Maple Syrup Addition - A Few Questions

[1beerbaron]

I'm planning on brewing a Russian imperial stout soon and would like to add maple syrup to it. I just have a few concerns. My first one is final gravity. From what I've read you need 0.5-1 gallon of syrup to get noticeable flavor in the finished product. I know that is going to dry it out quite a bit. I know I can mash at a higher temperature, but is that going to be enough to counteract the 0.5-0.75 gallons of maple syrup I'm planning on adding? Should I add more unfermentable malts, such as crystal and cara malts? My other concern is how to add it. I want to add it after fermentation is almost complete/complete so that I can help keep more of the maple flavor/aroma from blowing off. I'm thinking that just dumping in some maple syrup isn't going to mix very well, even if I shake the carboy a couple times a day. How have you guys physically added the syrup to your beer? If you guys have any other advice or tips, please share those as well.

[Ozwald]

It's been a while since I did a syrup addition but I've been thinking about doing another one soon. My friend brought me 3 gallons of pure syrup from Maine & I keep looking at it, just haven't gotten around to it.

It's hard to talk in specific amounts - first off, we don't know your batch size, but more importantly maple syrup can vary quite a bit, both in flavor intensity/character as well as gravity. Also that is a real love/hate flavor. The character I like might be way too subtle for your preference. Someone else's recipe might be way over the top. If you were looking to use .5-1 gallon in a 5 gallon batch, you're probably reading about folks adding it at/near flame out. That much post fermentation is going to completely overwhelm the beer. You'll get one characteristic using it at knock out & a much different result adding it to the fermentor. Take your pick, neither is wrong. In fact you could do both. Unless you're in the same boat as me, having 'special' syrup that's pretty much impossible for me to get at will, I'd recommend doing some small batches on the stove. You could brew up a couple gallons of wort, split into 1 gallon jugs & test different ratios of post-fermentation additions. For the flame out method, I'd do similar, only I'd split the wort before cooling. A couple pilot batches is really the only way to find out.

As for adding it, I use the same method as I would for honey. I boil some water on the stove, remove it, let it chill for a minute or two & place the container in the hot water bath. 10 minutes later it pours very easily & will mix into your wort much more easily. Provided you don't go crazy with the ratio of beer:syrup, the little bit of warm syrup won't have much of an effect on beer at fermentation temp.

[1beerbaron]

Sorry, I didn't realize I forgot batch size. It's 5 gallons.

How much would be recommended to add if one would add it post fermentation?

I've got some Grade B maple syrup.

My goal is for this to have a very noticeable maple flavor, but not have it be an overly dominant flavor. I'm looking for it to be on par with the other major flavors in a RIS, if that makes sense.

[SouthHouseBrew]

If you're adding post-ferment, use it as your priming sugar!

I've used honey to prime. I think it yields the most noticeable honey flavor/aroma for a given amount added.

[1beerbaron]

I plan on kegging this batch, and if I bottle, it will be with a beergun so I can get the carbonation level just right. I don't trust carbing with anything that can have a variable sugar content to begin with. I'm a little paranoid about under, or even worse, over-carbonation going that route. I'm adding it when main fermentation is complete/almost complete. So it's basically the same timing, I just have the possibility of adding more since I can let it ferment out before bottling.

[Ozwald]

The only way to know is to do some test batches. Also note that even though syrups can vary in sugar content from batch to batch, you don't have that at this point. You have a batch which can easily be measured for it's specific sugar content. If you take that measurement, you could prime with it & hit your carb level spot on. It's likely a very good way to do it & would require zero test batches. For flame-out or post fermentation additions, do the test batches.

[animaldoc]

One thing that I think is a common misconception is that adding sugar will "dry out" your beer. It won't if *added* to a given recipe -- if you want to use sugar to "dry out" a beer, you substitute a portion of the malt with sugars ....... since the sugar is fully fermentable, you now have less malt material in your beer.

[spiderwrangler]

Yes, good point on the drying. For maple syrup, the 'lower' grade syrups will have more flavor that will carry over, so the B will be a good choice.