Maple sap

[Travis1979]

Tapped my maple trees this past weekend fixin to make some syrup. I thought a maple beer would b good can i take this sap and use it in place of regular water has anyone done this?

 

[microbusbrewery]

Never done it but yes you can. Here's an article from BYO, https://byo.com/hops/item/1380-smoked-maple-amber-ale

 

[riderkb]

Cool idea, but the flavor is going to be very subtle. Don't overpower it with dark grains, heavy hops, or smoked malt. I would boil it down to about half the original volume then use it to make a lightly hopped very pale ale.

 

[MThor]

I made an American brown ale with sap in place of water, I tasted it at a week and a half as I put it in secondary,and really couldn't taste a difference. I'm going to use maple syrup to prime it for bottling. I guess time will tell.

 

[Homercidal]

There isn't enough flavor in sap to taste. it's just kind of sweetish water.

And it's loaded with minerals. When people boil sap to make syrup they have to filter out what is called Sugar Sand, which is the precipitated minerals.

Honestly, what I would do is boil it down to a certain gravity to concentrate the flavor and let it settle, then siphon the sap from above the sugar sand and mix it with some water to use for brewing.

Or just add some syrup to your beer recipe...

 

[Peruvian802]

I'm planning a Breakfast Stout using sap. I know I won't get much maple flavor but I'm also going to prime the keg with some grade C dark.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

If you're looking for maple flavor, you cna also use real maple syrup in place of priming sugar.

 

[DennisinIowa]

Where are you. Sugar season has been over for a while in IA.
D

 

[Homercidal]

Still going strong where I'm at. Again. It stopped for a week or so due to temps. Hoping to get a few more days before I clean up and put my stuff away.

I should probably brew up an oaked maple bourbon IIPA like Founders' Zyrp of doom.

 

[Siberian]

I've done some maple sap beers with some limited success last year. Only one has a hint of maple character and that one was with reduced sap.

This year I've gone a step further then before and really ramped up the volume of sap I used in the beer. I ended up using 20g of maple sap to make a 5.5 gallon batch of a brown ale. Basically like having 3 pounds of maple syrup in the boil. Maple aroma and flavor was pretty prominent in the finished wort.

At kegging there was still a hint of maple flavor to the beer.

I primed the keg with more maple syrup. So hopefully that boosts it up a bit more without becoming too overpowering.

Keep in mind with these beers maple sap is simple sugars so the beer will dry way out and won't have much body left.

More details and my Maple Seed Brown Ale recipe is downloadable off my blog... If it turns out well I'll repost the recipe to the recipe forums here... I guess under spiced beer?

Sample at kegging was pretty tasty so I'm excited about this one.

 

[jstraight]

Tapped my maple trees this past weekend fixin to make some syrup. I thought a maple beer would b good can i take this sap and use it in place of regular water has anyone done this?

I do it every year and just bottled the second batch 3 days ago.
I use 8-9 gal of sap and .75 lb fresh roasted Pecans in for a 5 gal batch. Becomes a labor of love as the collecting of sap and roasting of nuts is a lot of work and fussing around. This year sap was weaker (2%) last year (3%) resulting in lower OG, 80 down to 64. Also added some Maple and Pecan flavoring to boost final taste. It was well received at Homebrew Club meeting this past week.
John

 

[jstraight]

I do it every year and just bottled the second batch 3 days ago.
I use 8-9 gal of sap and .75 lb fresh roasted Pecans in for a 5 gal batch. Becomes a labor of love as the collecting of sap and roasting of nuts is a lot of work and fussing around. This year sap was weaker (2%) last year (3%) resulting in lower OG, 80 down to 64. Also added some Maple and Pecan flavoring to boost final taste. It was well received at Homebrew Club meeting this past week.
John

I forgot to mention the recipe is just a basic English Brown. I have it on Brewsmith Cloud as Maple Pecan Brown. Have Fun!