Brewing a Maple Nut Brown

[eabearce]

Question for you all… I am interested in brewing a Maple Nut Brown and wish to add maple flavoring of some sort whether it be pure Grade B syrup or an extract. FYI I plan to keg this beer once fermentation is finished, and my thoughts were to simply add a bit of extract when I keg/force carb this as I don’t want any more fermentables added to this brew raising my alcohol content? Any thoughts?

[erockrph]

Maple extract is actually fenugreek. It would probably be fine in a beer, but to my tastes the real stuff is way better. It’s like comparing Aunt Jemima with real syrup.

Personally, I’d go with some grade B syrup in secondary. If you want to keep the ABV down, then cut the base malt by the amount of gravity points that the syrup will add. You could add in something like torrified wheat to boost the body a bit if you think you might need it.

[eabearce]

@erockrph

Maple extract is actually fenugreek. It would probably be fine in a beer, but to my tastes the real stuff is way better. It’s like comparing Aunt Jemima with real syrup.

Personally, I’d go with some grade B syrup in secondary. If you want to keep the ABV down, then cut the base malt by the amount of gravity points that the syrup will add. You could add in something like torrified wheat to boost the body a bit if you think you might need it.

Not that I disagree with your thoughts on this as I have never done this yet, but what about Grade B syrup straight into the keg at kegging time and force carbing it? Thoughts on an amount to use if I were to go this way?

[erockrph]

In that situation you will be sweetening your beer. I’m not sure if that’s what I’d want to do, because then you may end up with a cloying or syrupy-sweet beer.

I have not brewed a maple beer like this before, but my guess would be a ballpark of 16 oz of syrup as a starting point for a 5-gallon batch. But, like I said, I would much prefer to let the added syrup ferment out in secondary than add it at kegging. Backsweetened beer just doesn’t sound that appealing to me.

[goschman (Iliff Ave)]

Maybe research Tommyknocker’s Maple Nut Brown or email the brewery to see if you can get any information on their process? I guess maybe you wouldn’t want to emulate a beer unless you have tried it…

[blatz]

@eabearce

Is there any way that I can just message either one of you and share the recipe that I have? I think now that the best way is to add to the secondary like erockrph says to. I just need to know where to cut my grain amounts because once I add the syrup to Beersmith my alcohol jumps from 5.2 to 6.2%.

that little “IM” button underneath their profile name and avatar (if they have one) is how you personal message someone.

[eabearce]

Thanks for the help everyone once again. I contacted Northern Brewer and chatted with their rep and told them what I planned to do by including screenshots of Beersmith before the addition of Maple Syrup and after the addition with dropping my Maris Otter Pale Malt down 1 1/2 lbs, this seemed to keep the SG around the same. Sorry for me being all antsy, messing with recipes that require additions like this make me a bit nervous should come out with a beer around 5.3 ABV