Home made maple syrup.... MONEY 2-26-16

[daveomak]

This is the first go round concentrate....   Since I have never had more than a small glass of this stuff before, maybe someone can tell me what the settling stuff is...  It looks like very tine beads of something..    maybe water ??   darned if I know..   the clear is really sweet... 

This has been in the refer for a couple weeks.....

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• daveomak
• Feb 25, 2016

 

[arkage82]

Commonly it's called "niter" or "sugar sand". Most people fight with this and solve the issue in various ways, mainly filtering. 

After trying lots of ways to fix it on a small scale, I finally decided to just let it settle out to the bottom of the jar, and then decant the clear off of the top. Then, I will heat the remaining nitered syrup and filter it as best I can, back into the next boil. It clogs up the filter pretty quick though and gets to be a pain.

If you are going to heat up your clear syrup in order to can it, do not take it over 190 or more niter will form and you will have the same issue. 

I think this niter is what gives some of my syrup the "off flavor". If I leave the settled niter in the jar too long, it seems like the syrup takes on a funny after taste. 

You can do a lot of research and hear a  lot of suggestions on removing niter, you just need to figure out what works for you and what final product your happy with. The big operations use filter presses, some smaller processors use jelly cloth, some use wool filters, there are special filters you can buy, etc etc. 

I just keep "recycling" as much as I can back into the next batch, and try to leave my "loss" for the very last batch. (I rinse out all of my pans, strainers, ladels, cloths, etc in the next sap batch cooking to save whatever sugar I can. But then again, I'm El Cheapo.) 

 

 

[arkage82]

If you go over to Mapler Trader forum, there is an entire section dedicated to filtering and bottling. You might find some information and advice there too. 

Oh, and whatever you do, DO NOT try to filter cold or cool syrup. DAMHIK. Always warm it to help it flow. 

 

[DanMcG]

Thanks Arkage, here's some more info Dave.
http://www.sugarbushsupplies.com/pdfs/2009 Page 34 Filtering Tips.pdf

I've got 3 plus gallons on the Weber steaming away. It wasn't till after screwing around getting the fire going and the pot boiling that I realized I had a side burner on the gas grill....DUH

 

[daveomak]

Great information.....   The setup with the insulation under the electric skillet if working very well...   I can set the thermostat to any temp I need..  The insulation "tempers" the on-off cycling to something a lot "smoother"  ...   Good info..  I will keep the "evaporator" set to around 185 ish.... 

I will use my Sous-Vide to warm the syrup before final filtering...   One more good use for it...  

I tried Sous-Vide pork chops the other night...  seasoned and in butter..   flavor was awesome...  best ever....   texture sucked...  almost tough..  should have cooked them lower and longer...  

If I keep learning stuff, I'll live forever....  each learning experience doesn't count toward your days on earth...

Thanks for all the great info....   good thing I subscribe to a smoking meat forum...  HAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[daveomak]

Thanks Arkage, here's some more info Dave.
http://www.sugarbushsupplies.com/pdfs/2009 Page 34 Filtering Tips.pdf

I've got 3 plus gallons on the Weber steaming away. It wasn't till after screwing around getting the fire going and the pot boiling that I realized I had a side burner on the gas grill....DUH

Do you ever think of doing this...... 

 ...    I surely do......  almost daily.....

 

[DanMcG]

Yeah and the older I get the more I seem to do it.

 

[arkage82]

You might have misunderstood, and most likely I did not explain it well enough.

When I'm boiling mine down, I'm boiling mine down. For the most part, I'm simmering mine on top of the woodstove, but when I'm finishing it off, or if I'm getting behind, I put it on the gas stove and put the fire right to it. Rapid boil. The formation of niter is a necessary evil (or by- product, really). The temps get up into the 220+ range, ALWAYS. 

The filtering for niter comes after the final boil. I settle mine, then decant, then warm and filter the "niter rich" material left over. Some processors filter right off of the final boil. (I still formed niter after trying this, so I stopped. Probably my poor filtering was the problem.)

Once the syrup is clear and ready for canning or bottling, NOW is when the time is critical not to exceed the 190 degree mark. If you do, you will form niter again and be back to cloudy syrup. 

End of last season, I was behind by about 80 gallons. Not having a big evaporator, I put 2 big hotel pans on the gas stove outside, hooked up to a 100 lber, and then had my turkey fryer on a 20 lber, and I went after it HARD. Took my 2+ gallons of finished syrup and settled in glass pickle jars. Decanted it and canned the clear (after re-warming to 185). Then I took the "niter" syrup, warmed it and filtered it as best as I could to clear that up. Settled, decanted, filtered, settled, decanted........ until tired of making syrup and tossed about a cup or so that was still not quite clear enough.

Hope this explains it a bit better. 

 

[daveomak]

OK....  So it is important to form the niters to remove them from the syrup....    makes sense......   Thanks....

