Sugar Crystals in one bottle but not others

[carter]

I have no idea how I did this or how this came about - but I have a couple of bottles with crystals on the bottom. I'm not complaining, frankly I love the look. But I did a batch (small backyard style) and filled a bunch of bottles and only one had the crystals. The others are perfectly clear. I've done ~ 60 bottles so far this year and it's only happened twice. I don't believe I've changed my production or bottling method.

Anyhow, just a curiosity question more than anything. All new syrup, not old syrup.



and it happened in a fancy grade syrup (I can't get used to the new names yet) but that's was the only two bottles

[ecolbeck]

Any idea where in the bottling order the bottles with crystals in them were? I'm wondering if just enough evaporation occurred during the bottling process that the last few bottles contained syrup that was concentrated enough to have crystal formation. Perhaps another possibility is that those bottles had some dust in them or something that served as a nucleation point for crystals.

[carter]

Sadly I have no idea... I thought something similar where it was the last bottle to be bottled, but I can't prove it, and oddly enough hasn't happened since the start of the season when those bottles were done. All the new batches, this has not happened. Could be I'm getting a little faster when it comes to bottling and not allowing it to cool down enough. Not sure. Wish I could replicate it. I honestly like the look of the crystals at the bottom. I'll be keeping those two bottles and giving away the others.

[ecolbeck]

If you're bottling in different batches then some batches may be slightly more concentrated than others which would explain why the phenomenon hasn't occurred more regularly. What do you mean by bottling speed and cooling down? Replicating it would be easy, just bottle syrup that is over density. The higher the density the more crystals will form.

[nasion]

My first year I misread my hydrometer and over-concentrated all of my syrup... every jar had rock candy sized crystals in the bottom. They kinda of looked cool, but I knew it meant I spent a lot of extra time boiling and wound up with a lot less syrup! What syrup I did make had an even more intense flavor. Not sure I'd try for it on purpose again though.

[carter]

If you're bottling in different batches then some batches may be slightly more concentrated than others which would explain why the phenomenon hasn't occurred more regularly. What do you mean by bottling speed and cooling down? Replicating it would be easy, just bottle syrup that is over density. The higher the density the more crystals will form.

I think you misunderstood, the two bottles of the same color, one with crystals and one without are from the same batch of syrup. Why are there crystals in one and not the other? I would have 5 or 6 bottles perfectly clear and one had crystals at the bottom. Same batch from boiling to bottling.

Again, it's not a big deal, just curious as to why.

[Cedar Eater]

Crystals form more easily when they have something rough to attach to, so maybe those bottles were the last and had a little bit of niter in them. The first one looks like it did. Did you use a big electric coffee pot for bottling?