Using Maple SAP instead of water

[Alembic]

In a few weeks it will be maple sugaring season up here in Vermont and so I was wondering if any of you out there brewed a batch with just maple sap and not water and what the results were. Also - would a standard recipe have to be adapted at all?
I think Charlie P. mentions this method in the joy book. A friend of mine sugars every year and he said it would be no problem getting 5 - 7 gallons of sap from him. Just to clarify - I'm talking sap not the finished syrup.

any thoughts anyone?

thanks -

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

There was an article in BYO last year of '10 strange brews' or some such that included a recipe for a beer brewed with maple sap. I was interested in trying it but was unable to acquire sap and unwilling to compromise by using syrup. I'll see if I can dig it up at home.

 

[Alembic]

Thanks, that would be great if you could find the issue. I did notice that in the most recent issue of BYO there is an article on kettle adjuncts that mentions sap as a sub for water. I would love to hear from someone who actually tried it, what style ale they made and how it turned out.

 

[casebrew]

C.P.'s bok "Home brewer's Companion" lists sap as having a specific gravity of 1.009. You would need 25 gallons, to boil to 1.045, if you wanted a strictly maple beer. Makes me wonder what "Birch Beer" used to be?

 

[Mikey]

You won't get much maple taste, if that's what you're after. Remember that sap is boiled down to 1/40th of it's original volume to make syrup. What you propose to do is reduce it by not even 1/3rd.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I've used maple syrup before and not gotten much maple taste, either...a lot of it is fermented right out like honey. I did try a beer from Tommyknocker that had maple syrup added after fermentation and didn't like it all.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Thanks, that would be great if you could find the issue. I did notice that in the most recent issue of BYO there is an article on kettle adjuncts that mentions sap as a sub for water. I would love to hear from someone who actually tried it, what style ale they made and how it turned out.

Are we talking extract/grains or all-grain?

 

[Alembic]

I was thinking of doing a partial grain / extract boil. Getting back to Charlie P's thoughts, instead of a maple flavor he suggests that the sap would contribute to more of a woodsy/ crispness to the final product. It might be so subtle that you can't even tell the difference. That's why I was wondering if anybody really tried it and noticed any difference. I'm not looking for a maple flavor, instead I'm looking for a crispness it might contribute.

 

[cgravier]

yeah im sure the difference would be really subtle...i was watching some show about some short english guy traveling around the world, and he was in canada where for lodging he had to help bring in the sap from the trees. It was cool to see how the syrup is made (its so ridiculously low tech). they just stick a hollow tube into the tree and hang a bucket on it. Then boil the sap down to syrup after like 9 hours.So they showed what was in the bucket, and it just looked like water, and the english guy tasted it and said it tasted like slightly sweet water.

i would guess the ph might have to be adjusted, and the hop bitterness might be affected by possible mineral contents, but im just guesing...

 

[casebrew]

I suspect that much of the maple syrup flavor is from carmelising the sugars during boiling. Maybe adding sap that's hasn't been 'browned' won't add much flavor?

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I suspect that much of the maple syrup flavor is from carmelising the sugars during boiling. Maybe adding sap that's hasn't been 'browned' won't add much flavor?

Seems like the article in byo indicated that the process of boiling the sap for an hour or two would carmelize some of the sugars in the sap, but obviously not like boiling it down 40:1 like they do for syrup. Seems like the plan B if you didn't have access to maple sap was to add a pint of maple syrup to the boil, so that's kind of the effect you should expect.

Incidentally, this was in the same article as the "hot rock beer".

 

[cgravier]

its not brown at all...its pretty much pure water, that because its been sitting in a tree some how its got some sugar in it. the more i think about it it makes me wonder, i know plants use energy from the sun to produce food (starch), and they use water to do this, but why does the water have sugar in it? plants store food as starch i thought, they have no need for simple sugars...

 

[casebrew]

its not brown at all...its pretty much pure water, that because its been sitting in a tree some how its got some sugar in it. the more i think about it it makes me wonder, i know plants use energy from the sun to produce food (starch), and they use water to do this, but why does the water have sugar in it? plants store food as starch i thought, they have no need for simple sugars...

You mean, sorta like the way barley stores starch? But then, puts out enzymes to break the starches down onto sugars, to be used for the new growth as the seed sprouts....sorta like that?

 

[Sir Sudster]

I brewed a Maple Stout using sap. When I was living in New Hampshire my Nephew inlaw lived in Maine and happened to have a Tree farm where they harvested their own sap and made syrup. He broughht me down 10 gallons of sap and I boiled it down to about 3.5 - 4 gallons and then used LME and some steeping grains. It actually came out really good with just a faint maple after taste. I used a John Bull amber LME but can't remember the grains. I gave most of it to my nephwe because he liked it so much. He told me later that during hay bailing seson they had a chest of my beer and a chest of MDC and guess which chest emptied first.Try it ..it's an interesting experience.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Incidentally, the recipe I was referring to is actually posted on byo's website:
http://byo.com/recipe/1335.html
With the maple sap and smoked malt it sounds like it would go well with a pancake and bacon breakfast!

 

[akbrew]

I brewed a birch(no maples up here)sap beer last spring.It was an all grain Octoberfest recipe and I replaced ALL water with sap during the brew.It had a sightly woodsy/earthy taste to it,subtle,but I'll definitelybrew another sap beer this spring.I'm sure maple sap would add a little more flavour than birch and encourage anyone with access to sap to brew with it.

 

[Alembic]

Thanks for the input! As soon as the sap starts flowing I'll start the boiling!

 

[Lost]

Has anyone actually tried the BYO recipe yet? I'd really like to.. possibly this weekend. Of course I'll use the syrup and not the sap. I also read somewhere that adding the syrup to the boil could result in a slightly more earthy or smokey taste.. seems to me that I might try doing it that way. I'll probably water it down a bit to make sure it doesn't immediately settle to the bottom and burn (like extract would). Assuming the syrup would be a highly fermentable source of sugar I'm guessing that mashing temp should be higher to promote a fuller body, correct? Of course, I may try decoction mashing this time around... oh the excitement :rockin:

Thoughts?

 

[chefdaven]

C.P.'s bok "Home brewer's Companion" lists sap as having a specific gravity of 1.009. You would need 25 gallons, to boil to 1.045, if you wanted a strictly maple beer. Makes me wonder what "Birch Beer" used to be?

I just measured sap from a silver maple I tapped last week. It’s 1.012 and tastes delicious. I’m going to brew a Maple Tripel with it. Wish I had Birch Trees!

 

[IslandLizard]

It’s 1.012 and tastes delicious. I’m going to brew a Maple Tripel with it.

How much sap do you have? I'd definitely concentrate it quite a bit more to get more flavor.
I'm not sure a Triple can showcase the maple sap very well, due to its pronounced yeast character, but worth a try.

The best maple sap based beer I've ever had was an Imperial Maple Amber (around 7.5% ABV). It had the ever so slightest hint of smoke in it. Delicious!

 

[CUSTOM-441]

Reviving this thread. I’d like to brew a beer with sap instead of water come spring time. I like the idea of boiling some of the sap down a bit to concentrate the sugars and hopefully enhance the maple flavour. I’m thinking an amber would be nice platform to showcase the flavour. Or maybe a porter, but the maple flavour may get lost in the roastiness. Seems like there’s been a bit of discussion, has anyone tried this yet?