Fresh Maple Syrup - REAL Fresh

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Grinder12000

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
Messages
2,996
Reaction score
50
Location
Columbus WI
Friend just boiled down 42 gallons of Maple tree drippings into 1.4 gallons of syrup.

Anybody know what "grade" this syrup would be?

I made AHS Tommy Knocker Maple Nut Brown but now sure what they gave me.

The recipe says 1/2 cup Maple Syrup. Stay with 1/2 cup???

BTW - this recipe SUCKED for 4 months - almost undrinkable - very twangy. After 6 months it's awesome.

AHS Recipe Mini mash

5.5lb Extra Pale LME
.25lb Malto Dextrin


2.5lb 2-row
.75lb Munich Malt
6oz Crystal 90
6oz Caramunich
4oz Chocolate Malt

1.5oz Perle 60 Min
.125 Mt Hood 15min
.125 Cascade 15min
.125 Mt Hood 5min
.125 Cascade 5min

London ESB 1968

3.1oz Priming sugar
1/2 cup Maple Syrup

OG 1.055
FG 1.015
 
The grade of the maple syrup depends primarily on the color which is affected heavily by how budded the trees are when the sap was collected. Grade A syrups are very light color ranging from a straw color to dark amber. Grade B syrup is brown to dark brown. Grade C is usually only sold to food processors. I know there are other things affecting the grade so you will need to look it up.

My maple brown ale was made with 2 quarts of syrup. This syrup was also very fresh from a friend who makes his own. However there was an "accident" during the processing so the syrup was a little caramelized from over heating and there was some scorching. The syrup is quite dark but the flavor is like a light syrup with the addition of caramel. I plan to bottle it this week so i don't have any report on the results yet.

Craig
 
Heh, I wonder what the SG of it is right out of the tree...

(edit) answering my own question.... looked it up and it is 2.5 brix, 1.010 SG. Concentrated down 40:1 by boiling.
 
I pref. grade B on my pancackes - just enough woody caramelized taste. Grade A is too neutral. Never used it in a beer but I wonder if a little less of a lower grade ie Grade C would go a long way to contributing flavour without affecting SG too much with glucose.
 
TWO QUARTS?? wow!! I've never seen a recipe over 1/2 cup before LOL

Did you get that from a recipe??

Nope that was a guess by myself. The recipe I found for a maple brown used 1 quart of grade B and a recipe for a maple mead used 1/2 gallon. Since what I had was not grade B I decided to use the full 2 quarts I had on hand.
I'll update this thread with my initial tasting impressions after bottling, probably Thursday.

Craig
 
Yea - love to hear it. Not enough people update brews (I suppose I call into that category LOL)


I wonder how much of the Maple Sugar is fermentable sugar.
 
I pref. grade B on my pancackes - just enough woody caramelized taste. Grade A is too neutral. Never used it in a beer but I wonder if a little less of a lower grade ie Grade C would go a long way to contributing flavour without affecting SG too much with glucose.

+1, I agree completely! I really dislike the nomenclature, somehow I assumed "Grade A" to be the better product, of course until I tasted both. The "B" is much more flavorful.
 
Back
Top