Maple Poter

[Touristbob]

So,
Last night we were out walking around a local fair and I came across a vendor selling maple syrup, but his were aged in rum and bourbon barrels. I couldn't help but think about making a beer with one so I bought the rum aged one (which we sampled and was awesome) and now I'm stuck on the recipe I want to use. All the recipes I find say to add the syrup to the boil but I want to the flavor to come though in the finish beer so I'm thinking I want to add it to the secondary. Its an 8 ounce bottle so I'm sure I'll need to use the entire bottle. My questions are do you think its enough syrup to get a good flavor out of it and has anyone made a good porter with maple syrup in the secondary.

Thanks.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

I actually prefer adding it to secondary. Adding to the boil will just boil the flavor away. Another possibility is to prime with the syrup which is a little tricky since the sugar content is variable. You could prime for 2.2 vol and you would probably be OK. Northern Brewer has a priming calculator that includes maple syrup. A 5 gal batch would take around 4 oz. Otherwise, I would put the whole bottle in secondary. I usually do a full pint so 8 oz would not be too much.