Glass bottle sterilization

[Jmsmithy]

Hello all!

Gonna be packing exclusively in glass. All will be purchased new, from both maple suppliers as well,as glass companies (eg. Freund).

Question is do I need boil/sterilize each case of bottles or are they packed/shipped sterile? I know I must hot pack at 180-185* and tilt to ensure complete seal.

Does anyone sterilize their new bottles prior to packing?

[Dennis H.]

I will tell you how I work with glass. I by no means do a lot of glass but if I did I would do if differently.

I give all the glass a good rinse and drain and then place them in a warm oven. Some ovens are unable to go low enough but mine can and I set the temp to 180.
I do this while the syrup is warming up.
By the time the syrup is ready to go the glass bottles are both dry inside and out and are up to temp.
Fill, cap, set on side.

The more syrup the bottle holds the less important that the bottle needs to be heated.
Example is the tiny syrup grading set bottles. I have a heck of a time to get them to seal and not end up having mold form in them if I do not preheat them.
Then there is quart mason jars, I can just fill them with hot syrup throw a ring and lid on it and it seals up nice and never gets any mold formation and I did nothing special other than fill it with syrup.

[wnybassman]

With brand new bottles I have just opened the box and started pouring syrup in them. Never had an issue. I can't imagine a large producer filling case after case of these doing anything different than that.

[MISugarDaddy]

We bottle most of our syrup in glass unless we are going to be shipping it to a customer. Like wynbassman said, we just pull the new bottles out of the box and fill them up. We do have it set up so we heat the bottles to reduce the cooling effect that glass has on syrup. We also pack glass around 190 degrees to ensure that when the syrup doesn't cool down below 180 to 185 before capping and inverting.
Gary

[WESTMAPLES]

just like wnybassman stated I also just open the box bring the syrup up to 190 and start packing haven`t yet had a problem thankfully

[jmayerl]

I do 300 gallons a year in 50ml glass up to qt glass. Bottles come out of box, get a quick look for gross contaminants (spiders, bugs) then filled right up. Never a problem with anything. Don't overthink it, that's why you bottle filtered syrup at 185.

[buckeye gold]

I actually asked a state food inspector about this once and he said unless you were running the bottles through a heated sterilization cycle in a washer then you were more likely to be contaminating the bottle by washing than if you just pulled it form the box new and bottled. He said it's more critical to maintain hot syrup. I do as most here said bottle at 185-190 as fast as I can fill a bottle and cap it then lay it on it's side. Two and sometimes three of us bottle. One filling one capping and then other laying the bottles out and keep new one lined up for filling. After a minute or two the third person will also set up the bottles and box them. I have pulled a bottle from a box an hour later and it's still pretty darn warm. I have never had a bottle go bad or mold.

[Ravenseye]

I just do a teeny amount every year but I just fill mason jars (of varying size) up to the top with hot syrup, flip on their side and I'm done. Never had a problem yet. My batches are small enough that when the filtering is done, it's at 185 degrees and the time it takes to fill the jars is next to nothing so it's definitely hot syrup.

[Maplewalnut]

I actually asked a state food inspector about this once and he said unless you were running the bottles through a heated sterilization cycle in a washer then you were more likely to be contaminating the bottle by washing than if you just pulled it form the box new and bottled. He said it's more critical to maintain hot syrup. I do as most here said bottle at 185-190 as fast as I can fill a bottle and cap it then lay it on it's side. Two and sometimes three of us bottle. One filling one capping and then other laying the bottles out and keep new one lined up for filling. After a minute or two the third person will also set up the bottles and box them. I have pulled a bottle from a box an hour later and it's still pretty darn warm. I have never had a bottle go bad or mold.

Good advice Buckeye. Keep in mind "sterilization" is probably not possible for most homeowners. Unless you own a drywall for glass you will always have some level of endotoxins present. Water wash will only increase that chance. High temperature and little head space(fill that bottle !) is the key to success.