Finishing and vacuum filtering maple syrup

Finishing a gallon of syrup on wood and trying out my new homemade vacuum filter. A special thanks to Ryan one of my students for all the hard work put in on this unit!

[@safeflight9189]

Nice setup. Thanks for sharing. I am convinced that I have seen enough similar designs of DIY vacuum filter systems that I can go put one together now.

[@mr.mckenney2549]

With a little welding know how it is a snap. With out welding Iam sure there are other ways. Best of luck, if there is anything I can do to help just shout.

[@jasonpidgen9219]

Try not to bring your syrup above 185 degrees after filtering because you will only make more nitre causing cloudy syrup. 185 degrees is lots to bottle If you preheat your glass in the oven! Great video overall!

[@mr.mckenney2549]

Thanks

[@terrybrown9206]

Good set up and an affordable way to produce maple syrup

[@mr.mckenney2549]

Thanks Terry, a lot of work went in to it. A labor of love!

[@zakbrinkhoff324]

Nice man

[@mr.mckenney2549]

Thanks

[@chrisreetz4117]

If you're using the hot test line to determine its syrup on your hydrometer the syrup needs to be 211 at 190 you're syrup well-read heavy by that and it might not be

[@mr.mckenney2549]

Thanks. Not sure where you’re getting the 190 from from in the video but if you go to minute 5:40 you will see that the dial thermometer in the pot reads 212 Fahrenheit.

[@chrisreetz4117]

I didn't realize the video sped up I thought you did your reading right after you adjusted your thermometer

[@romerobinson8279]

Where can I find a thermometer like the one you have installed into your pot?

[@mr.mckenney2549]

I got mine at a commercial plumbing supply store locally. If you order online through McMaster-Carr you can find the same product. They do not come cheap. Also you can find things somewhat comparable on Amazon, not the same quality. I hope this helps if I can do anything else please let me know.

[@kevindavison6019]

I like this vacuum setup I am expanding this year and looking to make a couple of gallons of syrup. filtering is a bit of a bottleneck do you have a materials list or a build video for your filter setup I am trying to build one myself without breaking the bank.

[@mr.mckenney2549]

Hello, I don't have any video content regarding the creation of this system. The materials were salvaged from my local dump and fabricated with my high school students. The two kettles are approximately one foot in height. The double boiler was created by cutting the bottom of a stainless steel frying pan and welding it to a spaghetti strainer. The valve is a 1/2 inch 316 ball valve. The thermometer is 1/2 inch NPT threaded into the other half of the stainless steel coupling that I used for the draw-off. The vacuum is just an ordinary one, intended to remove ashes from a pellet stove. The attachment point was a 1 1/2-inch stainless steel hose barb. I use one main filter and two prefilters that were purchased from a maple supplier designed for their system.

[@Breakitbryce]

Add some filter aid it will bind to the niter and sugar sand. Also help with filtering (food grade diatomaceous earth) about 1/4 cup per gallon

[@mr.mckenney2549]

Nice thanks! I haven’t seen anything that showed it would work. CDL says it will work. So glad to hear from somebody that has tried it. I definitely will be doing it on the next batch thank you so much.

[@Breakitbryce]

@@mr.mckenney2549 it will take a little longer to go through but it will be a much cleaner product. Good job on making one! Mine was a lot of money. Don’t forget you never want to heat the syrup to above boiling after it’s been filtered. That can cause more niter to precipitate.

[@mr.mckenney2549]

@@Breakitbryce Thanks again for all the great tips!

[@romerobinson8279]

@@Breakitbryce after you mix the DE with your syrup do you run it through the vacuum filter once or twice? I’m new to using DE

[@mr.mckenney2549]

@@romerobinson8279 I tried it this year with DE and had to run it many times to get it all out. I also used the wrong DE I bought food-grade DE from a tractor supply, turns out it is the wrong DE. You will have to get it from a maple supplier it is a lot courser and one pass will work.

[@grantadamsheck1781]

where did you get that shallow double boiler setup and the larger (bottom) stockpot that you're using to finish/bottle with?

[@kevinmckenney3712]

The bottom double boiler was actually a stainless steel frying pan that I cut the bottom out of and a pasta strainer I cut the top off rough and welded them together. The rest of the stuff actually came out of the dump in the town I live in!

[@kevinmckenney3712]

And just for clarification that stockpot with the valve in it and the strainer top was all homemade everything was welded together and top made on a drill press