Maple cream ale

[Al-Loves-Wine]

So I've had in my head that I want to try making my own maple cream ale. I am curious if anybody has any experience with doing one of these.

Should I try and kill my yeast with some sulphites add syrup and keg? Or prime with syrup and bottle? And how much maple syrup would I want to use per 5 gal batch?

[Chris Craig]

Are you looking to make a clone of Picaroons Maple Cream Ale?

A cream ale is basically an ale version of a lager.  Lots of adjunct like corn or rice, and a long rest for a dry finish.  I'd add the maple syrup (maybe .25 - .5kg) in the last 5 minutes of the boil to pasteurize it, then ferment as normal with US-05 at 18ºC.

[Al-Loves-Wine]

Well something similar. I have some WL cream ale yeast I was going to use. Last time I used maple syrup and fermented it I found I didn't get the flavor from it I was looking for, but it wasn't much around 300ml likely. I guess I thought pics added after ferment was completed. I looked for their brewers log on one, but most are gone now.

[Jake]

Adding during boil is one option. I've had good experiences with adding after fermentation is done. I've added raspberries and honey to my primary just when fermentation is starting to slow down with good results. I've read that much of the flavor doesn't get blown off from fermentation ... whether there is any truth in this, I'm not sure

[Al-Loves-Wine]

Well I did come across this, stating 65% is the fermentable amount of sugar in maple syrup. https://suite101.com/a/brewing-beer-with-non-malt-sugars-a79657

It would probably work well both ways as long as you adjust accordingly.

[jamie_savoie]

Fenugreek is also supposed to add maple flavour but I've never used it.  I've used maple twice, once in the boil and the other in secondary and the flavour was better when added in secondary for me

[feldmann]

I added maple syrup during the boil and primed with it and there was a faint maple flavour. I used white labs kolsch yeast.

[Jake]

When I say "at the end of primary", I really mean during secondary ... I'm just too lazy to secondary

[Al-Loves-Wine]

I was just chatting with Esty, he was saying they add part to the boil, and then ferment down to within 5-6 points of final and add the rest and let it finish. So this gives me a good idea of what my grain bill should be.

So I'm thinking I will add a liter to the late boil, and maybe another liter after 3 days into ferment. I'd like it to be session-able, but not over powering on maple either. But maybe this is too much.

[Chris Craig]

2L maple for a 5 gallon brew is a lot of maple.  It may be too much.

[Al-Loves-Wine]

What do you think would be a good amount Chris? If I figure on 35% unfermentable added late boil, and late ferment, maybe 1L would be a sufficient split.

Beersmith says 2lbs will add 1.012 for gravity.

[Chris Craig]

I wouldn't be too concerned with how many points the maple would add, just how much flavour.  I'm not sure how much I'd add, but it'd likely be half of what you're considering.  It's completely up to taste though, and I've never done this before.  I do know this:  If you don't put enough in, you'll have drinkable beer.  If you put too much in, you might as well pour it on your pancakes.