More maple ?'s Have you succeeded in making a maple beer?

Has anyone succeeded in making a truly good maple beer? This question seems to be more contentuous than "what motoroil to use in a motorcycle?" or "can dirt be made into biodiesel?" or "Does God exist and what is his address?" on other forums I read. How, when and what Maple syrup to use? This is about as straight as I can get the picture:

Priming with Maple Syrup: Some flavor, under over carbing of bottles, sometimes too sweet.

Gallon in the secondary: Little maple flavor, mixing problems at times

Gallon in the primary: Maple wine with little maple flavor as it ferments out dry

Gallon in last 15-20 mins of boil: Super dry beer again with almost non existent maple flavor

Fenugreek: Supposed maple flavored herb where no one seems to have definitive results of end products having used this.

Grade B seems to be the standard "what to use" and I am thinking of using it in the secondary of an Oatmeal Stout that bubbles away on day 4 of primary. Finding it is a more difficult prospect than I imagined .

So has anyone succeeded with a maple beer and how did you do it? Did you get the balance of good Maple flavor at the right sweetness?

A long time ago I added a bottle (12 or 16 Ounce) Grade B Dark Maple to a 5 Gallon California Common kit. The batch is now about 1.5 years old and it is delicious. A nice woody note in the finish and a little dry.

Maple is good but, it may need some time.

I intend to brew a maple porter soon. The trick, from the people who have considered themselves successful in this, is to use the darkest grade of syrup you can find. The best time to add it I've found is after ~24 hours of strong fermentation. That will leave sweetness and the unfermentables in that low grade syrup will leave you body and maple flavor. This is all just based on research, but will soon be put to the test.

I make maple syrup and use it in every thing. The only way to get maple flavor is to stop the yeast with sorbate and sulfate. Then add the maple syrup and keg

I used maple sap as my brewing water in a smoked pale and that was pretty cool nut not very maple-y. My buddy used his share of the sap as the brewing water for a Belgian pale and it did not have much maple flavor at first. 8 months later, it is now bursting with maple flavor and a really awesome beer. Try aging a dozen bottles and see what they're like in a year. You might be really happy with the result.

My attempts to use maple syrup have not been successful - if by successful you mean beer with maple taste and aroma. I now use a maple extract prior to legging which works very well. I have used in a maple bourbon Porter and an American maple brown.

I make a French Toast ale. I tried the usual method boil, secondary etc. I now use an extract(maple) from Beanilla at the bottling point. Just pour a little at a time and taste test. 1 4oz bottle made almost 3- 5 gallon batches. Stuff is strong.

I've now made 3 different beers with maple syrup and/or maple sap.

I wouldn't consider maple to be an overwhelming character in any of them. It's most noticeable I feel in a Belgian Golden Strong Ale I did.

For that one I used no water, 100% maple sap (boiled down already 50%) in the mash. Added a few quarts of syrup to the end of the boil.

Bottled with just regular priming sugar. At first, owing in part to my inexperience at the time the beer was a bit 'hot' on the alcohol side. But, I've had it cellared for 2 years now and now booziness/hotness is gone. Beer has a nice belgian spicy character and in the finish there is a hint of maple character.

That said, it's a hint and I put a ton of maple sap/syrup into that beer. It's nice but I'm unsure if it's really worth the effort.

In the brown ales I did with it, it's almost completely lost, even if you go way over the top like I did here by putting in maple syrup & sap at the boil and pure syrup as priming in a keg. At this point I'd say if you want the maple character do something with a lower hop profile and no roasted malt flavor, otherwise it's too easily lost.

Maybe say a small english bitter for instance or a nice Belgian table beer.

Otherwise, flavor extracts might be your next best option, either to re-enforce what is left after the syrup, or just as the sole means of getting that maple character into the beer.

Maple extract is the way to go in my opinion. 2-4 oz at bottling/kegging. Syrup just doesn't leave enough flavor to be worth the price of a gallon imo. Use extract and save the tasty syrup for pancakes.

