Maple Wine

[erockrph]

That's funny, I was just coming here to post a bit of a followup. I racked to secondary and took a sample today. 3 months in and it went from 1.151 to 1.058. My basement has been a lot colder than usual this winter (last year it barely dipped below 62F, this year it's been mid-to-low-50's since January). I'm hoping that things are still going slowly, because it is still way too sweet if it finished up here. The gravity sample was still a lot like sipping maple syrup. At this point it calculates to be about 12%, but the sweetness completely masks the alcohol. There is a nice warming in the belly at the end though. It's still pretty hazy at this point.

At this point my gameplan is to recheck the gravity in another week or so. If its still stalled out then I will bring it up to room temp and see if it goes any further. At that point I'm not sure if I should pitch another packet of yeast, or if I should brew another batch at a lower gravity (thinking 1.080-1.100 range) that should ferment down to around 1.000 and use that to blend back.

The lees at the bottom of the fermenter were quite interesting. There was a fine layer of pitch black sediment on top of the yeast layer. I wish I had taken a picture.

Thanks for the interest. I'll keep you updated on how things are going.

[mtnrockhopper]

I remember Ken Schramm giving a mead presentation saying that you usually get 100 points of attenuation out of yeast (max).  If that's true, yours might be finished at 93 points fermented.  You could maybe get it further with distillers yeast?  Blending might help. Age may help it dry out too.

[erockrph]

I remember Ken Schramm giving a mead presentation saying that you usually get 100 points of attenuation out of yeast (max).  If that's true, yours might be finished at 93 points fermented.  You could maybe get it further with distillers yeast?  Blending might help. Age may help it dry out too.

I generally get 120-130 points out of 71B in meads using staggered nutrient additions when fermented in the mid-60's. The only significant change to my process (aside from using maple syrup instead of honey) was the significantly cooler temps. But yes, I have strongly considered that it could just be finished at this point.

Since my calculations put it at about 12% right now, I'm concerned whether that's too high to pitch more yeast into. I'm also not sure whether I should add any more nutrient additions if I do go that route.

[bonjour]

Add a growler of yeast slurry, a full working population from a neutral source

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

[erockrph]

Well, it's officially stalled out. Same exact gravity reading today as it was 4 days ago. I brought it up to room temp just in case that may restart things, otherwise I may try making a starter in a low gravity maple syrup must to see if I can get it to take off. Otherwise, it looks like a new batch for blending is called for.

I did some measured dilutions with water using the gravity sample. Undiluted, it is smooth but warming going down, syrupy, and has notes of bourbon and maple.

I then diluted it 3:1 with water. The resulting dilution (approx 9% abv, 1.044) was not quite as warm, but still quite syrupy. At this level of dilution a fruity vinous character really starts to shine through.

The final dilution was 3:2 with water. This calculates to about 7% and 1.035. At this dilution the vinous character drops off, but it becomes even more fruity. There is still quite a bit of syrupy sweetness left at this point.

I'm thinking that if I'm going to make another batch to dilute, I need to plan on something that will get me in the low-to-mid 1.020's and keep my abv above 9%. I think there is a lot of room for experimentation here once I drill down my process a bit better. I like both the bourbon character I got at higher abv as well as the vinous character from more moderate levels. Despite the underattenuation, I'm liking where this has gone so far.

[morticaixavier]

This sounds delicious to me as is. Granted I have been known to drink a shot of maple syrup 

I suspect that syrup has even less nutrients for the yeast than even honey or grape must. It is cooked so long and essentially clarified by that process that I would think very little but sugar and mailard left overs are still there.

If you can without messing up the flavour you might try another nutrient addition with your new starter.

[brewmichigan]

I have a buddy who's in-laws run a maple syrup business. He said he gets maple syrup from them every year and decided to do this a few years ago. The first batch was good but a little hot. He has since perfected the recipe and methods and the latest one I tried was really good.

His friend, who is a brewer, decided to do a big batch of it. He has almost one barrel of it fermenting right now and it tastes spectacular. I'll email him and ask about his process.

if it's who i think it is th Maple Wine is awesome.

Treat the syrup as honey, diluting to your target OG and follow the modern day (Ken Schramm of Schramm's Meads, he wrote the book) Mead process.

Yes, it is who you think it is. Follow what Fred said here. I contacted him but never heard back.

[erockrph]

This sounds delicious to me as is. Granted I have been known to drink a shot of maple syrup 

I suspect that syrup has even less nutrients for the yeast than even honey or grape must. It is cooked so long and essentially clarified by that process that I would think very little but sugar and mailard left overs are still there.

If you can without messing up the flavour you might try another nutrient addition with your new starter.

I had a similar thought with the nutrient. It's hard to tell whether there's any residual DAP flavor going on because the sweetness is high enough to mask most of that. I will definitely put some nutrient in my starter, and I may add one more addition to the wine when I add the starter to it.