There have been a lot of jokes regarding my first homebrew .... Backyard Maple Sap Porter. Admittedly, many of the jokes came from me. However, the beer has come a long way since its initial tasting. Now that we have a blog, I should document the history of the brew.
There are two things that brought the maple sap beer to life.
1) I have over 30 mature sugar maple trees in the backyard that are prime for tapping
2)My neighbor Dave makes some mighty fine homebrew and got me thinking about brewing a batch (with his help)
If you’re a semi-normal person you:
1)tap the trees and make maple syrup
2) Brew a batch of beer using a normal beer recipe
Not me. I’m efficient. I combined both tasks into one. Here’s what I did:
-Collected roughly 10 gallons on maple sap
-Boiled down the maple sap to roughly 5 gallons
- Brewed the beer using the maple sap instead of water
- I also used a few cups of maple syrup in the secondary. Why? Why not???
For the beer recipe, we used the Power Pack Porter kit (extract) from Midwest brewing. This beer is already high in hops (IPUs) and alcohol content (???). By adding sugar via maple sap and syrup, I amped up the alcohol content even more. I estimate that I added 2 pounds of pure sucrose to the wort. How does that translate to ABV? I have no idea.
The first taste of the maple porter was not very good. Specifically it had a very “green” flavor to it. However, the first taste was 1 week after bottling so it needed time. Also, the beer had WAY too much alcohol flavor. It kicked you in the mouth every time you took a sip. My initial reaction was a failed experiment. However, I had 5 gallons of the stuff to drink so I might as well try aging it.
Fast forward 3 months. This time I placed a maple porter beer into the fridge for a couple days before drinking. To my surprise, the beer now tastes fairly good, maybe great! My first sip was OK but by the end of the beer, I was craving more. Unfortunately, I didn’t do a good job documenting what it tasted like and I’ll update this post the next time I try the beer. However, I remember that it wasn’t too sweet and had a very nice (and strong) maple, woodsy flavor. This blended very nicely with the heavy, dark malts used to brew the beer. Also, the alcohol flavor now added to the beer. It is now a “warm” flavor vs. the harsh flavor that it once was. Overall, a very nice dark beer. I’m very proud to have produced this brew. Thanks for the help Dave!
There are two things that brought the maple sap beer to life.
1) I have over 30 mature sugar maple trees in the backyard that are prime for tapping
2)My neighbor Dave makes some mighty fine homebrew and got me thinking about brewing a batch (with his help)
If you’re a semi-normal person you:
1)tap the trees and make maple syrup
2) Brew a batch of beer using a normal beer recipe
Not me. I’m efficient. I combined both tasks into one. Here’s what I did:
-Collected roughly 10 gallons on maple sap
-Boiled down the maple sap to roughly 5 gallons
- Brewed the beer using the maple sap instead of water
- I also used a few cups of maple syrup in the secondary. Why? Why not???
For the beer recipe, we used the Power Pack Porter kit (extract) from Midwest brewing. This beer is already high in hops (IPUs) and alcohol content (???). By adding sugar via maple sap and syrup, I amped up the alcohol content even more. I estimate that I added 2 pounds of pure sucrose to the wort. How does that translate to ABV? I have no idea.
The first taste of the maple porter was not very good. Specifically it had a very “green” flavor to it. However, the first taste was 1 week after bottling so it needed time. Also, the beer had WAY too much alcohol flavor. It kicked you in the mouth every time you took a sip. My initial reaction was a failed experiment. However, I had 5 gallons of the stuff to drink so I might as well try aging it.
Fast forward 3 months. This time I placed a maple porter beer into the fridge for a couple days before drinking. To my surprise, the beer now tastes fairly good, maybe great! My first sip was OK but by the end of the beer, I was craving more. Unfortunately, I didn’t do a good job documenting what it tasted like and I’ll update this post the next time I try the beer. However, I remember that it wasn’t too sweet and had a very nice (and strong) maple, woodsy flavor. This blended very nicely with the heavy, dark malts used to brew the beer. Also, the alcohol flavor now added to the beer. It is now a “warm” flavor vs. the harsh flavor that it once was. Overall, a very nice dark beer. I’m very proud to have produced this brew. Thanks for the help Dave!
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