MAPLE SAP Brown

Blackmuse

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Okay folks:
I need a little feedback please. My friend is bringing over 10 gallons of straight maple sap for us to make a brown ale with. The idea is to use the sap to mash in and then sparge with. Then, we've both been boiling down sap ourselves into a syrup that we plan to add to the secondary.

We'd like a solid woodsy flavor - from the sap- and a finish that is a touch sweet and mapley.

I am unsure about what type of crystal malt to use... Right now, I have crystal 120. I was thinking maybe I should sue crystal 60 instead. I don't like a lot of coffee, roasted flavors. I am more than happy with fig, toffee raisins though.

Should I maybe use a mix of crystal 60 and Special B?

Any and all feedback is welcome.


<iframe width="100%" height="500px" src="https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/embed/960194" frameborder="0"></iframe>
 
Maple syrup flavor is a caramel flavor - straight C60 or cut with C20 or honey malt?
 
Check out Simpsons DRC if you've got it available. There is no better character malt than DRC.
 
I vote for special B. If your going raisins.
I do like raisins and love the special B grain.... Maybe I'll tweak the recipe and post it back up here for some additional feedback.
 
So here is the new recipe. Now, since I have c60 and Special B, I am thinking I should drop the Honey malt.... What do you think?

Also, should I add 2oz of roasted barely for color?

Thanks for all the help and input.

<iframe width="100%" height="500px" src="https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/embed/960194" frameborder="0"></iframe>
 
Looks like fun! Some Fuggles for aroma may help with the earthy woody you are looking for. Roast barley could muddle up the flavors unless you want some burnt, roast flavor too. I wouldn't worry about color myself. Let the boiling determine the color. You have a nice redish Amber without adding the syrup you have been boiling down.
 
Looks like fun! Some Fuggles for aroma may help with the earthy woody you are looking for. Roast barley could muddle up the flavors unless you want some burnt, roast flavor too. I wouldn't worry about color myself. Let the boiling determine the color. You have a nice redish Amber without adding the syrup you have been boiling down.
Thanks for the advise! I do find that my beers tend to come out darker than BF shows in the recipe. I always do 90 min. Boils since I like the results and maybe that is why.

I'll check if I have fuggles!
 
UPDATE - SO I brewed this with a buddy (new brewer - his second batch with me) yesterday. He was the one who got the maple sap from a local orchard. He also had the initial idea. I am attaching the recipe we ACTUALLY brewed. We had tweaked things one last time together after tasting some grains. Then, as we brewed we tweaked a couple of other minor things (like hop addition time and yeast). We ended up dropping the special b, and splitting the c60 with a bit of c120. We also mashed a bit higher 160 per an article we read on BYO. After the mash we ended up with a pretty high pre-boil gravity so we changed the hop addition a little just to be sure we didn't end up under 30 IBU (which probably still would have been okay).

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/963166/maple-sap-brown-ale-brewed-

We switched from Nottingham to 34/70 and it is now bubbling away at 60 F. It actually started fermenting only 2 hours after pitch. We pitched at 60 degrees (15.6 c) and it has stayed a pretty consistent temp (15.5 c - 16 c). We have home-made maple syrup to add to the secondary once we get there.

Thanks for all of your help and ideas.
- We almost switched hops BTW to EKG because we both love that hop and I have plenty! In the end though I made the push for Phoenix. If I had Fuggles on hand I would have used that as I agree that they would certainly match the recipe better.
 
OH! I forgot to mention that I split Golden promise with Munich Dark - (it was 100% GP before) - I just love me a good does of Munich malt!
 
Some Pre-fermenter pics! Don't mind the insulation!
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Some Pre-fermenter pics! Don't mind the insulation!
View attachment 9042 View attachment 9043
Beautiful looks bloody tasty. Good call on upping the hops to ballance the sweetness especially after uping mash temp.
C120 wouldn't be far off special B anyhow I'd believe pluss you dont want to overwhelm the subtle maple flavours.
34/70 Will deliver a nice clean malty beer I'm sure it will show off that maple nicely.

What did you go with water wise?
 
Beautiful looks bloody tasty. Good call on upping the hops to ballance the sweetness especially after uping mash temp.
C120 wouldn't be far off special B anyhow I'd believe pluss you dont want to overwhelm the subtle maple flavours.
34/70 Will deliver a nice clean malty beer I'm sure it will show off that maple nicely.

What did you go with water wise?

Water was maple sap from a nearby farm for both the mash and the sparge. we ended up using almost 9 gallons. We took the last gallon and boiled it down to near syrup. We have about 20 oz of near syrup to add to the secondary from what we got from this left over sap and what we have collected from our own trees and boiled down.

Water chemistry - I added 2g each of gypsum and epsom salt and 4g of calcium chloride.-should be a balanced profile 1.0 - I also added a bit of baking soda to bring the pH up some as the sap was already at 6.4. This was all only added to the mash water
 
So primary fermentation has slowed down. I have about 18oz of boiled down maple sap - it's not quite syrup as it is still pretty free flowing. This is sap boiled from my trees, my friends trees and the last of the sap from our 10 gallon mash and sparge water. The plan is to add it to the secondary - ie. now. I know that I won't get much maple syrup flavor outta this and it will probably dry the beer out some but that is why we had the high mash temp and the additional honey malt...

What do you all think?
 
So primary fermentation has slowed down. I have about 18oz of boiled down maple sap - it's not quite syrup as it is still pretty free flowing. This is sap boiled from my trees, my friends trees and the last of the sap from our 10 gallon mash and sparge water. The plan is to add it to the secondary - ie. now. I know that I won't get much maple syrup flavor outta this and it will probably dry the beer out some but that is why we had the high mash temp and the additional honey malt...

What do you all think?
I think you're right about the effect. Maple syrup's flavor comes from Maillard reactions so if you didn't boil the sap down, all you did was add some rather hard to get sugar water (and a few other trace compounds). Likewise, even if you boiled the sap down, if you didn't brown it, not much flavor. It will dry things out though, as you mentioned.
 
Well I ran with it! Here's a pic of the syrup I added. It tasted great - and since I doubt I'll actually taste it in the beer, I am glad I saved myself a sip! Lol
 

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