Maple Syrup

[Randzor]

Has anyone tried this in a primary, secondary or added at bottling time? I made a pumpkin spice cider, that was wonderful, but I think maple would be a great addition to it. I'm worried that like strawberries, or pineapples, the fermented taste isn't actually good.

 

[mtnagel]

The problem with maple syrup, is it is highly fermentable, so it will just ferment out, lower your gravity and all the maple flavor will be gone. You can use it as your priming sugar, but the small amount you use leaves no maple flavor either. Really the only way to get a decent maple flavor is to use maple extract or flavoring.

 

[sweetcell]

on a light/subtle beer, priming with maple syrup will be perceptible. on a spiced pumpkin beer, it will either be very subtle or completely lost amid the spices, malt and other strong flavors.

personally, i'd go for it and see what happens. it's a few dollars worth of syrup so it would be worth the experiment to me.

use grade B syrup if you can get it - stronger flavor.

 

[mtnagel]

Yeah, my experience is with a breakfast stout, so that could explain why it was lost when I only used it for priming sugar.

 

[Randzor]

So If I am using it on on a cider would those flavors be light enough to have a hint of maple left? I am not looking to have it taste like maple, just a hint.

 

[jsDC]

I have maple syrup as the primary gravity booster in two small batches of ciders fermenting right now. Just over a cup of syrup per gallon of apple juice (about 5% of the solution). They're still fermenting, but from what I've tasted the maple is very faint and on the finish. I'm not sure if that will hold up once it's gone to dry.

If you go ahead with it, others on here have said to go with Grade B syrup because it has more of a "mapley" flavor than the more refined Grade A varieties.

 

[ivegot2legs]

It might work out with a lighter cider. I have some maple extract with plans to add it to a strong stout, and I'm not sure how to proceed yet.