Sap Beer: The True Value Added Maple Product

[GeneralStark]

http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/94274/sap-beer-traditional-farm-brew-survives/

I sold the brewer 700 gallons of sap not worth boiling. We'll see how it turns out.

[English River Maple]

http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/94274/sap-beer-traditional-farm-brew-survives/

I sold the brewer 700 gallons of sap not worth boiling. We'll see how it turns out.

Very interesting, I just started brewing my own beer from malt kits (beginner here), I will at some point try to brew with maple sap. Keep us posted on the findings, great article in the link you posted.

[ejmaple]

good article, I too have expermenting with syrup and a still. maple vodka?

[ihuntbear]

i made maple wine this year with my last run..its good but have little black spects in it..looks like sand..funny thing is i filtered it before i made it..also gave 100 liters of sap boiled to 200 f to a friend to run threw his small still..made 17 quarts of 180 proof maple snapps but i had to add some distilled water and brought it down to 23 percent so i could drink it...now that was good

[mzstein]

We brewed a batch of beer using maple sap last season and
it had a really unique taste. My friend is a pretty obsessive
brewer and the sap kept throwing off his calculations and
made him crazy !!! In the end it turned out really good .

I have heard of old timers using end of the season sap
to brew " sap brew " - does anyone know what this
process was ?? We just uses sap as our brew water,
but I got the feeling they fermented the actual sap .

Any recipes ?

[twin6]

From what I have heard from old timers, I think the brew you mention was nothing more than whatever was left in the pans after the last draw for the season, with a cake of yeast thrown in and allowed to ferment. I've brewed my share of ale, stout and porter (including a maple porter I became fond of) so am accustomed to controlling the ingredients and environment to get the best results. The old timers' concoction might have worked for them (maybe it was born out of necessity during prohibition?) but it sounds like "garbage in, garbage out." When I first read in a homebrewer's guide how one adventurous soul used sap instead of water, I wondered, why not simply add syrup if a maple taste is the objective? Given how delicate sap tastes, I'm amazed the flavor would come through with all the malt, hops, etc. That's why I stuck to using ample amounts of "B" syrup in the porter. Just my .02

[Spolcik]

Sound good twin6. Care to share the recipe? I am interested in trying this but dont really not where to start.

[twin6]

I'll dig out my recipe but if you've never brewed before, you will need to get some equipment and at least one decent book from a local brew supply shop, first. Like sugaring, you will have fun and learn lots in the process. And you might keep expanding...

[Spolcik]

Yeah I'm sure. It's something I have been wanting to do. My dad used to make his own beer when I was a kid. He still has everything to do it along with some tips. Yours sounded good and the talk about this has sparked my interest even more. If you can dig that out that would be awesome!

Steve

[Burnt sap]

You make I'll try it. Vodka yum! Dos va donya. Prost!

[twin6]

Well it took some digging to find my records of the maple porters I brewed over 12 years ago. For those who have brewed before, you know the drill and the terminology. For those who haven’t, I recommend going to a brew supply shop near you, and getting the equipment and a good book on the basics. Then what I am about to describe will make sense.

I made 4 batches over a 6 year span, and the first ones I made I relied upon ingredient “kits” but as my experience grew, I ended up with a more involved approach. I never wanted to mash, and tried to keep things as simple as I could, yet achieve a dark porter with maple taste that did not get lost (or become overwhelming). As with cooking, preferences are very subjective! These worked for me, but for others, some tweaking might be in order.

The simplest recipe (using an ingredient kit) was this:

Two 3.3 lb cans Muntons “Docklands” Porter
1.5 gal water
1 oz Northern Brewer pellets 8.8%
boiled 45 min
1 oz Kent Golding pellets 5.0% last 2 min
1 qt plus 1 cup “B” maple syrup
added water to bring total to 4 gal
yeast pitched when wort reached room temp
OG was 1.079 at room temp
racked to secondary in 5 days

The most recent recipe was this (2001):

The “tea”

½ lb chocolate malt
½ lb black patent malt
Crush the malt (I used a zip bag and rolling pin - nothing fancy)
1.5 gal cold water and malt brought to 155F and held for a 20 min steep
sparged with water at 155F

The boil:

7 lbs amber malt syrup
1 qt “B” maple syrup
1 tsp calcium carbonate
2 oz Kent Goldings 6.0%
boiled 45 min
1 tsp Irish moss for last 15 min
1 oz Tettnanger 4.7% last 2 min
added water to bring total to 5 gal
yeast pitched when wort reached room temp
racked to secondary in 3 days
no notes on OG (sorry)

I have not looked online for maple porter recipes, but suspect you could find many. These worked for me, but as I noted, taste is subjective so don’t be shy about tweaking to suit. I'd love to hear from others who have experimented or developed a pet recipe.

[Spolcik]

Thanks twin6 I appreciate it! I will give a try and let you know how it goes.