If that's not cool with you and actual syrup is the only way to go grade B is definitely better for brewing than A. You might be able to find it at one of those hipster "whole foods" type stores. I think grade B maple syrup is an ingredient in a cleanse recipe or whatever. Another place to check would be a farmers' market. I know ours usually has a maple syrup stand with multiple grades available. I used some in a brown I did a few years ago and it did leave a nice woody maple flavor. I added it to secondary. I just didn't like the overall cost of the beer for the result I got.

I've done 4 different maple brews, including the one I am currently drinking. My best results were leaving it all in primary and adding 16 oz after main fermentation. It didn't dry out. Part of the reason is that I used the darkest stuff available. It has the most impurities, which keeps it from fermenting too vigorously and leaves more maple flavor behind. Under the new grading system, the darkest is Grade A Very Dark Strong Taste (yes, that's really what it's called). You can find it on Amazon.

I made a 10% abv Wee Heavy last year that turned out extremely maple-y despite not using any maple syrup at all. The trick was using some dark crystal and pulling 4L of the first runnings and boiling it to 1L of heavy syrup and then adding that back to the wort in the last 10min or so. Takes a long time, but you get a lot of the same rich deep maple syrup flavors as well as some toffee/caramel sweetness. Ill post the grain bill when I get home.

sabotenfighter said:

I made a 10% abv Wee Heavy last year that turned out extremely maple-y despite not using any maple syrup at all. The trick was using some dark crystal and pulling 4L of the first runnings and boiling it to 1L of heavy syrup and then adding that back to the wort in the last 10min or so. Takes a long time, but you get a lot of the same rich deep maple syrup flavors as well as some toffee/caramel sweetness. Ill post the grain bill when I get home.

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Awesome idea! I can't wait to see the grain bill. Definitely gonna try this technique. Making a pumpkin belgian strong sometime, and might use it then.

The best "maple" beer I have made is a RIS that I added Maple Flavored Coffee beans to (for a very short time..... just 18 hours in the keg, and then jumped to another keg.) The coffee and maple came through nicely and blended with the richness of the RIS.

Maple extract would be the other way. Fermenting maple syrup, in my opinion and experience, just won't get you what you are looking for.

i brewed a maple porter about a year ago and used maple extract at bottling time. I thought it came out well and friends liked it. Next time I think I will incorporate some real maple syrup to make it a true maple porter.

bransona said:

Awesome idea! I can't wait to see the grain bill. Definitely gonna try this technique. Making a pumpkin belgian strong sometime, and might use it then.

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This was for a 10L-12L batch. Availability of malts are very low here, so have to be creative sometimes.

4kg Maris Otter
200g Weyermann CaraAroma or Special B
300g Weyermann CaraAmber

Pulled 2L (I misremebered above, but I think thats because I thought I did a full 20L batch instead of 10-12L) of first runnings and boiled till it was a thick syrup that would coat a spoon. Like warm LME. Added that to the pot toward the end of the boil. Far as hops go, I used 35g fuggles at 60min (90min boil) and 10g at 10min, though Im sure that added next to nothing to the beer as I aged it for 4 months.

sabotenfighter said:

This was for a 10L-12L batch. Availability of malts are very low here, so have to be creative sometimes.

4kg Maris Otter
200g Weyermann CaraAroma or Special B
300g Weyermann CaraAmber

Pulled 2L (I misremebered above, but I think thats because I thought I did a full 20L batch instead of 10-12L) of first runnings and boiled till it was a thick syrup that would coat a spoon. Like warm LME. Added that to the pot toward the end of the boil. Far as hops go, I used 35g fuggles at 60min (90min boil) and 10g at 10min, though Im sure that added next to nothing to the beer as I aged it for 4 months.

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That sounds amazing I want to use this technique in two brews on my birthday. A pumpkin belgian strong (special B in this one, may up the percentage a little to get more out of this syrup business), and a "maple" porter---or whatever it turns out to be! I have Briess 2-row for my base in the porter, thinking some pale chocolate, caramel 20, and dark crystal for the adjuncts. I could also add some cherrywood smoked malt that I'm looking forward to experimenting with.

