glass jars

[philkasza]

does any one ever heat their small jars before filling them or is that an extra step that we have been doing?
thanks

[BryanEx]

I heat glass but likely for a different reason than you do. When I have a family making their own syrup we bottle outdoors so to reduce the risk of the glass breaking from hot syrup hitting very cold glass the bottles are heated in the house and then brought out when we are ready to fill them.

[3rdgen.maple]

I just make sure they are warm and not cold when I fill them. I once put a few of them with a wooden dowel through the handle and let them lay over the flue pan to get hot. All of a sudden I hear this strange noise and 5 out of 6 blew up and I had to tear down the flue pan and clean out all the broken glass.

[MISugarDaddy]

After a bad experience with a cold jar breaking I built a box that I use for preheating all my jars. I put an opening for a small ceramic heater to blow into it and a rack to set the jars on with an opening to let the heated air out. It has a hinged lid on top so I can sit next to when bottling and open the lid to get a very warm, but not too hot, bottle out of for filling. Works great!

[Brent]

We warm all our glass in the oven - gently - before bottling, to prevent thermal shock shattering AND

I read somewhere, maybe on here, that the smallest jars suck to much heat out of the syrup to remain at sterile temperatures before the cap gets put on.

I tend to thing this is true because in the first years, we got more mold in the small jars and almost none in the bigger ones.

[heus]

I cracked a couple of quart mason jars this past season by pouring hot syrup into cold ones. I now place them in an extra filter screen that I have for my finish tanks and set this on the dividers in my flue pan.

[MapleHarvest]

We heat the glass jars in the oven before bottling to help prevent the glass from cracking and to insure that the syrup stays hot enough in the bottles to kill any microbes. Cool glass will pull alot of heat away from the syrup.

Of course you have to watch you fingers:)

[SeanD]

I heat the glass before I fill to reduce the chance of a break from the temperature change. I haven't had it happen with syrup, but I have had it happen with pickles.

I used to heat the glass in the oven. The oven method works, but I found it easier to warm them on the stove top in a pan of water. Everything is right up at an easy level to work with.

I only fill the pan half way up the jars so they aren't likely to tip over. I bring the water temp. up to about 150-180 or so just to take the chill off. I shut the heat off and the water stays warm enough until I'm done bottling the glass. As a few come out to get filled, I put a few new ones in the water. By the time I get to grabbing those, they are warmed up. It's like an assembly line.

Sean

[Maple Hobo]

Just an FYI: If your running an FDA approved sugar camp your not allowed to use the Mason jars to can your syrup. It would be nice if we could but currently they don't allow any "glass" accept actual MAPLE SYRUP bottles that are approved as such.

If your selling your syrup to the public, you are supposed to be FDA approved. If someone calls and complains or has an issue with your product, You can be fined and forced closed.

I know most camps around here are not FDA approved or inspected. With the traddition of shine running it seems to go hand and hand. Just as with shine thought, you run the risk of what they actually do when they make your syrup. Quality and standards are not consistent between the various camps.