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Author Topic: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?  (Read 16459 times)

Offline jbar

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Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« on: March 02, 2010, 05:13:37 pm »
So i have a nut brown ale that will be ready to be bottled very soon. I kinda like the idea of a maple nut brown  8) A couple of questions before i commit. Will there be a noticeable maple character left to the beer? I have read differing ideas on the amount needed to bottle a 5 gallon batch anywhere from 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups...

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance !

Jason

Offline akr71

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2010, 06:34:30 am »
Its basically liquid sucrose, so treat just like you would table sugar.
Andy

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Offline jbar

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2010, 01:28:07 pm »
Well i have decided to do it. i like to experiment. Should i mix it with some boiled water first to ensure that it mixes better with the beer when transferring to the bottling bucket?

Offline corkybstewart

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2010, 01:53:09 pm »
It's not liquid sucrose.  It's mostly water in fact so 3/4 cup maple syrup is not just like 3/4 cup table sugar.  The truth is that to get enough maple flavor to even taste will take a tremendous amount of syrup.  Thai may work for adding to secondary, but not for priming. Priming sugars should only be used to carbonate beer, not add flavors. If you want maple flavor use extract.
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Offline akr71

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2010, 02:36:32 pm »
Oh, I never claimed that you'd get any maple flavor by using it fro priming.  I have primed using maple sugar, but I measured it by mass - 5 oz and it primed quite nicely!

Of course I might have used maple sugar (crystallized maple sugar) and weighed that out, I don't remember for certain.
Andy

Amherst, NS - Canada

Offline CASK1

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2010, 11:00:48 am »
It's not liquid sucrose.  It's mostly water in fact so 3/4 cup maple syrup is not just like 3/4 cup table sugar.  The truth is that to get enough maple flavor to even taste will take a tremendous amount of syrup.  Thai may work for adding to secondary, but not for priming. Priming sugars should only be used to carbonate beer, not add flavors. If you want maple flavor use extract.

I recently brewed a smoked maple barleywine. I used maple syrup at the end of the boil, but was not happy with the level of maple flavor at the end of fermentation. Primed 5 gallons with 1 1/4 cups maple syrup. Carbonated nicely and added noticeably to the maple flavor.

Offline jbar

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #6 on: March 11, 2010, 02:45:03 pm »
Well i bottled a week ago so ill give an update once i crack one open in a week or so

Offline akr71

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #7 on: March 17, 2010, 10:21:52 am »
It's not liquid sucrose.  It's mostly water in fact so 3/4 cup maple syrup is not just like 3/4 cup table sugar.  The truth is that to get enough maple flavor to even taste will take a tremendous amount of syrup.  Thai may work for adding to secondary, but not for priming. Priming sugars should only be used to carbonate beer, not add flavors. If you want maple flavor use extract.

No it isn't mostly water.  Maple sap is mostly water, but not syrup (the water has been boiled off).  In 100 grams of maple syrup, there are roughly 60 grams of sugar - so its 60 % sugar by weight.  To prime with maple syrup and get the same level of carbonation, just multiply your usual priming amount by 1.67 and you should get to the same level of carbonation.

Let us know how it turned out jbar.
Andy

Amherst, NS - Canada

Offline 1vertical

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2010, 11:40:56 pm »
My result of fermenting maple syrup, were tolerable, but be aware
that it really really tasted like Sherry.
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Offline enso

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #9 on: March 24, 2010, 01:24:28 pm »
My result of fermenting maple syrup, were tolerable, but be aware
that it really really tasted like Sherry.

hmmm, maybe that is what I am tasting in my barley wines brewed with syrup and or sap...  Kind of salty too.

Anyway back to the topic.  The tricky thing is that just like honey the amount of sugar in the syrup is variable.  It depends in the case of maple syrup on how long and to what degree brix (or more specifically baume which is the scale sugarers use) the producer boiled it down.  That can vary quite a bit.  Especially if you use syrup produced on a home rig like I do and I use sight and temperature to determine when it is done.
Dave Brush

Offline jbar

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2010, 11:40:33 am »
well i can say that it tastes really good! the only problem is that it is overcarbed- not too big of a deal

Offline Tony Hamric

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #11 on: November 10, 2019, 08:56:08 am »
So, did you get any maple flavor from using the syrup as a priming sugar?

Offline rburrelli

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Re: Any advice on priming with Maple Syrup?
« Reply #12 on: November 10, 2019, 09:27:06 am »
The post you revived is 9 years old and the original poster has not been active since 2010.
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