We were just making our first batch of syrup (while boiled over, scorched and then turned to caramel -- I reconstituted it with water, boiled it down again, and it's got the richest, most robust flavor of any maple syrup I've ever tasted. What a great mistake! But, I digress...), and my husband, the beer brewer, was wondering what you'd end up with if you let the maple syrup ferment? Is it even possible, or just a waste of a good thing? Anyone ever tried it?

Thanks!

-- Andrea Gauland (andreagee@aol.com), March 17, 2002

Answers

interesting thought,, honey will make mead,, so maple syrup should make somthing,, not sure what though

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), March 17, 2002.

I don't know about using Maple Syrup, but they used to make Sap Beer out of Maple Sap. I will look around to see if I can find the recipe.

-- Michele (gvsaanens@aol.com), March 17, 2002.

Go to http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/ and click on his requested recipes link. You will find recipes for maple sap wine.

During Prohibition maple syrup was used for the distilliation of illegal spirits.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 18, 2002.

They certainly used to make birch beer, so maple ought to work. You'd need to do a little research on what sugars are in maple sap or syrup, then you could figure out what hydrometer reading you'd want to start off with. and dilute or boil off accordingly. I'd be inclined to agree that with a special taste like maple syrup a wine rather than a beer would be appropriate.

As a sideline, way back in the nineteenth (I think) century there was an expert assessing mangolds / mangel wurzels / whatever for introduction into Britain, and one comment was that the French (who make quite good beers, although not widely recognised) made a "quite acceptable" beer from mangel juice. Well, why not? After all it's a very close relative of sugar beet.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), March 18, 2002.

The beer made from maple sap is called Maple Mead, and, I have heard, is quite rank and strong. You have to boil it down partially in order to get the right sugar/liquid balance.

Good Luck!

-- Chenoa (ganter@primus.ca), March 18, 2002.

I've made beer with maple syrup. If I remember correctly, I added about 1 quart. I bought it from a local producer and asked for a lower grade syrup than they generally sell. I don't have my records with me, but I believe it was a Maple Porter. It was very good! I think it had a VERY active ferment.

Tonya

-- Tonya (tbedn@voyager.net), March 18, 2002.

i have a few friends who home brew and some make excellent mead (honey wine) one tried using maple syrup he made maple mead it did not come out as good as expected considering i appreciate real maple syrup and only use the real stuff. it was a waste honey works better. jkg

-- jaason godsey (jasonkgodsey@hotmail.com), March 18, 2002.

You'd probably end up with the wildest pancake supper you've ever seen...

-- Jeff (lorianandjeff@aol.com), March 19, 2002.

I made some maple ber/wine a few years ago. A friend with a commercial syrup operation was just starting out in the business, and had some weak syrup at the end of the season, and we used it as the basis of the brew. Used mead yeast, and I think that I added a pint of honey (to 5 gallons) for nutrients for the yeast. It came out "interesting", but drinkable, although I haven't tried it lately.

Jim

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), March 19, 2002.