Condensation in the bottle necks

[Oddmott]

Hey All,

Been looking over my bottled syrup this afternoon and noticing condensation along the necks of any of our booze bottles. Doesn't seem to be any in the syrup we bottled in mason jars.

What's it from? We boiled all our bottles and then baked them dry in a propane oven. They were completely dry before we added the syrup (poured in hot) and capped immediately.

We plan to store all our syrup in a chest freezer so i'm not concerned about spoilage, but if we didn't freeze, would it be at greater risk of spoiling?

[happy thoughts]

It sounds like water condensing off hot syrup after it was bottled. Gently shake or mix it back into the syrup. If the syrup went into the bottle at correct density, it will still be the same density when remixed so there's no reason for it to spoil on a shelf unless you left too much head space or you packed at lower than recommended temps.

Syrup is virtually sterile going into the container if packed at the correct temp. Any contamination will come from things the syrup came in contact with during packing, be that a contaminated container, a ladle or pouring vessel, or air. Leaving too much head space means more air for microbes, particularly molds and yeast, to grow. If you're freezing yours, I'll assume you're leaving more head space so the containers don't crack. For shelf storage I'd suggest less head space. It's the surface of the syrup where mold will grow. That's the reason I pack my own syrup containers to just about full as there is always loss of volume on cooling. On cooling I always like to see syrup still well up into the neck of a necked bottle. When filling mason jars I never leave more than 1/4" head space but again I am not freezing any of mine.