I am a partial mash/extract brewer., my local apple orchard came out with Apple Syrup (its intended use is for on pancakes) but I was thinking about making a winter ale with it as a late addition to the boil. It is not as thick as maple syrup and it is made from 100% apples. Any help with a winter ale recipe would be appreciated.
A few thoughts: -Is it literally 100% apples, or simple syrup with apples added? -Do you know if the syrup has been sterilized/pasteurized? -I'd recommend adding the syrup later in the process to preserve some of the volatile flavors and aromas from the apple. Add it at high krausen in primary, and maybe even consider using it as priming sugar if you bottle. -Depending on the style you brew, anywhere from 5-20% of your fermentables can come from sugar. If you want to hit the high end, choose a base style that is intended to be dry. I bet a Belgian Tripel brewed with apple syrup would be awesome.
Real apple syrup is apple cider boiled down for several hours into a syrup with no sugar added. Sometimes they add some spices. In order to use it in beer, you should determine the natural sugar content of the syrup. I would add it to the primary towards the end of fermentation and let it ferment for at least a few days. How much do you have? Chances are, not a lot and you can use all of it.
so since its already been boiled, it would be better as addotive to the fermentator and not late addition to the boil? Its 325ml bottle.
I sort of don't see the disadvantage of adding the apple syrup to the boil. That way you have peace of mind about microbes, and it will mix in thoroughly. The (slight) risks I perceive from adding it directly to the fermenter include: (1) microbial contamination, and (2) the syrup failing to mix evenly into the beer, and instead pooling at the bottom, where it might be concentrated enough to kill yeast as they drop out of suspension. I emphasize that these risks are slight and would often be well worth it. For instance, these are risks I would happily incur if I were brewing a beer with honey, since honey contains delicate aromatics that would be destroyed/boiled away if I added it at any point during the boil, and the honey character might even be stripped out by CO2 during primary fermentation. (My understanding is that honey is also unlikely to harbor beer-spoiling microbes. However, even honey is not a sterile product, and in fact it shouldn't be fed to young babies because their stomachs might not be acidic enough to ward off botulism. Beer, luckily, is plenty acidic and alcoholic.) Apple syrup has already been boiled for hours, so any delicate aromatics that were once in the apple juice are long gone. Given that, I don't see any reason to incur the risks in this instance. I would just add the apple syrup to the boil.
or, if your are going to secondary this brew, bring the apple syrup to a boil, let it cool a bit, then add to the secondary. I have excellent results doing this with maple syrup and the amount required to get the taste goes down seeing there is less chance for aggressive fermentation blowing off the taste or scent. You also remove or greatly lessin the risk of infection from the apple syrup. Works with maple might with apple. Guess I'd better make some cider an boil,er down!
it is an imperial smoked stout with 1 cup of boiled syrup added to the secondary along with 1.5 oz light toasted oak. just enough maple flavor after 2 weeks in the secondary.
