Mayple syrup and beer

I have two 1/2 gallons of homemade 100% natural maple syrup.

What are your experiences?

When do you add it? During the boil? Flame out? Into the fermentor?

How much is too much? How much is not enough?

What yeilds the most flavor?

How good is priming with maple syrup? What is an appropriate ammount for priming?

What styles of beer does it mesh best with?

Any other advice?

Sorry i don't have any experience but goddamn i wants me some pancakes now!

I think when you ferment a sugar based adjunct, it ferments most of the flavor out. I know people use maple syrup to bottle condition tho.

Then again heres a Rogue Voodoo Bacon Maple clone. Looks like they added maple syrup to the primary.

http://hopville.com/recipe/903793

Brewmex41 said:

Then again heres a Rogue Voodoo Bacon Maple clone. Looks like they added maple syrup to the primary.

http://hopville.com/recipe/903793

Click to expand...

Interesting... Only six days in primary with the syrup? I would have guessed longer then that. Also, is there a difference between maple syrup, and maple syrup extract?

I've played around with maple syrup quite a bit. You can either put it in at flameout (or with 5 minutes left), or in the primary at the tail end of fermentation. Some might question the sanitation of that, but my thinking is that, if the product is packaged correctly it should be sanitary/sterile because it is made by boiling sap for an extended period of time.

When using maple syrup, the question for me, boils down to whether you want to. I love maple syrup dearly, which is why I've tried brewing with it many times -- in porters, in brown ales, using maple sap in an extract brew instead of water, making a maple mead. In the end, I've never really gotten that maple-syrup-on-pancakes flavor that I so love. Instead, it comes out rather woody and astringent. Why? Think about what maple syrup would taste like if you removed all the sugar -- which is essentially what you're doing by fermenting it. After all the sweetness is gone, you get something that tastes like gnawing on tree bark. I'm sure others feel very differently about brewing with maple syrup, and have probably had good success. But for me, I'd save that beautiful jar of maple syrup for the greatest waffle recipe ever.

For using maple syrup to prime with, Papazian covers that in "Complete Joy of Homebrewing" or "Homebrewers Companion" (I forget which). Don't quote me, but I believe he recommends using 1/2 cup of maple syrup in lieu of priming sugar.

Edit: typo and formatting

Brewmex41 said:

Then again heres a Rogue Voodoo Bacon Maple clone. Looks like they added maple syrup to the primary.

http://hopville.com/recipe/903793

Click to expand...

I figured they used it during bottling since the smell is very strong. Although the taste is there its not nearly as prominent on ur palette as it is on ur nose.

This could be an interesting experiment. Maybe make a few batches and add it at different times.
Like one during the boil, one in the primary, maybe one once primary fermentation has slowed down, one in a secondary, and one at bottling.

Could try something crazy like adding it to a secondary and cold crashing.

Hmmmm...... Its starting to sound like maple syrup may not be the best type of sugar to add to beer for flavoring or to boost ABV. I love the taste of maple syrup, but not the taste of tree bark.

Does anyone else have any personal experiences in working with maple syrup?

If honey is so popular, why not maple syrup? What is the difference?