 

[daveomak]

Yeah and the older I get the more I seem to do it.

I just walked to the kitchen and Bride asked me a question...    TOTALLY forgot why I was going to the kitchen....   still hasn't come to me...   DOH....

 

[arkage82]

 
OK....  So it is important to form the niters to remove them from the syrup....    makes sense......   Thanks....

It's a part of the process. I don't know of anyone that doesn't have to deal with it. 

I filter the sap before it goes into the pan (twigs, bark, bugs, etc). Then, I filter from the pan to the finishing pan (around 218 degrees for foam, niter, scum, whatever). Then I settle the finished and decant, and filter the leftover. 

It's all in whatever process you use to get your final product. Since I don't sell any, and it's all for my own use, this is the process that works for me. I continue to read and learn, and to try and tweak, but this is where I'm at now. 

 

[daveomak]

I surely do appreciate all the help and I'm guessing followers of this thread appreciate all the superb information....

We'll, I pulled the taps...  weather is warming for the next week and probably for the duration....    Sap is boiling in the pan....  temp is 213 and climbing....   I'm re boiling the stuff from the first batch in with the new sap....   hope that doesn't screw it up.... I did skim it real good the first time...    

My double ended plug....

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• daveomak
• Feb 25, 2016

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• daveomak
• Feb 25, 2016

Cut off the plug and finish driving it in.....   Other end goes in the next tap hole...

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• daveomak
• Feb 25, 2016

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• daveomak
• Feb 25, 2016

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• daveomak
• Feb 25, 2016

 

[maplenut]

You don't need to plug the tap hole at the end of the season.

There has been a bunch of research done on this practice over the years and they found that the trees do just fine healing itself.

Most tap holes will be all but gone by the next season. It really is amazing.

Yes it is kind of odd watching the tree weep sap for a while after the taps been pulled but after a short spell naturally occurring bacteria that is the air and on the tree will get into the tap hole and the tree will start to heal itself, just like we do with cuts.

Comment for prior posts, you need to get the temps of the sap and eventually syrup up to boiling temps to caramelize the sugars, that is what gives maple syrup that nice golden color. And along with the long time boiling and high temps sugar sand/niter will form. It is just minerals and such coming out of solution, just like getting calcium build up in the bottom of your hot water heater when you have hard water.

Nothing to be concerned about. You can filter it using some kind of filter and for small batches like you have, pour it hot into mason jars and put the lid on to seal it up then just let them sit for awhile. the sugar sand will settle out. Then at a later time pop them open and using a turkey baster suck up the clear syrup on top.

You can then re-bottle after a short re-heat, just do not take it back above 190 or more sugar sand can form.

I use to do mine this way when I first started, I tried the felt filters but they can be such a pain in the butt. I even have tried coffee filters, you need to have the syrup nice and hot for those, and stack a few filters, so when it starts to slow down going thru the filter, you slowly pull out the top filter to expose a new one below.

You did a good job, that syrup looks nice and light.

 

[DanMcG]

Update; I took my syrup to 217° and thought I'd filter it then finish it off to 219°. Then I read Maplenuts comment about not going above 190°. so later I'll take it back up to 219 and let it settle then deal with the sand. Coffee filters are not the way to go, it would take forever.

Here's a shot of where I'm at.

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• DanMcG
• Feb 26, 2016

 

[daveomak]

I tried filtering through one of those coffee filters made of SS wire screen....   Not one drop went through at 219 deg.    So, it's sitting unfiltered in the refer waiting to settle out....

 

[DanMcG]

I ended up using a turkey baster and removed most of the clear syrup then filtered the last couple ounces of sandy stuff through the coffee filter. it's cooling/settling now. I ended up with 20 ounces, which I think works out to over 3% sugar content. More then I figured I'd get.

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• DanMcG
• Feb 26, 2016

The weather turned cold again and won't be above freezing for a couple days but I hope to do another batch soon.

 

[daveomak]

Looks clear and delicious....   Hope you get more... 

 

[daveomak]

There you are...  Home made Maple Syrup on waffles.....   It's good...   but I think it's better on oven cooked bacon...  

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• daveomak
• Feb 26, 2016

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• daveomak
• Feb 26, 2016

 

[maplenut]

Meat candy and maple syrup, it just doesn't any better than that.

DanMcG, there is no reason you can't run the temp up to 219, you just will have to filter it. So if you are heating it up to get ready to filter you will be ok. There will be some lost heat during the filtering and you may have to warm it back up to bottle it up but as long as you do not go above 190 this time you will be good to go.

 

[DanMcG]

The waffle looks great Dave, I'm thinking I need to make some bacon and pancakes for breakfast just to be sure the syrup is edible. Thanks for letting me join in on your thread, it was fun and I learned a lot.

Also thanks to MapleNut and Arkage82 for all the timely input.