Maple Beer (modified Kit) Photos

[Drunken Horse]

So after much talking about it I started my first real modification of a kit (not just changing the sugar used or brewing short) a Maple Beer.

Ingredients
1 Coopers English Bitter Kit
1Kg of Maple Syrup
650g of Suma Malt Extract
550g of Coopers Beer Enhancer 2

Will dry hop with Fuggles later on (depending on taste)

Used Coopers Kit Yeast

The Maple Syrup used cheap one from Asda in neat little screw cap bottles might use for give aways

Boiled 4 Litres of Water then added maple syrup

Added Liquid Malt extract

and Beer Enhancer

Finally Coopers kit

Transferred to Fermenting bucket.

Lovely colour and smells nice, very subtle maple taste at the moment almost not there.

SG 1050.

Looking forward to this one

 

[Jeff Brewjubbly]

Very nice looking brew! Will have a nice character if a touch of maple persists :)

 

[mickthetrick]

i like the sound of this.
mmmm maple bitter.
you will have to let us know how it turns out. :thumb:

 

[BrewDan]

This should be interesting, once fermented, how long do you plan to condition before drinking one?

 

[Drunken Horse]

This should be interesting, once fermented, how long do you plan to condition before drinking one?

I've been leaving my beers 2 weeks warm then a month cold. But then drinking them sparingly so I can build up a stock. I suspect curiosity will get the better of me at that point but. I think this will take another month or two because of the non fermentable part of the maple syrup. I just hope the Canadian Blonde I bottled a 2 weeks back will hold me off long enough to get this to its best.

 

[Drunken Horse]

I moved this to secondary on Sunday (I didnt have time to bottle so I'm leaving it another week.

Took a reading of 1008 (so 5.6%) drank the bit I measured. Lovely smokey caramel aftertaste of the maple is still there. The reddish colour has faded to a deep brown (I was hoping it would keep the reddish colour).

As reported else where the maple seems to have enhanced the bitterness of the brew slightly (not too much) so decide not to dry hop , also didnt want to risk swamping the maple flavour.

Next choice I have to make is what to prime with, plain caster or more maple :hmm: Caster is the safe bet as more maple might make the flavour too strong but if the maple mellows in conditioning I might regret not using the maple.

 

[iceo]

Looks good. Why don't you do half with maple . But as its such a small amount I don't think you could tell the differenc
If the flavour holds out I bet it would make a good pancake mix with csome crispy bacon

 

[Dusty]

That sounds really nice :drink:

 

[Drunken Horse]

Looks good. Why don't you do half with maple . But as its such a small amount I don't think you could tell the differenc
If the flavour holds out I bet it would make a good pancake mix with csome crispy bacon

Both doing half each and the pancake idea sound good.

I'll leave the priming decision to the very last minute see what it tastes like.

 

[Drunken Horse]

This has been in the bottle for over 4 weeks now. I added approx 4g of caster sugar per bottle this has left the beer a but too gassy for a bitter(My friend described as closer to a belgian lager).

The colour is very dark (I'll add photos a.s.a.p.) and keeps its head really well. The beer itself tastes a little sweet from the maple having an nice caramel aftertaste to it. It's not really a session beer, but a couple of freinds have tried it and I got pretty decent feedback from it.

I think if doing again I would try and prime a few with maple syrup as suggested above to give it more of maple than caramel flavour, though I would be worried that it would make the beer too sweet. I would also reconsider adding a hop tea if I was doing this to add bitterness to balance the extra sweetness,

 

[Drunken Horse]

photos (hard t0 get a good light in my house this time of year)

Forms a good head but doesnt really last was gone by about 5/8ths of the pint left.

Close up so you can see the colour