Hi,
We have made a maple mead! For lack of a better term. It in fact did not include any honey. We replaced the honey completely with maple syrup for this experiment, which actually came about from asking the same question that you asked. Would it work?
The answer is yes, it does work, and in our opinion pretty well too. Because it was an experiment we used a quart sized carboy so we could get an idea of what it would taste like, without spending too much money on something that might turn out undrinkable.
We used 12 1/2 fluid ounces of pure maple syrup, a packet of montrachet wine yeast, water and a little bit of yeast nutrient. Combined it all together in the carboy, threw an airlock on it and let it go.
Then of course, we promptly forgot about it for three months. Oops. It turned out that wasn't really a bad thing. There wasn't much of a yeast pack at the bottom of the carboy, and so it didn't seem to leave much of a yeast flavor in the alcohol. It had also cleared up superbly. So even though we hadn't racked it at all before this, we decided to rack straight into bottles because there wasn't a lot to begin with.
It had sat in the carboy for about three months, and already it tasted pretty good as far was we were concerned. It was a little strange at first because it does taste like maple, however it lacks the sweetness that you normally expect to come with taste.
In my opinion I thought it was reminiscent of a sweeter liquor like a brandy or a cognac, just without the burn of a higher level of alcohol content. My boyfriend doesn't agree, and I don't know, or drink much in the way of liquor so I could be entirely wrong, but that was just the impression I got from it.
Since bottling it, we actually haven't opened any up, so I when we next open it up to give some a try I'll let you know how it tastes then.
However, as it goes, we think the experiment was a success, and we will likely make the maple mead that is not actually a mead again.
As for an actual maple mead, it is also on our to do list, and so whenever we get around to making it, we can give you a report on how that goes. I think the best bet on it however would be about a fifty fifty mix to make sure that the maple flavor comes through, or perhaps to put it into secondary to flavor it, or even back sweeten with maple. There is a lot of ways you could do it I guess.
However if you want to give it a try I would say give it a go. We liked the results we got, and besides it is just another sweet syrup like honey, how bad could it be?
If you do make it, let us know how it goes!