Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1899-10-05
MAKING SORGHUM sIRuP..
Lining Essential and How to Do IL
Successfully.

MAKING SORGHUM SlRUP.
Lining Essential and How to Do II
Successfully.
Nothing has been found better than
lime for neutralizing the acids contain
ed In sorghum juice. 1t is used by all
cane sugar and beet sugar makers and
/ sugar reiners as a necessary means
for clarifying their liquids. The use
of lime in sorghum juice is in some
respects quite unsatisfactory. The
juice is always acid, sometimes strong
ly acid. Sirups containing all Of the
acids naturally in sorghum juice, con-
centrated by evaporation, from six to
eight gallons of juice to one gallon Of
sirup, are too acid to suit the great
majority Of strip users, who are ac-
customed to the mild, neutral sirups
made by refners and mixers The
acids also hold impurities of the juice
in solution, so that these cannot be
removed. Proof of this is seen when
sorghum juice is lined until neutral
that is, neither acid nor alkaline. A
part of the impurities then becomes
solid. By adding acid to the juice
these solid impurities redissolve and go
into solution in the juice again.
But lime not only neutralizes the
acid. 1t also attacks and degrades
other substances in the juice. A large
quantity of lime is used in beet Juice
without harm. A large quantity can
be used in sugar cane juice with less
harm than can be used in sorghum
| juice. When a sample of sorghum
juice is lined to excess on cool morn
ing, 1t Is seen that the juice is not dis
colored when the temperature is below
so degrees +. 1t becomes slowly dis
colored when the temperature rises,
above 60 degrees. 1t is rapidly discol-
ored above 80 degrees and is instantly
d1scolored at the boiling point This
seems to indicate that it is better to
lime the juice when cold Lime
changes by keeping, losing strength by
absorbing carbonic acid gas from the
air and forming more or less carbonate
of lime. Lime is but slightly soluble
In water. Seven hundred pounds of
water dissolve one Of lime, and it does
not long remain in suspension in wa
ter, so that the phrase "milk of lime"
or cream Of lime" conveys an indefi-
mite idea of the amount of lime con-
tanned in the liquid. Common lime is
also often made from very impure
| limestone.
AS has already been said, sorghum
juice varies greatly in degree of acid
ity, sometimes requiring much more
lime than at other times. For these
reasons it is not possible to form a
general rule for lining sorghum juice,
except that after the process the Juice
should always slightly redden a strip
OF blue litmus paper which has been
immersed in the lime juice This in
dicates that the juice is still slightly
acid and that too much lime has not
been used. 1t is unsatisfactory to use
too little lime, difficult to use the
proper quantity, and the strip is in
Jured when too much is used. When
too little lime is used, the Qualification
Is imperfect the juice is gummy and
cannot be filtered. and the strip has a
more or less rank flavor. When lime
Is rightly used, a larger amount Of
1mpurity can be removed by Swimming
and settling, and the sirup has pleas
anter flavor and keeps better. The
proper lining Of sorghum Juice is SO
difficult that most strip makers
do not practice it. The few who
do take care to employ too little
lime. This practical difficulty in
properly neutralizing the acids in
sorghum juice has long stood in
the way Of progress in sirup manu-
facture. The use of lime or Of an
equivalent substance appears essential
to the production of an improved quail
ity of sirup. Until further expert
mental work has been done, sorghum
sirup makers should use lime sparing-
ly-about pint of milk Of lime (not
cream of lime) like whitewash, in so
gallons Of juice The lined juice, after
thorough mixing, should slightly red
den piece Of litmus paper. The fore
going information is reproduced from
farmers bulletin No 80, in which A.
A. Denton of Kansas discusses the en-
tire subject Of the manufacture of
sorghum sirup from the planting of
the seed to the finished product
One Thing and Another.
| PrOfaScor Rrupo,. % NoL,,.Ix.