Maple Sap Beer

[Juniper Hill]

Hey guys,
I'm gonna tap some Maple trees for syrup. Might have some left over for beer. I've heard you can use sap as water for beer and it gives an interesting minerally character. The sap isn't very sweet, and should contribute much fermentables. Any ideas what beers styles would lend themselves to using sap as water?
Thanks,
Neil

[mr x]

I think this has been done by a couple people here. Searching maple might bring you to some of those threads.

[Juniper Hill]

Thanks X. My search turned up a blond ale made with sap, and a few beers made with syrup (porter, stout). Any other suggestions? I was thinking of trying a simple pale ale.

[gm-]

I made a blonde rye ale with sap, was a bit challenging as the sap was quite a bit denser than water that resulted in a stuck sparge. Gravity of the sap that I used was around 1.014 after I boiled it down for 30 minutes or so.

I made some tweeks to the recipe I posted in the recipe section, and here is what I ended up with:

11 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 88.0 %
1 lbs Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 2 8.0 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.0 %
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 18.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5 9.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 mi Hop 6 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Ale Yeast

OG ended up at 1.074, will be pretty potent.

I will probably prime with low grade maple syrup as well, to try to increase the maple flavours.

Here it is in the carboy


I suspect a simple pale ale would work as well, just be careful with the hops, so the hops don't overpower the maple.