Bottling in glass

[Jason Howles]

Anyone have a ton of experience in bottling glass. I keep having a problem of getting mold on a few bottles after about 8 months. I don't have this problem in my plastic jugs that I'm aware of.
I use a water jacket canner and always have my syrup between 185 and 190. I rinse my glass with water and let them dry in the oven at 200 and fill them hot. A couple times my glass was so hot the syrup started to boil when it was filled into the hot glass bottle. What am I doing wrong or is this normal with glass?

[maple flats]

You might be getting some caps that don't seal well. I've had that in a few glass with metal caps, but not with the better plastic caps (they have a softer plastic or nylon seal that fits against the bottle neck. The maple leaf shapes and many others use that cap. Some plastic caps also leak but they seem to be an inferior design.
Warming the glass before filling is good, but getting it hot is not. Do you lay the bottles on their side soon after filling? That helps kill any mold spores that may have gotten in the cap.

[motowbrowne]

Laying them on the side is good. We warm our bottles, but dying get them HOT. I figure a couple bottles with mold or a bad seal out of a few hundred bottles is pretty normal.

Actually, I'd be very nervous handing a customer a plastic bottle of syrup. First, there's no evidence that it's sealed, second, there's no way to be sure there isn't any mold on the top. We try very hard to be clean in our bottling procedure, but a sealed lid with a clear view of the syrup makes me feel 100% confident of my product. Perhaps "that I'm aware of" is the key phrase regarding mold in plastic bottles...

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Biggest problem with glass is that it is so cold. You put syrup in a cold glass bottle will likely be below 180 before you cap it. Always best to rinse glass and preheat it in a oven.

[maple flats]

Whenever I bottle in glass I warm it. If in season with the evaporator running I have a 12" x 30" x 30" cabinet I had made that hangs against the back of the base stack, the side facing the stack is open to the stack and I access the 3 shelves inside by lifting off a door on one side. Putting glass in there for 10-15 minutes gets the glass hot. The same cabinet used to heat my supper before I had a microwave at the sugarhouse. If the evaporator is not running, I warm the bottles in a large SS pot over a turkey fryer. I use a small flame and heat just until the bottles are hot to the touch. Then I bottle, and again, I set each on it's side for a minute or 2 to heat the cap.
As far as putting syrup in plastic, I have never had a report from any customer about mold in a freshly opened jug in13 seasons of putting the largest share of my syrup in jugs. Since my customers usually buy in plastic except some want glass for gift giving, I only put a small % of my syrup in glass. I have however store all my syrup refrigerated once in plastic for the last 3 seasons, that is when I found 2 coolers that were originally from a store. I hold them at between about 25 and 35 degrees and I made a 3" thick cover for each out of high R rigid insulation that is always put on top of the sliding glass tops on the freezers (actually one is a cooler, the other a freezer).
While I do this now, I never had issues before, but I now bottle more product ahead at every session because I am keeping it cold than I used to. I only used to bottle (before refrigeration) 5-16 gal at a batch, I now do up to 40 gal/batch and sometimes 80 gal/batch.

[buckeye gold]

I do not rinse my bottles, but i set my cases by my wood stove to be warm when I bottle (not hot warm). I asked a food safety officer (an acquaintance) with the Dept of Ag about rinsing and he said I was more likely to introduce contaminates with the rinse water than using new out of the box bottles. He said the only way to use water was to pressure sterilize, like in canning. I bottle at 185 and lay them on their side. I have had two bottles show mold in 7 years. I do not do any plastic as i like seeing my syrup is good. However, I'm just a hobby guy and don't do large volumes, so it's easier to keep control on my variables. One thing I have noticed visiting different sugar shacks is that people are sometimes careless with their cap storage and use. I have seen caps poured into an open box or pan and just left set in one place. I keep all my caps in a sealed container and only count out what I need at a bottling.

[Sugarmaker]

Jason,
Sounds like your doing all the things I have heard of to be done when using glass. We do about 5% in glass. I have seen mold in a few bottles. One of the things may be to make sure the syrup is at or above the correct density. Low density syrup could also be a culprit causing mold too.
I should get down and see your operation sometime.
Regards,
Chris

[murferd]

All we ever bottle in is glass. Have never warmed bottles up, usually just have them setting in sugarshack, so bring them to room temp I guess.
We bottle right after it goes from our finishing pan through the Siro filter to our coffee makers. Always fill bottle to top level full, cap right away &
lay on side. That sterilizes cover & check for leaks at same time, usually leave on side for 3 or 4 minutes. Don't remember ever seeing mold
unless it was on an open bottle left in cupboard after being opened.

[lpakiz]

When you fill cool bottles, notice the steam that condenses around the neck as the syrup comes up? Well, without laying the bottle down or otherwise agitating them, that condensed steam (WATER) dilutes the top inch or so of syrup so it is no loinger at the correct density. Don't be afraid the turn those bottles a few times as they cool, to mix that water back into the syrup.
And as stated earlier, I too, fill as full as possible, reasoning that the less contaminated air in the bottle when it's capped, the better. If you feel you are "giving syrup away" then charge a bit more.

[Paddymountain]

We bottle only glass: and all the suggestions are correct. I would add one thing, try to keep your fingers from touching the underside of the caps,
we all know are hands and fingers harbor alot of germs!

[toquin]

We bottle at 180+ around 10 seconds on pints,little over 20 on quarts to fill. Person putting caps on has to wear gloves. lay on side. We stopped seeing mold when we stopped using old salad dressing bottles with old caps!

[MISugarDaddy]

If your bottles are that hot you may be melting the seal in the cap enough to allow air to get in.
Gary

[Ed R]

I also try to avoid adding any turbulence to the syrup stream entering the bottle. Even after laying on their side those are the ones that have a thin foam ring at the top when standing them up straight and that's where the mold starts. Its like carbonating the bottle.

[Bricklayer]

I get all my glass bottles from CDL, I've noticed that if you try to screw the cap on to tight the cap pops and gets loose. So we just snug the cap up and flip it upside down and put it in the box. After 10 minutes or sometimes hours if we forget we flip them over and put back in box.
I used to have a couple on display in my house and they were exposed to sun. They had formed a little crust of mold on the top of the syrup. Was the only time I ever saw mold.

[Lukie]

I use mason jars and put them in the oven at 100% before I fill and bring my syrup up to 180% and were a glove to fill