Maple mead?

[avm221]

well i was thinking you can make meed with honey why not try and make it with maple syrup ? any one tried this?

 

[iderwyddi]

Mead is by it's definition anything that more than half of its fermentables come from honey. Acerglyn is mead that is made out of honey and maple syrup. It is quite good.

 

[avm221]

ok so it would have to be half and half maple to honey, i got a buddy that just moved from Canada that can get some when he goes home so ill have to try it.

what is there a drink if i left out the honey and only used maple? do you think that would turn out well?

 

[avm221]

Been brewing beer for a few years but I have never made a meed befor but Im thinking of doing a 1-2 gal batch of a mixed berrie meed. I have about 2-3lbs of honey at home now and some frozed mixed berries.

So I would need to add a yeast nutrient do I need to add sulphide tabs or anything else? So for yeast do I just use a white wine yeast.

 

[tuner240]

Been brewing beer for a few years but I have never made a meed befor but Im thinking of doing a 1-2 gal batch of a mixed berrie meed. I have about 2-3lbs of honey at home now and some frozed mixed berries.

So I would need to add a yeast nutrient do I need to add sulphide tabs or anything else? So for yeast do I just use a white wine yeast.

This depends on where you got your berries from, but if it was me I would sulfite (add campden tabs, 1 per gallon) no matter where they came from. This kills off any unwanted organisms that might spoil your product that fruit tends to carry. Freeze the berries for 24 hrs to break down the cellular walls, as this will allow for more flavor and juice to be introduced to the must and make it easier for the yeast to "chow down" on the fruit.

As for nutrient and energizer, I would add accordingly, depending on the type of yeast used. You can add this either at the mixing of the must, or at the same time you pitch your yeast. I prefer to do the later.

And for a strain of yeast, my two bets would be either K1V-1116 (which has high nitrogen requirements aka nutrient) or 71B-1122. Both work well in the range of 59 - 86 degree F range and allow for more fruit flavor to remain after fermentation.

And don't for get to 'punch the cap' (at least twice daily) that the the fruit will create at the top of your concoction. Aerate often as well.

Most ferment their fruit recipes in buckets to allow for the extra space the fruit takes up and and foaming cause by punching the cap, aerating or addition of nutrients/energizer. After fermentation, they rack into a smaller vessel (carboy) and off of the fruit and dead yeast. Just a few things to think about. Hope I was able to help, and that I didn't leave out anything...

 

[sdcmead]

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!

 

[ostensibly]

I started a maple wine a few months ago, judging by how it tastes now it's going to end up like a sherry.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

what is there a drink if i left out the honey and only used maple? do you think that would turn out well?

Maple wine

 

[skadalajara]

We need to come up with a name for this category.
Can't call it a wine, because it has no fruit.
Can't call it a mead because it has no honey.
Group it in with agave nectar and ocotillo flower. Include anything else where the fermentable sugars come from sap or nectar.
We can have a new BJCP category.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[ACbrewer]

We need to come up with a name for this category.
Can't call it a wine, because it has no fruit.
Can't call it a mead because it has no honey.
Group it in with agave nectar and ocotillo flower. Include anything else where the fermentable sugars come from sap or nectar.
We can have a new BJCP category.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Home Brew mobile app

This is a tricky problem. Classically, malts=beer, grapes=wine, honey=mead, apples=cider, and other fruit=country wine.

According to our buddies at TTB, malt=beer, otherfermentables with no malt=wine and distilled = spirits, but TTB is looking to classification only for taxes.

Personally, I describe anything with a majority malt as beer, and not malt as a wine. I will conceed, things like mead, cider, perry and such, but when dealing with those who don't know the lingo, I break it down to 'honey wine' (sigh) or in this case 'maple wine'. Acerwine might be the most correct as acer is latin for maple.

but to OP's question - it has been fermented. One other thread suggested that grade B syrup* is better than grade A and extra fancy. The justification being that the darker heavier syrup had more 'stuff' to leave as flavor.

*maple syrup has various grades. I think grade B is the darkest and it goes up to something like grade A extra fancy or something. Only pure maple syrup is alowed to be labeled this way. Pancake syrup is artificial sugar/flavors. Also $$$ wise, maple syrup is very $$$ I though honey was expensive, then I looked at a gallon of syrup.

 

[rskelhorn]

We use maple syrup all the time in our household. I don't think I'd ever use it as a fermentable for a couple of reasons. Primarially, maple syrup is expensive! Secondly, It just seems a bit wrong to ferment maple syrup and remove most of the delicious flavours. I could see using it as a backsweetner for a maple hint, but not in place of honey for a mead!

I'd be interested to see pictures of how it has turned out for you!
Cheers