Post #763372 by mikehooker on Thu, May 5, 2016 3:58 PM

I almost always have a homemade sugar syrup (usually rich), cinnamon syrup, passion fruit syrup, grenadine, (rich) honey mix and falernum in my arsenal. Orgeat is the one thing I use regularly that I'm fine sticking with BG Reynolds and those bottles always outlast the use by date if I don't finish before then. I never had issues with spoilage of my own syrups until recently. I had a rich sugar syrup grow mold within a month or so and lately my honey mixes seem to start fermenting within days of making them.

The Rich Sugar that went bad was made by cold process, which I'd never done before. I've always boiled 2:1 sugar but a falernum recipe I was making specifically called for cold process. So I made a large batch of rich sugar syrup, used what was needed for the falernum and planned to use the rest as needed. I never refrigerate my hot process rich sugar and besides crystallizing it has never gone bad on me. So I was surprised when this bottle of cold process turned so quickly.

With the honey mix, I typically squeeze whatever amount I need from one plastic bear into a used, empty bear along with half that amount of filtered water, then shake like crazy til it's liquefied. I never used to refrigerate this, since honey lasts forever, and never had a honey mix go bad until recently. One time within a couple weeks of making it, I noticed the mix smelled really bad like it had fermented. I ended up tossing it, puzzled. The next batch did the same thing in short order. More costly honey down the drain. I started to wonder if using the old bear containers had an impact on this or what had changed.

Both the honey and the sugar that went bad were done by cold process and stored at room temperature. Should the general rule be if it's made by cold process, it should be refrigerated? Or would adding pure grain alcohol have done the trick? And what is a suitable amount of PGA to add to your syrup to prolong the life without affecting the flavor? I've heard 1 oz of grain alcohol per 8 oz of syrup but I once ruined a batch of passion fruit syrup by adding that much.

Besides honey, I typically keep my syrups in 8 or 16 oz glass bottles with the swing clamp tops and rubber stoppers like this one from World Market:

http://www.worldmarket.com/product/bormioli+rocco+swing+bottle.do?&from=fn

They say to hand wash them. I'm not sure if the glass can't handle the heat of a dishwasher or if it has something to do with the metal on the clamps (which are removable), but I've always just cleaned them by putting a couple squirts of dish soap in them, filling them with piping hot water, putting the stopper in and shaking like mad. Then I let it sit for a while so the suds can work their magic, then I rinse with warm water til all the soap is gone and sit 'em out upside down to dry. I've noticed recently that the older bottles don't look 100% clean after this. They have little particles caked to the inside of the glass that I just can't seem to wash out. And they're starting to smell like the syrup that was previously in them so now I'm worried about putting my passion fruit in a bottle that smells of falernum. Curious if anyone has experienced this and if you have suggestions on how best to clean them. The bottles are expensive so I don't want to keep replacing them after a couple uses. There's gotta be a better way to sterilize them since you can't fit a sponge inside to scrub.

Would love to get some feedback from the community.

[ Edited by: mikehooker 2016-05-05 16:04 ]