Acerglyn

Ingredients:
2lbs Honey
480ml Dark Grade A Maple Syrup
EC-1118

Followed a traditional Mead method where i heated the honey, Maple syrup just so it was pourable and mixed with water and a pinch or 2 of yeast Nutrient. capped and allowed to sit for 28 days completely undisturbed untill it was still which was about at the 3 week make. Then i racked it twice to clear. Taste is definately sharp because its young so i will report back on the taste in a couple months. i think the next Acerglyn i will do will be with a D grade Syrup because it will have more maple flavor. Any Questions? make sure to ask!

How did this turn out? I'm currently.doing an Acerglyn with the following:

Just over a 2 gallon batch
5 lbs local Michigan Wildflower-Basswood and Star Thistle
About 3 lbs local maple syrup- very.watery, but fresh. My buddy made it.
1 t yeast nutrient
1/2 t yeast nutrient
EC-1118
OG:1.094

I degassed it every other day. Added 1 t yeast nutrient after 1 week. Going to add another t of yeast nutrient next week. I'll let it sit for another month, transfer, and then take a rwading, then crash to 36 degrees for two weeks or so. I'll take another reading after that.

Question, this is my first Acerglyn, should I back sweeten it to put it in the semi-sweet range?

How is yours going?

Mine is bottled, its a beautiful clarity, and taste great even though its really young. its something around 16%. I enjoy it alot and alot of my friends have praised it. i think next time im doing to use either D grade or C grade to get a much more mapley flavor. It tasted alot like the brown sugar mead i made at the same time, just less harsh.

The method you have up looks good, and sweetening all depends on you, i like my wines to be Dry so i wouldnt, but if you like semi-sweets, sweeten with the syrup if possible to reinforce the maple flavor.

Anymore questions? feel free to ask

It's nice to hear some recent feedback on getting maple flavor in an acerglyn, I'm going to be working on an experiment with it in about a month.

I have some bourbon and vanilla beans in the process of making an extract and when thats is close to ready I am doing three 1 gallon batches to compare how much maple flavor I get to end up with the best balanced and tasting slightly sweet Maple Bourbon Vanilla acerglyn.

I am probably going with a darker maple syrup for a deeper flavor and will be using dutch gold orange blossom honey, start with that in the primary then will be adding 1 ounce of the bourbon/vanilla extract to the secondary. lavlin d-47 yeast in all three.

the experimental part

batch #1....2# of honey, 1 pound (~12fl oz) of maple syrup
batch #2....1.5# of honey, 1.5 pound (~18fl oz) of maple syrup
batch #3....1# of honey, 2 pound (~24fl oz) of maple syrup

Hm i used a Wildflower Honey, i havent had to time to be able to run any expirements comparing hoeny types but i have heard that the maple flavor has more to do with grade of syrup than the amount. keep us posted im interested in what you are doing.

Yeah, Grade B has more "mapley" flavor than Grade A.

and grade D has even more , just not sure where to find it lol, i heard its great on pancakes!

Interesting Brewing Medic. I was thunking of adding bourbon soaked oak chips to mine after 5 weeks. Was thinking of keeping the Acerglyn on the chips for for three weeks and then transferring off.
Any thoughts?

Thats what im doing with a wormwood metheglin. i didnt soak them but im keeping it there for about 3 weeks then transfering it off, its in its tertiary atm so its just starting to clear. i've always heard boil the chips after you soak them in bourbon or else you'll get the sharp hard alcohol taste which is usualy seen as a flaw.

YeastieBoys said:

Interesting Brewing Medic. I was thunking of adding bourbon soaked oak chips to mine after 5 weeks. Was thinking of keeping the Acerglyn on the chips for for three weeks and then transferring off.
Any thoughts?

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3 weeks sounds like it would work well from what I've seen in other posts, I'm leaning towards soaking the chips in the bourbon also just tentative as I've already had vanilla beans soaking in my bourbon for about 2 weeks. Also not sure on timing with the oak chips in the bourbon is soaking them for a day enough or is longer better? A week, a month?

TheBrewingMedic said:

Also not sure on timing with the oak chips in the bourbon is soaking them for a day enough or is longer better? A week, a month?

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I've always heard of doing it for a week, That, are your chips toasted? if so maybe a couple extra days

I would think a week also.

Also, how much maple syrup would I have to use to backsweeten my 2 gallon batch? I'm at .999 and want it to go up to 1.015, give or take. My acerglyn needs a little more maple flavor.

if you want to back sweeten that much you'll need about .9lbs of Maple Syrup. http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=745&Itemid=16 i asumed you had about 1.75 gallons in your final product. if you have less just plug and chug. I just started the oak in some JD, took a handful and covered it in a jar and im going to let it sit a while before i use any, and i'll probably just pull from that jar as i need it. The JD will be interesting after about 6 months of soaking in oak haha

Boyden Valley winery has this amazing wine that is an apple wine and when you swallow you taste maple syrup. I was wondering what if I made a 2.5 gallon batch of acerglyn, using 1.5 gallons of water and 1 gallon of apple juice? Do you think the apple would come through but not in an overpowering way?

How much honey and maple syrup would you use? that would be the determining factor, and that owuld be called a Maple Cyser.

I would call something a maple cyser only if it were fermented honey and apple juice, backsweetened with maple syrup.

I was just going to double the maple syrup and honey proportions listed in the first post for this.

ChasidicCalvinist: Yeah that sounds like it would be fine, i would suggest using an apple cider rather than a apple juice, just adds more complexity.
Huesmann: well i really dont care for back sweetening, i prefer my meads, and wines to be dry, just a preference.

Chasidic, I would recommend use all apple juice or cider and omit the water. The apple flavor will come through better.

My acerglyn ended at .994. Very dry. I stabalised, stunned the yeast and.am going to backsweeten with 12 oz of Michigan maple syrup for my 2.5 gallon batch. My syrup taste didn't come through that much because it was watery. I'm going for a sweet/semi-sweet mead with a final gravity of about 1.012.

Hrahn1995 said:

Huesmann: well i really dont care for back sweetening, i prefer my meads, and wines to be dry, just a preference.

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What I'm saying is I wouldn't call it a maple cyser if the maple is actually fermented. If it was a cyser (fermented apple+honey) that was backsweetened with maple syrup, then yes, I'd call it a maple cyser. If it was fermented apple+honey+maple, then I'd call it a cyser acerglyn. Possibly a cyserglyn.

i can live with cyserglyn haha. to me i pick a base style (cyser) then elaborate the adjuncts (Maple, Spices, etc) such as i was thinkinga bout doing a Malt Cyser i wouldnt call it cyser braggot because the base style isnt braggot the base style is cyser. but it doesnt truly matter its what ever goes one your bottles and makes you happy