Maple Free-For-All Ale

I just brewed my first GF batch.

7 lbs sorghum syrup
1 lb Canada No. 1 medium maple syrup
1 oz cascade (boil)
0.5 oz cascade (5 min finish)
Nottingham dry ale yeast

OG came out at 1.048. Maple flavour not really present after brewing. I'm considering adding some more maple syrup at racking time. Anyone else had experience using maple syrup?

Maple syrup will ferment out. I don't think you'll have much flavor from it and it will really dry out your beer. I'd recomend some maltodextrin for body. You can get some maple flavors and aroma from fenugrek (an indian spice), if you can find it.

Also for maple flavor use a lower grade syrup, like grade B, I think thats no 2. The darker the syrup the more flavorful it will be after fermenting.

What if you primed with maple syrup too?

ldgenius2000 said:

Also for maple flavor use a lower grade syrup, like grade B, I think thats no 2. The darker the syrup the more flavorful it will be after fermenting.

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+1 Grade B Maple Syrup. I had an obsession for maple stouts. Spent a bunch of time researching. The lower grade syrup, the better it taste in beer, The more 'ruffage' there is present.

Higher grades are mostly fermentable sugar. Lower grades have bits of real maple in there, etc, that really adds to the flavor...

Also

I used a gallon. Yes a real gallon. 4 quarts at $18.99 per quart. each quart was 3 pounds. So 12 pounds maple syrup! No joke. The blow off tube was violent for 5 or 6 days. I did not do gluten free, my OG was 1.126, and its been in secondary for 2 months. The abv is 11.36% right now and the burn is hot. It might need a year to settle..

Anyways what i am getting at- maple syrup is mostly fermentable. You need to use A LOT to get the flavor of maple. And use the lowest grade you can find. Next time i do the maple stout, I'm going to order some grade C or D from Vermont or Canada.

:rockin:

Great advice jackson_d--thanks. That should be mind blowing when it's ready to drink!

I use maple syrup in my brown ale in the recipe coloumn, but I also put dark brown sugar in it. Between the two it mostly ferments out (except for small part of the maple and the molasis in the dark brown sugar). It dries it out a bit but still leaves some of the sweetness there. If you use MO as a base it gives it a nice malty taste.

Optionally you can toast some of the MO for nutty flavor. But back to the point its hard to get a strong maple flavor unless you use some kind of extract or you dont ferment it.

Mirilis said:

I use maple syrup in my brown ale in the recipe coloumn, but I also put dark brown sugar in it. Between the two it mostly ferments out (except for small part of the maple and the molasis in the dark brown sugar). It dries it out a bit but still leaves some of the sweetness there. If you use MO as a base it gives it a nice malty taste.

Optionally you can toast some of the MO for nutty flavor. But back to the point its hard to get a strong maple flavor unless you use some kind of extract or you dont ferment it.

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If MO= Maris Otter, that can't be used for Gluten Free beers

DOH!! I didnt see the gluten free part of OP

You could also try some maple flavoring, used it in some bacon cookies I made once.

conpewter said:

You could also try some maple flavoring, used it in some bacon cookies I made once.

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Bacon Cookies? I dont know if i should be repulsed or not.. part of me wants to make them and part of me wants to vomit at the thought...

Mirilis said:

Bacon Cookies? I dont know if i should be repulsed or not.. part of me wants to make them and part of me wants to vomit at the thought...

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They were OK, not wonderful but not gross. Would have been improved by simply leaving the bacon out.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Maple-Bacon-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/Detail.aspx

deyoung said:

Anyone else had experience using maple syrup?

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I used 1/2 gallon or so in my maple ale recipe, and there's very, very little maple flavor (and this was Organic Grade B) and it burns hot (like another poster mentioned), so yes, you need to use A LOT, and it'll take a while to settle down. Also, I primed with it, and the head is, frankly, sh!tty, so I wouldn't recommend it.

I've also tried using fennugreek, and I used 2 TBS and there's a very light maple-like aroma/flavor. You can find it at Indian Food stores or Asian Markets (pretty cheap, too).

Good luck!

An update on my gluten-free ale....

I left it in the primary for 7 days instead of the usual 4. The gravity was still up at 1.026. I racked a second time, adding some yeast nutrient to try and kick things up a bit. It has now been fermenting for almost 5 weeks and although it has slowed very gradually it's still going a bit. I think I'm going to test the gravity in the next few days and if it's below 1.014 or so I'm going to bottle.

I imagine the lack of malt is to blame for the slow fermentation. I'm not sure if the sorghum was malted prior to being processed into a syrup.

Gravity finally down to 1.012 so should be ready for the bottle any time. The taste has really mellowed out now with the harsh aftertaste all but gone. Going to put some fresh vanilla bean in and leave in the carboy for one more week. Finings added at first racking have really done their job now so it's looking crystal clear.

The maple flavor may come back with time---I was really disappointed with my maple porter (1 quart maple syrup in 5 gal). At 3 weeks in the bottle, carbonation was good, tasted like a good porter, no maple flavor.

At 5 weeks, the maple flavor was back, faint but definitely present.

t

Maple needs a sweet base to be noticeable. In all the time I've been brewing, I've never heard of a good result with maple. Maybe with a sorghum-based beer, the residual sweetness will be enough to make the maple come out.

I've completed given up on the maple flavour. Any that was there was probably boiled off on brew day. However this beer has turned out really nice. The sorghum aftertaste can be pretty nasty which had me worried while this one was aging. But I can report that that mellows significantly over time. After a couple weeks in the bottle, it's not really even there any more.

Next GF batch will have just sorghum syrup and some hops, for a good baseline test. Then we'll start adding stuff on subsequent batches.

deyoung said:

I've completed given up on the maple flavour. Any that was there was probably boiled off on brew day.

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Maple flavor can't be boiled out. Maple syrup is made by boiling maple sap for hours on end.

The flavor must be fermented out.