Sugar Free Maple Syrup in beer??

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pgenius

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This might seem like an odd question, and I feel like a non-purist ****head for asking it, but would sugar free maple (pancake) syrup give a good flavor to beer? Has anyone ever tried it? How much would I need to add to taste a noticeable (light to moderate) amount of maple. Obviously, grade A or B pure syrups are the best to use but are extremely expensive for brewing. I don't want it to be a fermentable so I figured a sugar free maple syrup might just give me the flavor I'm looking for without the abv's. Are preservatives an issue here too? Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers! :mug:
 
Eww...sugar free stuff sounds gross. I can see that you'd want to add maple, but all that artificial sweetness would hang around too. They make maple extract, which I added to my pumpkin beer although turns out it I didn't add nearly enough. I still have most of the bottle and sooner or later I'll use it in a beer.
 
I think I'm going to give that maple extract a shot. I found some on eBay for $5 inc. shipping. Thanks
 
But don't sugar free maple syrups still have sweeteners in them? And those artificial sweeteners may not be fermentable? For example, some sugar free maple syrups are made with sucralose (Splenda), which is not fermentable (although the non-sucralose bulking agents added to the store bought Splenda appear to be fermentable). I think it might end up tasting about the same as if you squeezed maple syrup into your glass with the beer. My guess is that you'd need to add a maple flavored extract (per Coast) or add a normal maple syrup and account for the extra gravity from the sugar in your recipe.

Caveat: I iz dumb and newb and not know much.
 
I just might pay you to never mention sugar free "maple syrup" again. That stuff resembles maple syrup the same way that Rosie O'Donnell resembles a woman: just barely, and I sure as hell ain't gonna touch it.

I told a friend to bring syrup over for the pancakes I was making before a snowboarding trip, and he brought that sugar free crap since one of his room mates left it in the pantry. I almost didn't let him go with us that day.

Use maple extract, use real maple syrup, hell: use lawn fertilizer. Those would all probably be better. Anything that tastes like that won't come near my kitchen again, much less go in my beer.
 
Although I haven't brewed anything with Maple Syrup, let me just say that there is a huge difference as well between maple syrup and Aunt Jemima/"pancake syrup". I would never brew with pancake syrup. Maple Extract, sure. But not pancake syrup. High Fructose Corn Syrup tastes gross and is supposedly not very good for you.

I just got very sad thinking of someone squeezing Aunt Jemima into wort. :-(
 
I just might pay you to never mention sugar free "maple syrup" again. That stuff resembles maple syrup the same way that Rosie O'Donnell resembles a woman: just barely, and I sure as hell ain't gonna touch it.

You sir, are an internet genius! I love it!! :D
 
Be careful if you use the maple extract... it's easy to over-do it.

I tried making a maple blonde and added the maple extract at bottling. I added a little at first and kept tasting and adding more. The problem was in successive tastings I got a little immune to the maple flavor and ended up adding too much making it overpowering.

If you use the maple extract I'd suggest using it in a darker beer and using less than 1oz per 5 gallon batch. Probably more like half an ounce.
 
Hey, that's my joke. You stole it. :mad:

That's fine, I'll be expecting my royalty check in the mail. ;)

Thousand monkeys with typewriters and all that...since the search reveals no other mentions of Rosie O'Donnell -shudder- I'll keep it:D, but I'll send you half of my royalties;)
 
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