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Maple Pale Ale
It's maple season here in Maine. Maine Maple Sunday is this weekend, where all the syrup producers open the farms to the public for tastings and events. So in honor of that I decided to try brewing with maple sap.
Here's the recipe:
6 gallons of maple sap
1# Crystal Malt 60L
1/3# Wheat Malt
4# Amber DME
1 quart Maple Syrup (Grade A Medium Amber)
1/2 tsp Irish Moss
2 tsp Gypsum
1oz Kent Goldings 60 min
1/2oz Kent Goldings 30 min
1/2oz Kent Goldings 10 min
Safeale-04 yeast
OG 1.054
I got the sap and syrup from a farmer north of Portland. The sap had to be boiled to sanitize. I steeped the crystal and wheat in 2qts sap at 150F for 30 minutes then removed the grain bag, added the DME and boiled as usual. Half of the syrup went into the boil with the finishing hops. The rest went into the secondary.
I was a bit worried about adding the boiled sap to my plastic bucket so hot but I didn't have enough pots or time to boil and cool 3.5 gallons of it. So the bucket had to sit out in the snow for 8 hours to cool before I could pitch the yeast.
After adding the syrup to the secondary I got some more activity; I checked the SG yesterday after a week in secondary and it was at 1.016 which is still high (recipe calls for a TG of 1.008). I intend to give it another week in secondary before bottling it.
I drank my sample and it was a bit sweet with a heady maple aroma. I think it'll need a while to condition after bottling to mellow the flavor a bit. I didn't notice any plastic taste so I may have dodged a bullet there.
I'll update when I bottle and when I drink it...
What was the OG of the sap itself? Did you ever think to check it?
I didn't check it, but I've read that it's negligible. But you're right, that could be why I'm still high (so to speak).
Sounds like a sappy idea....ok, I'm sorry, that was really baaad....it actully sounds good. I kind of like the SA Triple Bock, which is very heavy on the maple...
Depending on what the sap came changes the sugar content or the OG. Red maples will have much lower OG than Sugar maples by almost 50% I think (it takes 40 gallons of sugar maple sap vs 60 gallons of red maple sap to make a gallon of syrup).
How long did you boil the sap to sanitize?
Somewhere i read about someone using maple sap and the flavor was negligible, maybe the joy of homebrewing? not sure it was awhile ago.
The sap itself is only marginally sweet with like 2% sugar or something like that. I've read it gives a 'woodsy' character. And I figured if I'm making a maple beer at sugaring season I might as well use sap instead of water. The farmer I bought it from charged me 50 cents a gallon. I tasted some before brewing and it tasted like water with a foresty character, if that makes sense. Like drinking water from a stream.
I boiled the sap for about 5 minutes but since I was using my brewpot for the boil, I had to do it in quart increments, which took a lot of time.
IF YOU HAVE ANY SAP LEFT, TRY BOILING 5 GALLONS DOWN TO 3 GALLONS AND GO FROM THERE. I THINK YOU'LL FIND A STRONGER MAPLE FLAVOR. I'VE TRIED 2 DIFFERANT MAPLE BEERS, 1 DOING BASICALLY WHAT YOU DID AND THEN LAST YEAR I STARTED OFF WITH A CONCENTRATE THAT WAS TOO SWEET. PROBABLY ANOTHER HOUR OF BOILING IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SYRUP! EXTREMELY STRONG BEER. I STILL HAVE ABOUT A CASE LEFT OVER FROM LAST YEAR.GETTING READY TOO START ONE NOW. LOT'S OF SAP RUNNING RIGHT NOW!!
Thanks for posting this - I just received 5 gallons of sap from my father who makes syrup. He boiled it down a bit already so it might be the equiv. of 7-8 gallons of sap? I'm not sure if that will be too much for this recipe? I'm a fan of pale ales so was excited to see a recipe like this. For those interested, I've also brewed this recipe from sap:
http://byo.com/recipe/242.html
I also noticed a Wisconsin Spring Porter here that uses sap:
http://www.byo.com/recipe/146.html
Thanks,
Josh
That spring porter looks really good..Man I'm getting thirsty.
I had my doubts about this one but it turned out really nice. It'll keep mellowing with some more age but I'm trying my first now and it's good. When I racked it and also when I bottled it the maple taste and aroma were pretty overpowering. It also took a looong time to carb up in the bottles. But while I was in SC on spring vacation it carbed like crazy. I use plastic pet bottles and they are hard like a rock. Massive head.
The maple has calmed down a lot now. Not exactly subtle, but not pancake material either. I'm Canadian so I love maple, but not to the exclusion of all else. A nice little woodsy twist as well. I think it'll make a nice blend with my oatmeal stout too.
I might make this again next year.
Lee - you're having some similar results as I am - I'm about 2-3 weeks behind you as I just added the additional maple syrup to the secondary fermenter a couple days ago - I let sit in the primary for just under 2 weeks as it was still foaming a good amount. The smell was definitely very woodsy/maple-ish, I didn't think it'd taste good but even after only 2 weeks it actually tasted well (for as good as a sample out of a primary can taste) so I'm glad to hear it mellows out.
Thanks for the update.
Josh
FYI - From Minnesota, so pretty much the same feelings about woods/maple. 
Brewchez asked:
What was the OG of the sap itself? Did you ever think to check it?
So this is an old thread, but I was looking for advice on brewing with maple, and came upon this question. I checked, and the raw sap I have is actually 1.010. So it really isn't negligable I guess, just thought everyone might like to know for the future.
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