I plan on pulling 4 cups from my 1.5 gallon batches (yay apartment-sized brewing!) and boiling it down to about 1 cup, then boiling water in the same pot to get the rest of the caramelized sugars out, then use that water to top off what I lost in the syrup boil.

I was anxious to hear about this, so I ended up finding this post about it as well. http://www.brewunited.com/index.php?blogid=70

What would you recommend in place of the CaraAmber? I've got crystal 20 & 30, CaraMunich 60, and the two darker ones I already mentioned.

Hmm, from what you have, maybe half C20 and half C30 as CaraAmber is 60-80 EBC (mid 20s lovibond). Victory and Biscuit seem to be the main alternatives though.

I'll give it a shot! Sounds like a good winter beer. Any particular yeast you would recommend?

I used S-04 as liquid yeast is very difficult to find and very expensive here (almost 20$ for a vial of White Labs and a wait time of up to 4 months). Had a bottle of the Wee Heavy this weekend. Definitely has mellowed plenty and the maple flavors have mellowed, more woody but sweet. When it was younger (like spring/summer) it was much more mapley, so I say drink it young if you try something similar.

sabotenfighter said:

I used S-04 as liquid yeast is very difficult to find and very expensive here (almost 20$ for a vial of White Labs and a wait time of up to 4 months). Had a bottle of the Wee Heavy this weekend. Definitely has mellowed plenty and the maple flavors have mellowed, more woody but sweet. When it was younger (like spring/summer) it was much more mapley, so I say drink it young if you try something similar.

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Will do! I'm actually looking at brewing this one up tomorrow. I've geared it down to a "Maple Ale" rather than a porter, so as to not muddle the flavors by concentrating the darker malts in a porter. I have both Dark Crystal 120 and Special B. I was thinking the dark crystal, but what would you recommend?

Looking at, for a 1.5 gallon batch:

3lbs 2-row (86%)
2oz C30 (3.5%)
2oz C20 (3.5%)
4oz C120 (7%)

Just bittering with a touch of nugget hops, but I also considered using golding instead for a more earthy, less spicy taste. Just gonna go with nottingham to chew through this bad boy. Pred. OG at 1.064, 25 IBU.

I'm thinking I'll take 4 cups (1/4G) off to cook down to one cup and add it back in. Then I'll boil my top-off water in the syrup pot to clean it and get all those wonderful, syrupy sugars into my wort.

I've seen that the differences in the C120 and Special B are basically C=more burnt sugar/caramel and Sepcial B=more raisin. BUT, you're the one with experience here, so I figure I'll trust your opinion more than my own

What did you end up using? The C120 sounds like it would give more of that rich sweetness than the special B (Weyermann CaraAroma is also pretty raisiny), but for such a smal batch, might not matter as much/might as well experiment.

sabotenfighter said:

What did you end up using? The C120 sounds like it would give more of that rich sweetness than the special B (Weyermann CaraAroma is also pretty raisiny), but for such a smal batch, might not matter as much/might as well experiment.

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I ended up using the C120. The syrup tasted earthy, and like a caramelized maple syrup. It's fermenting away right now. I'll taste it and probably bottle the day after Christmas. Can't wait to see what flavor it's turned into. Will definitely report back as soon as I taste it.

Got a half-batch of maple porter in the secondary now (Ok, it's actually in the primary, but what's the difference?)

I should have tasted it last night, but I forgot. Went to bed early. Watched Archer.

Anywho, I'll try and taste tonight and see how it turned out. I used about 12 ounces of homemade dark syrup. BUT! The stuff I used was the liquid on top of the sugar crystals. It had sugared on the bottom and probably about 1/3 of the jar was sugar. I'm curious to know if the liquid had a more concentrated flavor, or it's just the same as normal.

If it turns out, I might try a burnt maple beer next time. To use up the syrup that had an accident...

The lack of sugar in solution would probably be perfect. You don't want the sugar as much as the flavoring of the imperfections. Let us know how it tastes!

