[weave]

A co-worker was asking me today about fermenting maple syrup. His grandfather owns a maple shack so he has access to plenty of maple syrup. We talked about it a bit, and it seems to me that it shouldn't be much different than feremnting honey, right?

Anyone do it? Recipes? Warnings? Advice?

[realbeerguy]

IIRC maple syrup is totally fermentable. If you want maple profile you may need to sorbate & backsweeten.

[weave]

realbeerguy, on Aug 27 2009, 04:26 PM, said:

IIRC maple syrup is totally fermentable.

That is what I thought initially.

But I wonder how much carmelization goes on in the boil off process, and what it's effect on fermentability will be. Hoping someone who's done it or know for sure will chime in.

[Wayne B]

Lots of folks have done it, and many do mixtures of maple syrup and honey (Google "acerglyn" and you'll get some good recipes). Although there is enough carmelization to darken the color during the boil-down, most of that color is from oxidation rather than polysaccharide creation, so it is virtually 100% fermentable right out of the bottle - don't expect any detectable residual sweetness unless your yeast die of ethanol poisoning before they finish the job.

[japhmi]

Wayne B, on Aug 27 2009, 05:52 PM, said:

don't expect any detectable residual sweetness unless your yeast die of ethanol poisoning before they finish the job.

You say that like it's a bad thing

Also, I'd think you'd have to add nutrients like you do with mead.

[Wayne B]

japhmi, on Aug 28 2009, 11:30 AM, said:

You say that like it's a bad thing

Also, I'd think you'd have to add nutrients like you do with mead.

Well, if you ever had bone dry acerglyn, you might think so.... Or, were you talking about the ethanol poisoning? I certainly can think of worse things!

But you're right about the nutrients. Maple syrup has little in the way of nitrogen or vitamins for your yeast.

This post has been edited by Wayne B: 28 August 2009 - 06:31 PM

[weave]

Thanks guys. It sounds like if he were to treat this like making a mead he'd do fine. I'll pass this on.

[drewseslu]

Be prepared to let it age for a good long time, at least a few years. The alcohol heat can be a bit much right off the bat.

[dondewey]

Do people boil down just until it hits the correct OG, or all the way and then add to water?

[Wayne B]

Most folks only have access to commercial syrup, so they add water to bring the gravity to a point where the yeast will like it. If I had access to maple sap directly, I'd probably do a partial boil-down as you suggest.

[wengared]

wayne, i will be tapping my maples for the first time this winter, mainly planned on syrup and i've been shown the thickness desired, so you mention a partial boil, using a hydrometer what brix (balling ) would you sugest for making maple mead?

[Wayne B]

Since the sugars are 100% fermentable, I'd choose a target ABV (say 12% for the sake of argument) and then find out what starting Brix would ferment fully dry leaving your target ABV. For the 12% I mentioned earlier, that would correspond to an initial specific gravity of 1.090, and that's right around 21.5 Brix.

If you want more alcohol in the finished product, boil down to a higher starting Brix. I'd plan on any fermentation going fully dry (final gravity in the neighborhood of 0.998 or so), and if you want the final product to be sweeter you can backsweeten with syrup in the same way that we'd backsweeten a mead with honey.

[wengared]

Wayne B, on Aug 31 2009, 11:19 PM, said:

Since the sugars are 100% fermentable, I'd choose a target ABV (say 12% for the sake of argument) and then find out what starting Brix would ferment fully dry leaving your target ABV. For the 12% I mentioned earlier, that would correspond to an initial specific gravity of 1.090, and that's right around 21.5 Brix.

If you want more alcohol in the finished product, boil down to a higher starting Brix. I'd plan on any fermentation going fully dry (final gravity in the neighborhood of 0.998 or so), and if you want the final product to be sweeter you can backsweeten with syrup in the same way that we'd backsweeten a mead with honey.

thanks for the info.

[psolio]

Wayne B, on Aug 31 2009, 01:23 PM, said:

Most folks only have access to commercial syrup, so they add water to bring the gravity to a point where the yeast will like it. If I had access to maple sap directly, I'd probably do a partial boil-down as you suggest.

Wouldn't partially boiling down the raw sap give a less strong maple flavour/aroma? I always thought the boiling down to different grades imparted carmelisation and other things.

[Wayne B]

That wouldn't necessarily be true, since boiling down essentially removes pure water, which concentrates the remaining sugars and phenolic resins that give maple syrup its maple-y flavor, but adding water back to syrup that has been fully boiled down, in order to get to a fermentable concentration of sugars, would dilute those resins to about the same amount as the partial boil. The only difference would be that you'd have a little less carmelization (heat-joining of simple sugars into complex) and a little less oxidation, which might slightly change the flavor profile of a fermented brew that was from a partial boil relative to one that had been mixed from fully boiled down syrup. I don't know that it would be enough of a change for most folks to notice.

Oh, and the different grades of syrup aren't from different amounts of boil. They rather come from different ratios of sugars to phenolics in the original sap. First runnings are always higher in sugar content, and contain less of the resins, than subsequent runnings from the trees. So the first run syrups are usually the "higher grade" lighter, sweeter, syrups. Although it is true that you do get more carmelization in the later run, lower grades, since the boil has to happen for a longer interval to achieve the final gravity that you're after, since there is less sugar in the sap to begin with.

This post has been edited by Wayne B: 02 September 2009 - 05:20 PM

[doobahstop]

A member of my club made what he called a "Maple Wine" out of boiled down sap and it still had plenty of maple flavor. I thought the stuff was wonderful. It also didn't seem like rocket fuel or sweet. I will have to get some more details at our meeting tomorrow.

I have always wanted to try watering down syrup but it's like $55 a gallon. Much more than what I would spend on honey. About twice as much. Someday.