"maple mead"?

[g_rath]

Has any one made a "maple mead"? I don’t know if that’s the right term for it. Its just maple syrup, water, yeast and nutrients. I got my hands on some real maple syrup and decided to try fermenting it. This is what I came up with.

1 gal water
6 cups maple syrup
laven D-47 yeast

Heat to dissolve
cool and pitch yeast and nutrients.

I havent found any good results as to how to make it and how it turns out.

 

[tooomanycolors]

dont even really heat the syrup, just use hot water ~150F should work. and personally no, I have never done this but I have a friend who has and his has been sitting there for about 8 months. He says it looks great!!!

 

[CBBaron]

Acerglyn is the name of a fermented beverage with honey and maple syrup, not sure if it is appropriate for one with just maple. Without honey it can't be called mead.

I think your idea looks interesting and I may try it myself some day. My parents are in the middle of maple syrup producing region in Ohio so syrup is readily available if not expensive.

Unlike honey heating the syrup is not going to hurt anything, however it is still probably not necessary. Maple syrup is made by boiling the water off of maple sap until the sugar concentration is high enough to preserve the syrup and make the wonderful liquid we like to eat on pancakes. Heating is a little more during the brew process is not going to harm anything.

I do think you will need some yeast nutrients to help keep the yeast healthy. Like honey and unlike wort, i don't think maple syrup has many nutrients in it.

Craig

 

[BigKahuna]

My parents are in the middle of maple syrup producing region in Ohio so syrup is readily available if not expensive.

Remember when we talked about using uncooked maple sap instead of water in Mead? I'm thinking you should be the guy to try that.

 

[CBBaron]

Remember when we talked about using uncooked maple sap instead of water in Mead? I'm thinking you should be the guy to try that.

A coworker makes his own maple syrup so I was considering getting him to give me about 5 gal of reduced sap once it get to about 24 brix. That would still be a ways from syrup but should be a good start for an acerglyn.

I don't believe you are going to get much out of sap. It takes about 40gal of sap to make 1 gal a syrup. So using 4gal of sap in a 5gal batch of mead is similar to adding less than a pint of syrup to the mead.

Still it may be interesting to do a small batch just to see how it works. I'm sure I could get a gallon or 2 of sap easily enough.

Craig

 

[Freezeblade]

I've added a little maple surup to a mead before, to add a little "woodsy" flavor, a little bit goes a long way (I also put it in secondary, so that could be part of why it made such a difference). I think that a pure maple acerglyn would be a little much, maple has far more unfermentables in it than honey (especally if you use a darker grade like B, C or even D) and I'd think it would just be far too intense, needing LOTS of aging, and even aged out would probably be something to sip about 2 oz of as an apertif. the way I would go is like a 60/40 honey/maple split, and use some good Dark flavorful maple.

I wonder if it's possible to get flowering maple honey :fro:

 

[g_rath]

Well in about a year I will be able to tell you how it is. I’m going to rack it in about a month, leave it for about 3 more and then bottle it. Hopefully I will be able to forget for that long.

 

[dudasaj]

I wonder if it's possible to get flowering maple honey :fro:

I've posted this before but if you insist on a certain variety on monofloral honey, or your looking for new suppliers in your area, this website has a search engine for suppliers and farms: http://www.honeylocator.com/

They don't have maple in their search menu, but you might be able to talk to maple sap farmers and ask them about honey and pollination. You may be able to find something else that could give a nice base honey flavor.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

I've seen the term acer mead applied to these, and I really want to try it with birch instead of maple.

 

[CBBaron]

I've posted this before but if you insist on a certain variety on monofloral honey, or your looking for new suppliers in your area, this website has a search engine for suppliers and farms: http://www.honeylocator.com/

They don't have maple in their search menu, but you might be able to talk to maple sap farmers and ask them about honey and pollination. You may be able to find something else that could give a nice base honey flavor.

I really don't think you will find maple honey. Maples bloom very early in the spring and are a wind pollinated plant. The bees do collect the pollen as an early source of protein but I think there is little if any nectar available.

Still a good source to know.

Craig

 

[will_cbe]

Upon the advice of a friend, I made a batch this spring. Unfortunately, I made it with inferior honey that I received for Christmas. I sampled it when I racked to secondary, and it tasted strongly of the bad honey.
It's currently aging. I have moderate hopes it will get better, but this is the easiest batch to wait through aging.

 

[dudasaj]

If you have the equipment and space, you could split your rough batch, dilute and rack onto fresh honey, and boost with a fresh fruit/spice addition. Then age throughly.

 

[will_cbe]

Hmm, I could do that. Any suggestions of what would go well with maple?
Nutmeg? Cinnamon? Clove?

 

[Rossnaree]

Well in about a year I will be able to tell you how it is. I’m going to rack it in about a month, leave it for about 3 more and then bottle it. Hopefully I will be able to forget for that long.

Yes, I know that this is a VERY old thread, but in another couple of months the sap will be flowing. So, I'd like to know -- were you able to leave it alone? :cross: Seriously, how'd it turn out?

 

[1k_wayne]

Another bump.

I just started a gallon of maple mead. The SG of fresh sap is 1.014, and all the sap that came out of the trees yesterday came to 3 1/2 gallons. I boiled it down to just less than a gallon, added some maple syrup and honey until the starting gravity was 1.094, added a little lemon and nutrients, and pitched EC-1118. Now it's time to wait.

 

[maplebrew]

1K wayne le tme know how this turns out. I'm in process of processing maple syrup now and I keep thinking of boiling some raw sap perhaps to a 2:1 and ferment it off.

 

[jacxy]

So... how did it go?