Maple Sap Brew

[Hoppy Brewah]

We made 4 1/2 gallons of Maple Syrup this year from 35 sugar maple trees. We are all done with the sugaring and the sap is still running, so I thought I would brew with the extra sap. I am planning to brew an Amber Ale using maple sap instead of water. The sap has a gravity of 1.010, so there is some sugar which should dry out the beer. I plan to use Muntons Maris Otter and Pale Ale malt with some Munich, Crystal 60 L and Carapils and mash at 154 f to get some unfermentable sugars to balance the dryness of the sap. I will ferment with Cal Ale yeast at 67 f and will use lots of hops (Nugget, Cascade, Amarillo, Zeus).

Has anyone tried brewing with maple sap? Any comments or suggestions? Thanks!

[MNHazmat]

I'm trying to locate some for a brew myself.

[Hoppy Brewah]

I have extra sap in New Hampshire if anyone wants to pick some up. Let me know asap, cause I'm gonna take the buckets down soon.

[NHBrewer]

I have used said NH maple sap and found there to be little contributions as far as flavor goes. I have done it several ways. This year the sap we collected was 4 plato so there is quite a bit of sugar. We have used this to mash as normal though I add some Calcium as I'm totally in the dark as to the water chemistry of maple sap. This has worked out well. We collected this sap from our own trees. The other thing that I have done is go to a "professional" and get some sap from them. What is the difference one may ask. Well the one that I go to has an RO machine that, prior to boiling, brings the sugar content way up. Not sure of the gravity when I did that but it had MUCH more sugar than the straight sap from the trees. Again a sugar contribution but no maple flavor in the final product. So have fun, that is what we are here for anyway, but I have yet to find a way to get maple flavor using sap. I would think that if one really wanted maple flavor adding syrup in the keg after fermentation and chilling it to keep it from fermenting out would be the way to go. Also I remember Mike McDole saying that he has had some good maple flavor beers using some mushroom harvested on the west coast.

NHB

[snowcapt]

Hoppy, where in NH are you at? I have a buddy that works at one of the ski resorts out there. Not sure what it is called but he will be heading back my way in a week or 2. I will see where he is at and see if something can be arranged. Cool?

[Hoppy Brewah]

I am in Sandwich, NH. Send me a PM if you want directions and to work out logistics. Cheers!

[TheDarkSide]

Can you move a couple of those trees to my back yard? All I have is stupid red oaks. When I was a kid in VT, we lived just down a dirt road from an abandoned sugar house. They left all the taps and buckets so we would gather the sap and my mom would boil it down.

As far as using sap in brewing, I believe Basic Brewing Radio did a show on this a couple years back.

[iceclimber]

Hoppy, let me know how that brew turns out. I have a friend who makes his own sap and he was asking me if I could use some, but I didn't know how. So he just gave me a bunch of the syrup to try instead. He said the sap has a bit of a bitter taste to it, and I wonder if that will come through to the beer...(all maple trees.)