Advice for "MAPLE SLAPJACK!" Recipe

I found a recipe for a Maple Pancake Brown Ale on Hopville that I have altered a little bit. I'm looking for maple and biscuity, bready flavors. Any advice, alterations or suggestions for the recipe below?

5 gallon recipe

5 lbs Maris Otter
1.5 lbs Breiss Special Roast (original recipe called for Biscuit Malt, but I think Special Roast may work even better)
10 oz. CaraPils Dextrine
0.5 lbs Crisp Amber Malt
6 oz. Chocolate Malt
4 oz. Victory Malt
12 oz Molasses
8 oz Brown Sugar

0.5 oz Nugget Hops (60 min)
1 oz Northern Brewer (35 min)

Debating between White Labs British Ale (WL005) and London Ale (WL013) yeasts.

16 oz Maple Syrup (boiled first. Racked in primary)

2/3 cup Maple Sugar (bottle priming)

Do you think that the Special Roast (or Biscuit Malt), Crisp Amber, and Victory will give enough of a biscuit, pancake taste? Is anything unnecessary? Worst case, I can always add capella flavor drops at bottling. Was looking to do it "au naturale" though. Thanks!

Interesting recipe...I say go for it...

Maybe use some buckwheat. I drank a beer that had buckwheat and it reminded me of pancakes.

The buckwheat sounds interesting. I've never used buckwheat in anything before. Would I just mash as a whole grain? I tried loooking online for "flacked buckwheat" but I didn't see that as an option.

Nix the molasses and brown sugar. Go with Piloncillo. It's a dense, dark brown sugar rich in molasses flavors. You can find it at any Latin market. It will leave behind more of those flavors, especially if you add it a few hours after high krausen. I'd cut back on the Special Roast a bit as well. Maybe replace the Carapils with something more flavorful that will do a similar job, like CaraWheat.

Thanks Bob. If I add piloncillo at high krausen, I take it that I should boil it first? I've never added an ingredient during the peak of fermentation, so just want to be sure. Also, how much piloncillo should I added to match the 12 oz of Molasses and 8 oz of brown sugar. Just "apples to apples," 20 oz?

Melt it down with some water, boil for about 5 minutes or until the water is mostly gone, then chill and pitch. 5-8% of the total recipe should be good. You want the yeast to start on the maltose first, not sucrose or fructose.

I'm always up for something new, so I think I'll try that! As for your suggestion of CaraWheat, do you think Carastan would work well?

Heatwaves said:

The buckwheat sounds interesting. I've never used buckwheat in anything before. Would I just mash as a whole grain? I tried loooking online for "flacked buckwheat" but I didn't see that as an option.

Click to expand...

I don't know.

I brew extract and have never used buckwheat in a brew. I don't ever recall seeing it at a brew store either. Whole Foods has it.

Rogue has a Buckwheat Ale

I've revised my grain bill for this recipe, but now I think I'm overthinking it with too many grain varieties in such small amounts. I'm trying to get the bready, biscuity flavors to show through. Thoughts?

Maple Slapjack!

6 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb Special Roast
12 oz Carawheat
8 oz Pale Chocolate Malt
5 oz Victory Malt
5 oz Crisp Amber Malt

I may also include up to 8 oz of flaked buckwheat, if I can find it.

10 oz of Pilocillo in primary after high krausen (Bobbrews recommendation instead of moleasses and brown sugar).
16 oz of Maple Syrup (pre-boiled) in Primary at the same time.
2/3 cup Maple Sugar at bottling

Any continued assistance would be greatly appreciated as this is my first "Frankenstein' all-grain beer project.

Anyone?

Since I'm more or less doing this from scratch for the first time, I just don't want to screw it up too bad.

I don't see 5 oz. of Amber malt and Victory malt doing much here. Maybe you could nix the Amber malt and use 1/2 lb. each of Special Roast and Victory.

I thought you originally said that you're using only Molasses or Brown Sugar (not Maple Syrup). Real good maple syrup is obviously the best way to go given your goal. So you could just use the maple syrup/sugar combo as the sugar source instead of Piloncillo.

I'd go with WLP005 over WLP013. Some diacetyl butteryness would seem to help your goal here. One thing that won't help is late hop additions or heavy bittering. I wouldn't bitter past 30 IBUs. Good luck!

From what I've heard, don't boil the syrup, or you risk boiling off some of the flavors; adding it at flame-out seems to be common. A common complaint is that there isn't much maple flavor. Use the stuff with the strongest flavor you can find.

I'm going to use maple syrup for my Christmas Ale this year, but have never used it in the past, so let us know how it goes! I'd be interested to hear.

Bob, after helping me with this one and the IPA, I'm going to end up having to name a beer after you. :rockin:

I figured that I was using too many grains in limited quantities, but I just didn't know which one(s) to scrap and which one(s) to increase. Many thanks.

No problem. Do some research on how Founders adds maple syrup to CBS. I think they bottle ferment with it. Obviously, you're not making the same style of beer, but the maple flavors should come through the best by following their technique. There are bound to be many clone recipes out there.

A friend does a maple beer, and the only way he can get decent maple flavor to come through is a late fermentation addition to the primary, like you would do with a big belgian beer. If it is in the boil, or early in primary, those flavors seem to "scrub off".