
Originally Posted by
MRFNY
Update on the RO Bucket filtering / canning system: it is pretty freakin awesome! I had 5.5 gallons in the canner and brought it up to density without any issues. I was worried about a potential boil over but the canner easily holds 8 gallons so I was well below that. It's very easy to control temps and the boil. Once the syrup was up the density, I let it cool to 200 degrees then added the filter aid and ran it through the filter. After 20-30 seconds the syrup made it's way through the filter and out of the exit hose. As the instructions state, just run the syrup back into the canner until it runs clear, so once I saw that I then started filling up canning pots with crystal clear syrup. Once the canner was rinsed, I poured the syrup back into the canner for bottling. Maintaining proper bottling temps was a lot easier than the pervious method of using a Leader finishing tank controlled by propane.
I thought I was making pretty clear syrup until today. It's awesome looking syrup and I give all the credit to the new system. It did take some planning since my sugar shack doesn't have power so I had to transport near syrup to the location I will now be bottling. Not a big deal at all. I also did order the hobby canner from Roth so I could save a little time by not having to rinse the RO canner in between filtering and canning.
Overall a very impressive unit for the price! Props to Carl at RO Bucket too. Pretty sure I drove him nuts with a lot of questions but he was always available and even offered to facetime to watch the process.
That's awesome, I may have to look into that as the filtering and canning is definitely the "bottle neck" (pun intended) of our operation. I lost probably 10 gallons of near-syrup last year because I let it sit so long in food grade jugs in the garage dreading the process of filtering a gallon at a time.
What is the Roth hobby canner? I've never heard of that!
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2015: 8 bucket taps (7 red, 1 sugar) on DIY barrel evaporator
2016: 13 taps (bucket and tube) on block arch and hotel pans
2017: SAME
2018: 25 taps on 2x3 flat pan and resurrected barrel arch
2019: 25 taps...same setup plus DIY 3x150gpd RO filter
2020: 50 taps, all buckets..."new" oil tank arch setup
2021: 100 taps (50/50 buckets/3-16 tubing) on 2x4 divided pan
2022: 150 taps (50/100 b/t) on 2x4 pan with sap warmer pan
2023: SAME
2024: 150 taps, added single-post 4x40 RO system