Hi, This is my first year brewing. Last year a friend of mine taught me how to make maple syrup from sap. It is a big effort with a ratio of 30-40 sap for one gallon of finished syrup. Last year a made some. It has a nice flavor and dark brown color with a faint burnt flavor ( I stepped away from the reducing tary just for a minute). Could I add this to beer (nut ale,stout) or mead? I plan on tapping a few trees this year.
Thanks again,
Bassin75
I tried making a maple porter with some of my syrup last year. The porter came out good but couldn’t taste any maple syrup. I used a quart. Maybe if you used like 20% syrup you might get something. I think the commercial boys kill the yeast and then back sweeten.
In my opinion, maple syrup is so expensive and tasty by itself that it’s wasteful in a beer. You’re probably better off looking for some sort of maple flavoring or extract if you want to add maple flavor to a beer. If I watched someone pour a quart of maple syrup into some wort I would probably cry. In case you haven’t picked this up: I love maple syrup 
When you realize that you have 30 gallons more sap than you can possibly handle with more on the way… use it for brewing water! You can also partially boil it down, no reason to finish it only to dilute it again in water. You can make wine from it as well, if you stop the boil at around 23 Brix. :cheers:
That sounds kinda awesome actually
I’ll have to try a sample tonight. I made a gallon batch last spring and promptly forgot about it. It’s still sitting in secondary! :shock:
One of the best beers I’ve had this year was made with sap instead of water. It’s called “Grandpa’s got a gun” from O’so brewery. It was a seasonal, sadly, so I can’t find it anymore.
In Charlie Papazian’s book of home brewing, he suggested using a gallon to a 5 gal. batch, and that’s all he said about it. I’ve not personally used maple syrup but many have said it was wonderful. No experience here. Looks like a project for you, keep us informed about what you do.
I took CP’s advice and used a gallon of Grade B maple syrup in a 5-gallon batch. Could never get it to carbonate in the keg so we served in a pint glass with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and it was delicious! That was 3-years ago and I still get requests for the remake.
We used 2 quarts per 5 gallons in a Canadian Breakfast Stout we did a few years back and it was amazing. Definitely use Grade B (or I think they now call it “Grade A Dark”). Interestingly (and Matt, you may take note of this), “Grade B” was never ‘worse’, it just meant it was darker and tasted more ‘mapley’. That stuff is the nectar of the Gods. Even “Grade A” straight out of a Vermont farm, or what is now called “Grade A Golden Color” tastes like Aunt Jemimas compared to it.
Used two pints of it in 4 gals cider. both products evince the thot of late fall to me somehow; and appley mapley sounded like good combo.
Aadded it in two doses and without sanitizing it (no boiling). Added at day three and at day 7.
i was warned that not much maple aroma or flavor would come thru, as the desired elements would be lost during fermentation.
kegged it yesterday and a noticeable maple existed in the aroma and flavor. seems pretty dry too so
i think alot of the syrup fermented (no hydrometer done but past cider batches with sugars added were in the 45-55 OG range).
I wuld mabbe use it in a belgium blond ale for some “intangible” element
I don’t know about using maple sap for mash water but you could certainly make a high gravity wort and add it to the sap which is generally around .030. Or use extract. Sorry beavis but maple cider doesn’t sound that good to me. Maple flavored Porter or stout maybe a glass or two but I couldn’t drink a keg of it. I made a maple Porter for my daughter in law last year the came out alright it’s just not for me. My suggestion is just make a small batch.
