Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

The Director of the Indian Creek Nature Center became my neighbor this year and yesterday showed me how to tap maple trees. I have a few really good ones on my property I plan to tap this year to collect enough sap to brew my Up in Smoke Porter but with all maple sap instead of water. Of course depends on if I collect enough sap but sounds like it shouldn't be an issue. I was thinking of doing a 5 gallon batch with sap and a 5 gallon batch no sap to be able to compare side by side if there is much of a difference. If I get a lot of sap I may boil down to make some syrup too which I could add to the keg if I want to impart the flavor of maple syrup.

Did you know you have to boil the sap and reduce to a ration of 40 to 1 to make maple syrup. That means 40 gallons of sap equals 1 gallon of syrup!

I've experimented with adding maple syrup to smoked porter, the results were a bit underwhelming. The beer was good, but I couldn't taste any maple. I've been meaning to make another run at this, using both maple syrup and ground fenugreek (the stuff that gives the pancake syrup its mapleyness). I think my wife would love it.

Basic Brewing Radio did a show on making beer with maple sap a couple years ago, it seems like they added syrup to the wort as well, and wound up with a subtle maple flavor in the beer. I don't think their beer was as strongly flavored as a smoked porter though.

Say "Hi" to Rich for me.

Maple sap is boiled down and concentrated to make maple syrup. Straight sap would be comparable to honey I would think. Maybe not quite as fermentable though. If you used enough you could try for a Sam Adams Triple Bock.

Will do Tom. Think I will pass on the Triple Bock, yuck. I am curious if I will get any detectable flavor at all in a smoked porter. I may bottle some with just sap replacing the water. Also add syrup at bottling to some and ideally brew a batch with water for a side by side.

I wish I could remember the beer, or brewery, but I had a beer on tap in wisconsin once that was brewed with the entire water bill replaced with sap. It was interesting, it had a very earthy woody quality about it. There was no discernible maple flavor at all. Not much help, but I was about half in the bag when I tried it. I will look to see if I can find out what it was.

Replacing all the water with sap is my plan. I know you don't get any of the maple syrup flavor from that process. Some of those flavors develop as you reduce the sap down to a syrup. That is why I want to try some with maple syrup added at kegging/bottling too. I may have to try a different beer style if I don't get anything I like in the smoked porter from using the sap. I figure it is a fun experiment as I have some nice maples to tap. I hope you can remember the beer you are thinking of. I may attempt to get some.

I think you will get some flavor from the sap, even in the smoked porter. I don't think it will be a maple syrup flavor though. Nor am I sure that's the flavor I'd go for. I've never had raw sap, so I'm not sure what it will contribute to the finished beer. It has to be worth a try. That's part of the fun of homebrewing. We can do things breweries don't want to try. The worst you can end up with is a great meat marinade.