off the clear and finish on propane. I don't even filter again before putting in 1 quart jars. There is a tiny build up on the bottom of the jars after sitting again but I don't mind. To get the last little bit of syrup from the jar after using it I mix in a cup of milk shake it and enjoy. Best milk ever!!! It always a fight to see who gets it. We have a large family (8 of us) and we go through about 40-50 quarts ourselves each year. Kids eat it on everything from oatmeal to eggs to squash to normal breakfast things. I look at it like honey. You can buy the "perfect" clear honey or you can get it straight from the "bee guy" and have fresh raw honey. once you try it, you don't go back. Just do what works for you.

[Gord]

I had very good luck with the thick felt cone filter, along with the pre filter. I'm getting zero niter now in my glass bottles. But I also run it through the filters instantly, once the hydrometer tells me it's syrup.

[littleTapper]

I have made up to 28 gallons in a year, but get small batches frequently. I think my largest filtering/bottling effort was about 15 gallons (a week last year was nuts for sap flow). I mounted a cone filter in a 4-gallon bucket with a hole sawed in the bottom for the tip of the filter to just barely hang out of. I screwed in hooks near the top of the bucket to hook onto the loops of the filter. 7-8 prefilters go in the cone filter. Once I filter a batch, I remove a prefilter or two extra based on how they look, but then put the bucket into another 4-gallon bucket, unhook the loops and snap a lid on top and throw it into the chest freezer. This way I can just top up with fresh prefilters through the season and basically filter the whole season's worth of syrup with a single cone filter. The hardest part is to remember to get it out of the freezer to defrost before I need it again (it thaws pretty quickly).

If I get a few smaller boils and pull off finished syrup, I will let it settle in the cold until combining it all and dialing density and that really extends prefilter/filter life. But the filter in a bucket works really well.

[jwmiller]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've heard the settling method from another friend who also has a syrup operation. So with letting it settle for a few days or up to a week, do you reheat it again before you bottle? If so, doesn't that create more niter and start the process over again? Or do you not bottle with hot syrup with this method?

For the settling method, once you start bottling, are you using a ladle or cup or something to dip into the syrup to pour into the bottles? Or do you pour directly from the big pot that the syrup is settling in?

[littleTapper]

I pour the settled syrup I accumulate from boils into a finishing pan; but then filter that for final bottling. I filter into a large stock pot and it usually will maintain >185 temp for bottling, if needed, I heat it back up slowly to avoid niter being created while the rest of my batch filters into 5-gal buckets or another pot (depends on qty) and that later filtered syrup needs slow reheat for bottling as well. I haven't had problems with cloudy syrup doing this. Stays clear.

You'd want to pour off the settled syrup into something else for reheating to bottle. The key is to heat very slowly and it should remain clear.

[For_the_kids]

I do reheat after pouring off the settled syrup in order to bottle in quart jars. Because I do not sell any of our syrup it is all for our own consumption and family and friends who don't mind a little settiment, I do not refilter before bottling. I put it in quart jars much the same I would do for tomato sauce or cranberry sauce or anything else that I can. One of the things I like about anything agriculture is that if you ask 10 different farmers you will get 10 different answers. . Have fun

[jwmiller]

THanks everyone. My batch this weekend ended up netting me about 1.5 gallons of syrup. I filtered once after I took it off the wood fire boil outside and before I finished it inside. One I reached 66 brix, I removed from the heat, cooled it off and now let it sit in my fridge. I will let it sit for another couple days before I start bottling.

I want to do the settle method and pour off the good stuff, but I"m not exactly sure how you guys do that? Do you literally pour from the pot until you start to notice niter sand? Do you ladle it off the top with a soup ladle? Do you use a small plastic hose and siphon it into a new pot, only siphoning the top layer and stopping once you see niter? What is the best process for this since I do not want to run it through my filters again since it is such a small quantity.

[lulugrein]

Little Tapper... great suggestion about putting the orlon filter "as is" into the freezer after finishing a batch. I generally use the same finishing set up that you describe but am always lamenting how much good syrup gets left behind in the orlon. Great thread here.

[For_the_kids]

I literally pour it off into the new pot until i see the sediment start to flow. as long as you let it settle out long enough you will be able to pour nearly all of the syrup out before the sediment starts moving. my experience is that it cakes itself to the bottom pretty well.

[littleTapper]

Little Tapper... great suggestion about putting the orlon filter "as is" into the freezer after finishing a batch. I generally use the same finishing set up that you describe but am always lamenting how much good syrup gets left behind in the orlon. Great thread here.

You bet, glad it could help. I always want to cry at how much syrup ends up in the filter material. This makes it not quite as painful