I’m sure this is a well discussed topic but I want to add maple syrup to a porter I’m working on and want to know when is the best time to add it in order to get a subtle maple flavor? Also about how much do I want to add in order to achieve this goal?
Any tips, sites, or experience that people can shed on me for this I would greatly appreciate.
Thanks!
To have any chance at all, I think you’d have to add it after fermentation has subsided.
Wouldn’t the maple syrup just make it drier? Does it add much flavor at all?
You’re correct. My experience is that it ferments out and leaves little to no flavor. The best way to get maple flavor seems to be to use maple extract.
i once used it as a priming sugar.
it turned out okay, but the maple flavor was not intense and dissipated very quickly.
trader joe’s now sells maple sugar and i’m curious about that for priming.
i know adding flavors that late in isn’t ideal but that’s part of the fun about brewing for me.
cheers!
Although I haven’t specifically tried priming with maple sugar, my experience with other sugars has been that you use so little for priming that you don’t get any appreciable flavor. But feel free to try and let us know how it works.
I’ve wondered about ageing on sugar maple wood to get the maple flavor. Just a hypothesis at this point but when you remove the sugar from good dark maple what you are basically left with is a woody maple flavor
I’ve used a cup in addition to dextrose for priming a Nut Brown Ale and got a nice maple flavor.
I just used hickory syrup in a beer, and I added it just as fermentation was beginning to slow. Fermentation took off again, of course, but plenty of hickory flavor remained when activity subsided. I’m very pleased with the outcome. I used 16 fl. oz. of syrup in 5 gallons of session-strength beer.
hickory syrup is a really different beast than maple though isn’t it? If I am remembering correctly hickory syrup is made by boiling the bark of the hickory in sugar syrup rather than concentrating the sap.
This is an interesting point on the bottling sugar addition with maple. I did the calculations at one point and to prime just with maple takes close to a lb of syrup even for a middle of the road carb level. It’s only about 70% sugar (>=66%). imagine 12$ just for priming sugar! I have wanted to make a maple wine for years but the cost is too high so far for me to pull the trigger.
I think that you would get less flavour using the maple sugar (dry) because they start out with such a light grade of syrup so that it doesn’t get dark. grade B dark amber, or bakers grade if you can get it, is your best bet for flavour.
you could also add some fenugreek as that is what is used to make aritificial maple flavour but I have no idea how much or when you would do that.
Being from the northeast I have made quite a few Maple beers. If using syrup in a porter I found that 1/2 gallon of Grade B (expensive early season syrup) with half added pre-boil and the other half added at flame out gave a subtle maple flavor. I think the trick is to make a porter on the mild side so the roasted grains are balanced by the syrup.
IMO the best option, if you can swing it, would be to use Maple Sap as your brewing liquor. It gives a nice woody, maple flavor. This is how I did my last batch.
That’s awesome. I have often wondered about using sap as brewing liquour. probably cheaper to if you have access to the sap. 10 gallons of sap should be pretty inexpensive yeah?
It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. So, it is actually pretty cheap. I have a friend who runs a sugar shack so I just pay him with beer.
I assume you’ve done this and know it works, but I’ve never understood how you can get enough flavor out of sap. If 5 gallons of sap would be equivalent to adding a pint of syrup, that’s not much flavor at all.
That’s a great idea about the sap, I guess my next question would be how much to add to a 5 gallon batch to get a decent maple flavor?
About 7 gallons I would guess. I think that saints was saying he used it for the entirety of the brewing liqour. It is a subtle flavour when it hasn’t been boiled down.