2 years ago I did a maple wit beer. I did 16 oz maple in the boil at 30min and another 8oz at flameout. (You want to use the purest grade maple syrup you can find)
The Belgian yeast strain gave off some good banana esters and I swear it tasted like bananas foster.

sabotenfighter said:

What did you end up using? The C120 sounds like it would give more of that rich sweetness than the special B (Weyermann CaraAroma is also pretty raisiny), but for such a smal batch, might not matter as much/might as well experiment.

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Well, it's fermented. Gonna cold crash tonight. It tastes like an imperial ale right now. Not particularly caramel or maple, but a rich malt bomb. It's really good, but I'm curious what will happen in another couple of weeks in bottles.

I just did the 2nd half of a RIS (I mentioned earlier in the thread). Last time I crushed some maple flavored coffee and added to beer for 18 hours before racking off into a serving keg. It gave me a strong coffee and subtle maple flavor.

This time I added the maple flavored coffee beans without crushing them - left them whole. Let it sit overnight in a keg with a filter on the dip tube. Transferred to serving keg today, after about 15 hours or so. Much more balanced - stronger maple, less coffee flavor. I used .5 ounces per gallon with the crushed coffee beans the first time. This time I used 1 ounce of whole beans per gallon.

Again - I was looking for both maple and coffee in a bourbon barrel RIS..... So, there is a lot going on in this beer. However, it is a strategy that really carries maple into a beer far better than I have ever been able to accomplish with syrup, etc. The whole beans, for a short time (12-18 hours) works better than crushing the coffee beans up.

Tasted my Maple Porter last night. It's pretty dry. I also don't really taste any maple flavor. I'm guessing to get actual flavor I might have to use a few drops of flavoring. I think all I got out of the syrup I used was sugar and it dried out the beer.

It's not "bad", but it's not what I wanted in a maple porter.

I prime everything with maple because I make maple. Therefore I pretty much have "free" almost unlimited supply of light, medium, dark, extra dark, half boiled, grade a, and b. I have also used in boils to increase gravity.I have actually finished small amount of syrup to a specific gravity that suits my needs. the problem with store bought real maple (not aunt jemima corn syrup) is that it varies in actual sugar content based on a few different factors.

sabotenfighter said:

What did you end up using? The C120 sounds like it would give more of that rich sweetness than the special B (Weyermann CaraAroma is also pretty raisiny), but for such a smal batch, might not matter as much/might as well experiment.

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Now that it's bottled, I think I an safely say I didn't necessarily get maple. It's an earthy, rich, malt-forward ale with plenty of caramel notes. I'm definitely not upset with the results. Gonna be aging some and see what it does. Also gonna brew again with us-05 and special b.

I just brewed the Chocolate maple porter from the Brooklyn brew shop recipe book. It wasn't dry at all and came out with a very strong maple flavor. I am aging some of the bottles to see how it changes but was very happy with the results.

Here was the recipe:

60-minute mash at 152°F: 2.5 gallons water, plus 5 gallons for sparging; 6 pounds American 2-row malt, 1.5 pounds Chocolate malt, 1 pound Caramel 15 malt, 1 pound Black Patent malt
60-minute boil: 2 ounces Fuggle hops, divided into quarters; 3¾ cups maple syrup
Ferment: 1 packet English ale yeast, such as Nottingham or Wyeast London III; 1 cup maple syrup, for bottling

Syrup was added at the 60 minute mark of the boil. Heat was turned off and syrup added before chilling the wort.
I would dial back the priming sugar though since my batch was a bit over-carbonated for sure.

bransona said:

Now that it's bottled, I think I an safely say I didn't necessarily get maple. It's an earthy, rich, malt-forward ale with plenty of caramel notes. I'm definitely not upset with the results. Gonna be aging some and see what it does. Also gonna brew again with us-05 and special b.

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Interesting. I bulk aged mine several months before bottling, so maybe after some aging the flavor will come out.

sabotenfighter said:

Interesting. I bulk aged mine several months before bottling, so maybe after some aging the flavor will come out.

