The second maple ale I made I added about a 1/3 cup at flameout, and I got this overpowering wood flavor that persisted in it.
Granted, the keg has been at my camp since July, I sampled it in August when I was up there and it had grown in the wood flavour. I just retrieved it this past long weekend and meant to see if it's still nearly undrinkable or not, but this week's been not so kind to beer tasting...
I've yet to determine if it's because I added too much maple in primary and not at keg time, or if using crystal malt paired with it just made it overpowering. My first batch had all the maple added at keg time, and I found it needing more flavor, but it still came out quite well. This one just was too much.
let me know when the fermenting finishes if you get that wood-infused strength or not...completely baffled on this last one's failure....