Struggle with new filter press
After last season a 150 taps I started to think I might need to upgrade from flat filtering to a filter press. I read a lot here about it and found a number of others like me with under 300 taps considering it. Everyone seems say it’s one of the best investments you’ve made, So I’ve been looking forward to it. I shopped around and went for a Smokey lake 7” stainless with the hand pump. My experience with it has been less than expected, and I don’t know how much to chalk up to inexperience vs I really and too small for it. This is a report of the headaches I’ve run into and things I apparently haven’t figured out.
With 200 taps this year, a 50gph water removal RO and 2x5 evaporator, I’m drawing an average of 5 gallons a night when sap is running. I have flat filtered that in past years in the same night of boiling, with the only headache the cleaning and drying of the filter materials. And although I have gotten very clear syrup, I have usually seen sediment in the bottom of my glass bottles. So that was my incentive. Since this setup is designed to filter 15-25 gallons on one set of papers, I have saved up my syrup from a few nights to filter all at once. I have gotten very clear syrup the first couple of times, better than my past with flat filters. But the cleanup is still a headache.
The biggest issue I’m having is getting clear syrup quickly during recirculating. The last two times it has taken me 50-100 hand pumps to get clear, and today I only got 5 gallons clear before the pumping got very hard and I had to take the press apart and start over. On the second try I thought maybe the difficulty pumping was because I used too much DE, so I started with 7 cups instead of 8. Much easier, but I gave it maybe 50 pumps and never got clear. So I added more DE, and kept trying for another 1-2 hours before giving up and had to resort to my old flat filter system to finish up, and even that came out poorly which I’m guessing is due to the DE in the syrup. Smokey lake says to use 8 cups of DE, which I mix in my 4.5 gallon warning pan. Smokey Lake says it should only take a few minutes to get
Clear syrup.
I’ll call them tomorrow and see if they have any ideas. Am I making some
Newbie mistakes, from what I’ve shared so far?
2022 is season 7
2016: 20 taps on buckets, 4 gallons on a borrowed 2x3.
2017: 32 taps on buckets, 8 gallons of syrup, on a "loaner" Lapierre 19x48.
2018: 80 taps. First time tubing. New 10x12 sugar shack, Lapierre 2x5. Made 17 gallons
2019: 100 taps. 22 gallons. Added a small RO 50 gph.
2020: 145 taps, 30 gallons, sold half. Murphy cup is a great addition.
2021: tapped Feb 23, 150 taps, 35 gallons.
2022: 200 taps. I lost 50, added 100. Having fun but short season?