Adding Maple Syrup at Secondary?

Maple syrup almost completely ferments and will definitely dry out the beer in that high of a volume. You may be able to add some more unfermentables to the recipe to counter this.

per the hopville calculator: 1lb of maple syrup into a 1 gal batch should add .03 to your OG, and yield about a 3% abv jump.


-edit: You'll likely get some flavor, but the amount depends on the recipe and your palate. Most of the success stories I've read used maple syrup to prime. Good luck

 

I didnt have much success adding maple to secondary. It did ferment completely, left the beer drier and hotter than I wanted, and I seemed to have forgotten about the fact that it would ferment heavily because it also made the beer super estery due to high ferm temp (I didnt have it controlled at all). I would try at bottling, if at all.

 

Using those OG and FG numbers, you're looking at around 5.6 abv. IMO a 3% abv increase (a 53% increase in total abv) isn't slight by any means. You're going to notice it. If not in the "heat" of the beer, it's going to be a heck of a lot thinner as far as mouthfeel goes.

 

This should do the trick.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

Cheers

 

I just brewed a maple syrup ale and added 12 oz in the 5 gallon batch after primary fermentation and primed with maple syrup as well. I get a subtle maple flavor that I think is all that is necessary.

I would recommend adding some into the secondary as well as priming with it. 16 oz for one gallon sounds like a lot though, I would try 4-8 oz in each gallon. And there are calculators out there for how much maple syrup to use at priming.

 

http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

 

Hi, it's a little late, as I'm sure you've already done what you're going to do... but I make a maple wheat where I add 32+ oz at the last few min of the boil. I get no maple flavor, just a nice light dryness and a sort of acidity (probably from the dryness). That was with Grade A amber. Oh, I also added some to the bottling bucket b/f bottling, but I forget how much. There are calculators out there that will help you. I used the G.A amber b/c that 's what I had on hand. I imagine using Grade B at bottling might add a little more maple flavor.

I just brewed one where I added 32 oz grade B a 3 days into the ferment. The beer came out fruity, really dry, and no maple flavor at all. I think to get the flavor, you have to add a lot and late in the ferment. But, you risk extra dryness, and you risk over priming if you're bottling.

 

As I understand (and I may be totally off, so anyone who knows better correct me), the issue with using maple syrup to prime is two-fold; first, it apparently does not impart much if any maple flavoring and second, the variable amount of sugars in the syrup. I haven't tried it yet, but when I do, I'll probably take some extra precautions to minimize any potential bottle bomb mess.

 

Has anyone tried using maple sugar to bottle prime? I'd imagine it would measure similar to sucrose, and as it's basically maple sap taken past syrup into crystals, it would have a more concentrated flavor.

 

Lot's of people have. First, you need to know how much sugar is in your syrup. You can determine this by mixing a known amount of syrup with a known amount of water and taking a gravity reading. After that, it's easy, because the sugars in the syrup are 100% fermentable. But the trick is figuring out the sugar content first.

 

So buying maple sugar would remove the need to do all of that, as it's a crystallized sugar and not a syrup.

The reason I asked is because most baking literature states to use half the amount of maple sugar that you would of table sugar as it leaves a sweeter impression despite still being mostly sucrose. I was wondering if this could be the silver bullet to getting that elusive maple flavor.

 

I don't know what's in maple sugar. But if it's just the sugar from maple syrup, then it's 100% fermentable and will not add maple flavors or sweet flavors. If it's more than just the sugars, then you're right back to needing to be able to tell how much sugar it contains, if you want to carbonate with accuracy. Again, you could do this by mixing with water and taking a gravity reading.

But as far as getting 'that elelusive maple flavor,' people who have primed with maple syrup have reported underwhelming results. So I don't see how using a something with (presumably) less maple flavor would do any better.

 

I think the answer is that you need maple liquor if you want to retain any sort of maple flavor. I've been underwhelmed by adding it to secondary and bottle priming. No maple comes through.

 

With multiple gallon jugs available, it can't hurt to experiment with at least one gallon.

 

I just caught myself in an Aficiando moment, so I'm done now.

 

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I am interested in doing a maple porter and some have reported successful results in adding grade B syrup to the end of the boil. But I trust nobody but BAs. Has anyone revisited this?
Thanks