Maple beer ideas

[bransona]

Heading into winter, I'm making lots of bigger, sweeter beers. I'd really like to make a strongly-maple porter. I know I'll need to find the darkest grade B maple syrup I can. I was also considering using a touch of molasses, and, since I've seen that the syrup's sweetness is generally lost in ferment (no matter whether you boil or prime or secondary?), I was thinking about adding a little lactose. Could even age it on a vanilla bean, since that tends to provide a nice canvas for flavoring agents.

Any experience with or thoughts on this?

 

[Hobanon]

All of those ideas sound good to me. I've used maple syrup at bottling and still had trouble with getting the flavor to come through. Good luck!

 

[Colorowdy]

Fenugreek will add maplr flavor. I'm not sure how much to use though.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

I did a maple brown using Grade A Very Dark (the new grading system) with cinnamon and vanilla beans steeped in vodka all added after fermentation ended and a week before bottling. It came out just the way I hoped - a sort of French toast ale. All three flavors were definitely present. The very dark seems to have enough impurities that don't ferment away and leave a nice maple flavor. I thought about adding it all in the bottling bucket but I wasn't sure of the right quantity of maple syrup for priming.

 

[Calichusetts]

I got my hands on some local dark maple syrup. Add a ton at flameout with an imperial brown and a breakfast stout. Pretty strong flavor over the lifetime of the kegs. Wouldn't say it tastes exactly like maple syrup though, there is a woody characteristic that evolves during fermentation.

 

[bransona]

I got advice from someone who uses it regularly to add it in after about a day of strong fermentation to maintain the most "maple syrup" character possible. Thoughts?

 

[CrimsonYeti]

I have had no luck with the maple syrup flavor coming thru with the use of just maple syrup. Beanilla has a great maple extract that taste really good . I use it when i make my French Toast Ale. It can overpower flavors. My advice would be add to taste.

 

[bransona]

Were you using standard breakfast syrup?

 

[Calichusetts]

Agree on tail end of fermentation for best flavor. And breakfast syrup from your super market is not maple syrup. Get it from a farmers market or farm

 

[bransona]

Bingo. I can't wait to brew the porter recipe I've written up from these ideas.

 

[bransona]

1.5 gallons

2lbs 2-row pale
2oz Crystal 30
2oz Caramunich 60
2oz Pale chocolate
2oz Roasted barley
1oz Molasses
2oz Lactose
1lb Grade B Maple Syrup
1/4 Vanilla bean

Probably gonna bitter with nugget hops, just because I have those on hand. Aiming for 30 IBU. Predicted OG is hard to tell, but I honestly don't care how high or low the abv ends up (it'll be unpredictable due to variations in syrup).

Gonna bitter, no other hop additions, then add lactose and molasses for 10 minutes. Thinking ferment with Nottingham. Add the maple syrup after I've seen enough strong fermentation to feel comfortable adding it. Throw the vanilla bean in secondary to provide a canvas for the maple to shine on.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

A pound of syrup is a lot of sugar. Not sure what the final result will be. You also might want to bump up the vanilla to a full bean. I've found 3 beans in 5 gal to be just right.

 

[bransona]

A pound of syrup is a lot of sugar. Not sure what the final result will be. You also might want to bump up the vanilla to a full bean. I've found 3 beans in 5 gal to be just right.

It's on the high end of what I've seen other brewers use, but I'm thinking if the syrup is dark enough there won't be that much fermentable sugar in comparison to the mapley goodness I'll get from unfermentables. Thanks for the vanilla tip, as this is probably gonna be my first brew with it (if I can get these ingredients soon)

 

[Calichusetts]

I do a pound in my 3.5 gallon batches. Granted, these are big beers but I want very strong flavor profiles