Maple wine

[kl Roosevelt brewer]

Okay people! Who has made Maple wine? I have dinked around with a few batches of mead and then ended up with 5 gallons of pure maple syrup made from the last sap that came from a tree. I'm going to use Mead making protocols with 02 additions and step feeding processes and degassing. The first thing I need to do is figure out the water and syrup ratio it's going to take to get a starting gravity of about 15 potential alcohol by volume and I'm going to throw together a 3 gallon batch. I have three choices of yeast period ec-1118 71b and d47. Does anybody have any input or experience with Maple wine please help

 

[jgmillr1]

I have three choices of yeast period ec-1118 71b and d47

If you are shooting for 15% ABV, I would use the EC1118 strain. I can guarantee D47 won't get there. I haven't tried 71B on a high SG must but it may be capable.

 

[kl Roosevelt brewer]

You are correct. I'm shooting for 13 and a half 14 with residual sugar sweetness left behind. Maybe should look into sweetening after fermentation stops rather than guessing on how much d47 will ferment out. I'm kind of wondering if maybe some orange peel should be added

 

[Kent88]

I've heard Maple wine/mead referred to as Acerglyn. If you haven't run into that term yet, maybe add that term to the internet searches that you do.

 

[JimRausch]

I did a 1G batch last year and again this spring. Sap from my own trees. Took about 10G sap boiled down to get an OG of 1.100. Redstar Cote de Blanc got it down to 0.998 last year for a 13.75%ABV. I just racked this year's batch for the 2nd time. Not much maple character last year, so this year I steeped some maple chips, a vanilla bean and a cinnamon stick.

 

[kl Roosevelt brewer]

When my cousin made it for me I requested the very last sap that he pulled from the tree to be made into the syrup. I'm not sure what the difference would be starting with pure syrup and adding water or just boiling down the sap until you get the right starting gravity. The difference I suppose is it took a lot more sap to make the syrup and then add water rather than leaving some of the water in the sap what do you think

 

[kl Roosevelt brewer]

Is it apples and oranges? Or is there really a difference there

 

[papz]

use the EC1118.
I made a gal batch years ago using that yeast.
Think it was 16 oz to a gallon but if i did it again, i think i'd go 32 oz.
Good luck.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I did one once years ago, but I think those notes are long gone. I followed the same line of thinking- mead protocol.

I recall diluting the darkest syrup I could get. I used a champagne yeast, probably EC-1118 but not sure. I haven't done too many wines/meads/ciders, but this fermented dryer than anything i'd done previously (I want to say 0.988 finishing or something like that).

It was interesting. Less maple, more a watered down whisky in impression. Glad I tried it, not something I'm in a hurry to try again (and expensive too).

 

[Qhrumphf]

When my cousin made it for me I requested the very last sap that he pulled from the tree to be made into the syrup. I'm not sure what the difference would be starting with pure syrup and adding water or just boiling down the sap until you get the right starting gravity. The difference I suppose is it took a lot more sap to make the syrup and then add water rather than leaving some of the water in the sap what do you think

I imagine that there's a lot of flavor formed in the making of that syrup (much as there is with dark invert sugar and candi syrup) that you may not get from the sap alone. But as I've never tasted the sap itself that's speculation on my part.

 

[JimRausch]

Maple sap has a SG of around 1.003-1.005(at least mine does) and it traditionally takes about 40G of sap to make 1G of syrup. Early season sap usually gives a light colored syrup while late season syrup is darker and more flavorful. And yes, most of the flavor and color compounds are formed in the last part of the boiling when temp starts to rise from 212 to 219 which is the syrup stage.

 

[JimRausch]

So, what I think you should do, is add enough water to your syrup until you get the OG you're looking for, then ferment it like mead.

 

[kl Roosevelt brewer]

That's exactly what I did. One part syrup two parts water is a gravity of 1.116 with the syrup I'm using and yes I treated just like Mead

 

[kl Roosevelt brewer]

I got a one gallon batch of orange juice and maple syrup Brewing and it's looking and smelling really good. I use EC 1118