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maple sap as an ingredient

It may end up like honey, where it ferments out dry and leaves no maple flavor behind.
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I've made beers with a fairly large amount of honey purchased from BJ's, and it left behind a distinct clover note. Like chewing on clover stems. Haven't used it as an ingredient since. I would consider using a honey from a different flower, but that stuff is expensive.
 
What sort of gravity contribution do you think you got from the sap? Did you happen to do a hydrometer/refractometer reading on it before use? My neighbors are filling buckets for me as I type :)
 
My SG reading was 1.060. I used one bucket of sap instead of water, and boiled down the other, adding the syrup before flameout. 8.5 pounds of grain in the mash. I'd say the twelve gallons of syrup added close to 1.020's worth of sugar to the brew. Alas, not much to the flavor.

If I do it again I'll back off on the grain so I don't get so strong of a beer. I didn't even take that into consideration this time.
 
I made a barley wine with dark #4 maple syrup from Wisconsin...Not quite ready, but after 5 months it was a pancake breakfast without getting syrup in my beard! Added a really nice woodsy flavor, without knocking up the sweetness too much. Suprisingly similar to dark brown sugar.
I used 12 ounces for 6 gallons and boiled into the pot at 15 minutes with the flavor hops. I am tempting to try one with using the maple for the bottling sugars as well.
 
I got 7 gallons @ 1.061 so I am gonna end up with a pretty big beer. Sap is pretty much sucrose so it's gonna be like starting out by dumping 7# of sugar into the strike water.
 
Planning on some recipe I saw on HBT that looked interesting. Might cut the 2-row back and increase the specialty malts. There was a maple wheat beer there too that I might try..

14 lbs 2 row
1 lb cara munich III
1lb crystal 120
12 ounces special B
8 ounces Briess black prinz or other debittered black
2.4 ounces roasted barley
16 ounces maple syrup added at 10 minutes left in boil
1.25 ounces nugget 60 minutes
1.00 ounce nugget 30 minutes
 
It's just about ready. Lagered and in the process of carbonating. Tried it and it doesn't taste like maple at all, but it's still a damn good beer. I imagine if I did a side by side with the same thing made without the maple I would taste a difference, but as it is there's nothing that screams maple. It's damn good though.
 
Interesting. My maple-mild-turned-porter is awesome. Definitely can test the sap--nice woodiness without being overpowering like an over-aged barrel beer. Think I'll go get some right now... :)
 
Mine turned out like maple sugar candy with cascades. Pretty good. Very thick. Great dessert beer.
 
After tasting it again I can catch a hint of wood. But I've really got to look for it. It's so subtle that it could be overlooked.  At forty or more gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup, my ten gallons of sap was the equivalent of a quart of syrup. Except that only half of it was caramelized into syrup.  I'm sipping it right now and it's hard to detect. Maybe I don't know what I'm looking for. There is a bit of a velvety finish. Either way it's a really good beer. I'm thinking I can taste the syrup that I made, but the sap flavor not so much.  If I ever score some sap again, I'll make syrup to add at the end of the boil.
 
Ok Here is an update on my Maple brown ale. I ended up using 1.5lbs of grade B maple syrup and then added another 6 ounces for carbonation. I think I overdid it. The beer tastes overwhelmingly woody although it is improving with age. It is not a bad beer, but I get the feeling without the maple it would have been a great brown. Suffice to say I won't be using Maple syrup again as I don't feel it really adds anything good to the beer just a quirky woody flavour. Still I tried :)
 
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