I'm in the process working out how to bottle a new hotsauce I've been working on for a few months now. I'm making 30 bottles of sauce with a a decent alcohol content. I was planning on dissolving some powders as well as some rosemary extract in a bottle of high proof alcohol that I have, and including this mixture in my hotsauce. I was thinking approximately 1/10 the hotsauce's volume would be this alcohol mix, both for its propensity as a solvent for my powders and for it's antibacterial properties.
Now, I realized my woozy bottles are perfect candidates for the Hot Fill Hold method. They even have the white liners. The issue is that it is suggested to hot fill at 200+F, but ethanol boils and evaporates at 178F. I don't want my alcohol to boil off. I've thought of maybe filling each bottle with a premeasured amount of alcohol before hot filling the bottles to help reduce the time in which the alcohol can escape. Any thoughts?
Now, I realized my woozy bottles are perfect candidates for the Hot Fill Hold method. They even have the white liners. The issue is that it is suggested to hot fill at 200+F, but ethanol boils and evaporates at 178F. I don't want my alcohol to boil off. I've thought of maybe filling each bottle with a premeasured amount of alcohol before hot filling the bottles to help reduce the time in which the alcohol can escape. Any thoughts?