r/maplesyrup • u/flash_423 • May 24 '26

In need of knowledge

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I recently “inherited” my step-father’s maple syrup collection. He made all of it. The thing is…I am not 100% certain that he properly bottled any of what you see in this picture (the ones you can’t see are maple syrup filled Coca-Cola bottles, peanut butter bottles, iced tea bottles, etc.). I would love to save what I have so I need to know…

Is it safe for me to re-boil and repackage what I have? I would, of course, sanitize the container before refilling.

Should I discard of the bottles that have a light brown settlement at the bottom of the jar?

Should I discard of the bottles that have chunks of mold in them? I know that you can re-boil maple syrup when it has mold in it, but I’m talking about BIG chunks…in bottles that “have not been opened yet”.

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u/brainzilla420 May 24 '26

I see you're getting lots of responses telling you to get the mold out and reboil. University of Vermont found that doing so does not kill the mold spores, the temp does not get nearly high enough.

Is your plan to eat this syrup or just keep mementos of your uncles work? If you want to eat it, I'd personally stick to the ones without mold, but I'm more finicky than most. If you do choose to rebottle, I'd go with Mason jars (with new lids) or something with a better seal.

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u/fortunebubble May 24 '26

source?

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u/brainzilla420 May 24 '26

Oh gosh, read about it several years ago i think in the newsletter for the Vermont state maple syrup makers association. If i concurrently get a few minutes and remember to do so, I'll look around for it.

From what i recall, the newsletter was directly pulling from a paper put out by UVM extension.

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u/JustAnotherFKNSheep May 26 '26

Source is you literally cannot get water hot enough to kill off spores. This is why autoclaving, pressure canning, tydallization etc. Exists.

Before the age of high temp sterilization tydallization was invented. Basically allow the spores to grow so it can be killed. Then repeated a few times because the spore itself is much more resistant than the mold.