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I've been making this for years, using Vermont maple sap from my trees. One batch a year in the spring... usually March when the sap runs. Simply replace the water in a mead recipe with maple sap. Not maple syrup... that stuff is $40 a gallon. I don't taste the sap in the finished product...

I brew in my unheated garage up here in Vermont. I have a gable fan usually used for attics. I also have a tub sink w/ H & C water. I can shut off & drain the water lines to prevent freezing. The garage is uninsulated and not exactly airtight, so venting steam & CO has not been a problem...

is in the secondary, tasted good but no spice flavor. Added a couple of tsp. of pie spice inside a nylon bag. Will try in a few days and if OK I will clarify w/ Polyclar or SuperKleer crash cool and keg.

Yeah, I guess.... not knowing what your threshold is for sweetness / maple flavor. Darkest grade you can find.

If you're talking about using real maple syrup, it'll cost about $45-50 a gallon. Use the darkest grade you can find B or Dark Amber, the lighter grades like Fancy, A or light amber do not have a strong maple flavor. If you are back sweetening after treating w/ K-meta, I guess I'd add it...

If you have a kegging set-up, simply start fermenting a 5G batch, and start tasting a sample each day and noting the gravity until it tastes like you want. For me its somewhere around 1.008 it.... crash cool to ~32 F and rack to secondary and clarify with something like superkleer if you wish...

Did a batch of this in '13 as well.... Changed up the recipe a bit as I boiled down the sap to ~ half its volume... from about 8 G to 4G. Bottled it a few days back and it may be my best yet... very smooth after only about 5 months.

I use untreated cider and have tried it both with and without campden treatment and can't discern a difference. I do use a single packet of rehydrated beer yeast (Notty) rather than wine yeasts as they result in a very dry cider. I prefer a touch of sweetness.

I use it with my meads and ciders... works very well for me

I use regular crown cap bottles.... If you have clear or green glass bottles, even better. I also drip each bottle top in wax... adds a touch of class.

Danby DAR 440

I don't think its going to be the stuff leaching from the buckets that kills me.... more likely the alcohol or a speeding bus

Mine just arrived today. I'm using a single faucet tower and found that once I removed the slide-in storage compartments in the door, I could fit a ball-lock cornie and a 10 lb. steel gas tank inside without cutting up the door. I left in a couple of the plastic can holders to store yeast...

If you go to 7 Barrel today, they have a "Conan-series" beer featured in addition to their regular line-up. Usually a big beer like double IPA or Imperial Red. The present brewer, who succeeded the late Paul White was once a master brewer for Catamount. The regular line-up of beers are Paul's...

Conan is the name of the yeast used by 7 Barrel Brewery in NH. They had connections to Noonan of Burlington as did the owner/brewer of the Alchemist.

A few comments from a Vermonter: I am unable to detect any maple flavor from any sap beers I have brewed. I also make a maple sap mead. The sap ups the abv and likely helps get fermentation started. A local micro-distillery is making maple sap vodka. Tried a sample.... tastes like vodka.

Hey... its a business. You'll be adding to TxBrew's income, as well.

Thanks for the link... I read through it before, but the advice seems to be all over the place. And I think Norway Spruce is somewhat milder than Blue... Maybe I'll just go with what I've got and "dry-spruce" if I think it needs more spruce. I'd rather under-do and correct than end up...

A couple of times... Harpoon brewed one last year. And I had another at Vermont Brewfest a few years ago

Working on a Spruce Tips Holiday Ale and looking for suggestions and ideas, especially from those who have brewed with spruce. Using Norway Spruce tips picked and frozen this spring. Doing a smaller batch and will bottle and age. Likely will use an English yeast: Spruce Tips 21-B...