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I'm hoping so. Haven't cracked a bottle since the start of the year. Last I tasted it was a burnt caramel profile, very malt-forward. This has been a fun brew for sure. Can't wait to keep playing with the syrup technique

Braufessor said:

The best "maple" beer I have made is a RIS that I added Maple Flavored Coffee beans to (for a very short time..... just 18 hours in the keg, and then jumped to another keg.) The coffee and maple came through nicely and blended with the richness of the RIS.

Maple extract would be the other way. Fermenting maple syrup, in my opinion and experience, just won't get you what you are looking for.

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What kind of maple flavored coffee beans would you recommend for a nice balance of maple to coffee flavor ratio.

Island_Dan said:

I just brewed the Chocolate maple porter from the Brooklyn brew shop recipe book. It wasn't dry at all and came out with a very strong maple flavor. I am aging some of the bottles to see how it changes but was very happy with the results.

Here was the recipe:

60-minute mash at 152°F: 2.5 gallons water, plus 5 gallons for sparging; 6 pounds American 2-row malt, 1.5 pounds Chocolate malt, 1 pound Caramel 15 malt, 1 pound Black Patent malt
60-minute boil: 2 ounces Fuggle hops, divided into quarters; 3¾ cups maple syrup
Ferment: 1 packet English ale yeast, such as Nottingham or Wyeast London III; 1 cup maple syrup, for bottling

Syrup was added at the 60 minute mark of the boil. Heat was turned off and syrup added before chilling the wort.
I would dial back the priming sugar though since my batch was a bit over-carbonated for sure.

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I've made this twice, now - I plan to sample my first bottle from my second batch later tonight. It was definitely good the first time!

Never use the 3 tablespoons called for in their recipes - It is simply too much. I have found that between 1.5 and 2 tablespoons will be plenty, depending on the amount of carbonation you are going for. If you use this reduced amount and it is still a bit over-carbed, stick the bottle in the freezer for about 10 minutes or so, and that should take care of the problem.

My most 'mapley' beer was a stout made with sap instead of water and I primed the keg with extra dark (cooking grade) syrup.

sudbuddy said:

I used maple sap as my brewing water in a smoked pale and that was pretty cool nut not very maple-y. My buddy used his share of the sap as the brewing water for a Belgian pale and it did not have much maple flavor at first. 8 months later, it is now bursting with maple flavor and a really awesome beer. Try aging a dozen bottles and see what they're like in a year. You might be really happy with the result.

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I made a smoky maple beer from BYO with maple sap and some syrup from the same operation, perhaps we were looking at the same recipe? I lagered mine. Didn't turn out remotely smoky. It turned out really sweet, too, which I thought might be me not treating the yeast well, but after letting it sit at carbonating temps for a few months I had no gushers or bottle bombs.

End result tasted a little like the kits I used to make from Mr. Beer. Something was just a little off.

Ijp11 said:

What kind of maple flavored coffee beans would you recommend for a nice balance of maple to coffee flavor ratio.

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My current batch I used this:
https://www.coffeeam.com/vermont-maple-pecan-flavored-coffee.html
less maple than I wanted

This one worked well:
http://www.coffeebeanery.com/vermont-maple-flavored-coffee-9

I used a Maple Bacon one that was good too.

Next one I am considering buying some of the extract they use to flavor coffee beans and basically treat the maple flavored beans with an additional dose of maple extract .... I have found each time I have wanted a bit more maple to come through (considering I am treating an 11-12% RIS that has charred bourbon soaked oak, plus the coffee.... there is a fair amount competing with the maple.)

I've had success adding 0.5oz. of Grade B maple syrup per gallon of kegged porter. There was plenty of maple flavor, it was super popular with my friends, and the beer earned a 44 in the one competition it was entered in. I think adding syrup to a cold, finished, kegged beer is the way to go.

I would say use Grade A. Its the best or go to a sugar shack ( We have those in Quebec) and ask for pure maple syrup.