I brewed a Russian Imperial Stout and am planning on throwing some barrel staves into it. I thought about bringing some quality maple syrup to a boil and throwing my staves into it and letting it sit in the syrup for a few days before adding them to my stout. I’ve read people’s opinions on maple syrup over the past couple weeks and it’s almost 50/50 but haven’t read anything about trying to mimic a maple barrel. Has anyone tried this?
Since it’s been read 99 times but no one has responded, I’ll respond, only because I live in maple syrup country (southwestern Ontario). I’ve never used wood in beer, so I know nothing about that. I’d just ask, are you going for wood barrel derived flavours, or maple syrup derived flavours?
Maple wood, when used for smoking, is slightly sweet (aroma), but maybe not to the extend that you might expect based on the syrup. To make syrup, sap is concentrated 40-fold, so while sap (and hence wood I guess) is sweet, it’s not THAT sweet. Also, maple sap basically tastes like water, so it’s not like the wood tastes like the syrup does.
Now if you are talking about bourbon barrel staves soaked in maple syrup, bourbon and maple syrup work well together. Might be a fun way to complement the vanilla note that you get in bourbon barrel stouts.
Sorry, that’s all I’ve got. Good luck!
The flavor of maple would be lost. it takes a lot of maple to come through at all. I would soak some wood in bourbon, or use a bourbon barrel stave if that’s what you’ve got, and also add maple.
I add ~ 1-2 quarts of the darkest strongest flavored maple you can get in 5 gallons of beer and get a hint of maple flavor. I add the maple after the height of primary fermentation. the yeast are going to ferment those sugars out, but if you wait till they are not going crazy you can retain some of the aroma.
im thinking of alternative woods to try
NB: i was browsing a cedar wood thread and many people indicated elements in the wood/resin are TOXIC for people. so do research i guess. im glad i found that link first.
maple wood seems to be safe, its being used in commercial beers/wines apparently.
also really interesting to hear about redwood barrels being used in california in the distant past.
wow. just tried a bit of vodka i left toasted maple wood in for 2 weeks.
I know that is extremely young, and its just vodka, not a good test. but im getting horrendous flavours i presume from the maple wood. near-plasticy, pine/wood-oil floor cleaner, i wont drink another sip to get more flavours.
tbh, if people haven’t/don’t use maple wood for flavouring there are probably reasons.
Yeah, not every wood that’s great for sap or smoking wood makes for good aging. OTOH wood can go through weird phases as it extracts in alcohol. I usually won’t taste anything I’ve oaked for a month because even with oak you can get rough flavor and a lot of tannin those first few weeks. I’ve never tried aging on maple so I’m not sure if that’s a phase or maple just isn’t a good option.
If you want a beer that has clear and distinct maple flavor, use an herb called Fenugreek at flameout. works like a charm
This. We’ve been advocating in books and podcast for years. It’s pretty well documented that long exposure to maple creates weird flavors.