I opened one of my sealed mason jars of syrup from last season and it looked like this. Strange grey film on the syrup but the rest of the jar is clear. It smells like maple syrup but I haven’t tasted it yet. Anyone else ever experience this ?
Strange film on a sealed bottle ?
I opened one of my sealed mason jars of syrup from last season and it looked like this. Strange grey film on the syrup but the rest of the jar is clear. It smells like maple syrup but I haven’t tasted it yet. Anyone else ever experience this ?
Maple syrup enthusiast
Looks like mold. Likely causes include low density syrup or low canning temperatures. I have found that small jars and bottles need to be preheated before canning because they suck a lot of heat out of the syrup resulting in a low canning temperature and moldy syrup.
60ish taps on buckets
D&G Sportsman 18x63
Turbo RB15 RO Bucket
Can't see it well enough, but it could be mold or even defoamer. If defoamer, you used too much. Pick it out with a spoon, the feel it between your finger tips, if it feels waxy it's defoamer.
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
It's mold. If it's for personal use, I would skim it, bring it to boil and use it. It could just be a bad jar seal.
I have always used mason jars and that happened to me the first year. Skim it all off and heat it up it should be okay to use. What I noticed was that particular jar looked a little short on syrup. those jars I don't store I use first. Always try to fill them within 1/2 inch of the lid and make a quick flip over of the jar then set it up to seal as normal, just like you would be doing a vegetable or fruit.
2004 - 2012 2x3 flat pan 25 to 60 taps
2012 2x3 new divided pan w/draw off 55 taps
2018 - didn't boil surgery - bought new evaporator
2019 new SML 2x4 raised flue high output evap. 65 taps
made 17 gal. syrup
2020 - only put out 53 taps - made 16.25 ga.l syrup
2021 - Didn't work out
2022 - 25 taps on bags / 8 taps on 3/16's line - late start
Almost certainly mold. Mold colonies generally form in circular patterns like you have because they start with one spore and grow out evenly in all directions until they hit another colony or edge. I agree, that bottle looks a little under filled. Do you invert them after filling? Even using sterilized bottles and lids it's possible for spores to land on them before they get filled. The hot syrop will kill them if it touches them but if you dont invert then any spores on inside of lid or top edge of bottle are free to multiply! For personal use just scrape off the mold, bring syrop back up to more than 180 for 10 minutes and then use.
2023 - 130 taps, 90L from 4,000L as of mid March
2021 - 84 taps, 50L from 2100L
2020 - 100 taps on buckets, 21L syrup from 2700L so far (FEB 26-Mar 13) and then the pandemic hit! End of our season!
2019 - 62 taps on buckets, 95L syrop from 3215L sap
2018 - 62 taps, collecting by hand, 90L syrop from 3200L sap
2017 - Lapierre Waterloo Small mini pro with 40 taps
2014 - 2016 40 taps making one or two batches on a 2x6 flat pan over an open arch as it would have been done in 1900
Thanks for the info. Just wanted to make sure if it was still ok to consume
Maple syrup enthusiast
Should be fine as long as it is reboiled and refiltered and nobody in the household is sensitive or allergic to mold.
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
