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Springfield Acer
10-22-2013, 07:39 PM
I am canning my last three gallons tonight that I have kept refrigerated in a 5 gallon tote.
When I poured it out, I was left with an inch thick layer of rock hard clear marbles on the bottom.
When I test it with the hydrometer, it reads a bit heavy on the 60* line.
I would expect it to be thin after losing all that sugar.
What's up?
(Tastes great)

SeanD
10-22-2013, 09:33 PM
It was just heavy when you refrigerated it. When that happens to me I use my sink like a hot bath and set the bucket down into the hot water. I'll throw a couple of towels over the whole thing and it will stay warm for about an hour plus. Then I add more hot water until the syrup temp gets up to about 80 or 90 and I stir. The sugar crystals will eventually dissolve but it takes a while depending on how hot you get the syrup. You could carefully do it over heat if you stir constantly, but then you may have to filter it again.

If you test it again, you'll see you were even heavier than you thought and can add water to thin it. I've had to add as much as a pint of water to correct before. I'm not proud of it, but I see it as a free pint of syrup I didn't have before. The tables in the NAMSPM are incredibly accurate.

Sean

Springfield Acer
10-22-2013, 09:49 PM
I usually go 1* heavy and use two hydrometers.
What confuses me is why would the same hydrometer read the same thing before and after the sugar settles.
I would expect a noticeable drop with that much sugar removed.
I went ahead and canned it.