Recent posts on Mead Lovers Digest have added factors to my thinking exercise on a Maple sap mead.(what do you think about on your drive to work)
For non-subscribers,I will quote:
Subject: Maple Wine v. Maple Mead
From:
Russ.Hobaugh@erm.com
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 16:35:58 -0500
Don't "waste" the honey on this! Maple wine is one of my favorites, and I
now have a batch that is over 5 years old--it just keeps getting better! I
have only tasted one maple mead with both honey and maple syrup, and it
was not that good. However, there are several people in my home-brew club
that do maple wine, and they all have turned out good to awesome! The
longer you let it age, the better it will be. Mine was over 2 years old at
bottling!
Russ Hobaugh
610-524-3409 office
610-745-0782 mobile
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1158, 7 February 2005
From: Aaron <gumbyk@ureach.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 23:59:54 -0500
> Subject: Maple Wine v. Maple Mead
> From:
MeadGuild@aol.com
> Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 14:30:18 EST
>
> I started brewing Maple Wine with the intention of adding honey to it.
> Much to my surprise the Maple Wine is fermenting out extremely quickly.
Dick,
I have made a very simple maple mead, as follows ( a small
batch, but Maple syrup is expensive down here in New Zealand):
1 qt maple syrup
1 lb clover (or other very light flavoured honey would work)
water to 1 gallon (heated to aid dissolving honey)
chuck the whole lot into a small carboy. I used Gervin C wine
yeast which is a champagne yeast. It fermented quickly, and fell
clear just as fast when it had finished. I didn't even get a
chance to put it into a secondary. One day it was fermenting
like crazy, and the next it stopped.
I didn't take an O.G reading, but it finished around 1.010.
tastes great, and ages well.
Aaron Marshall
end quote
Because I am still a beginning meadmaker(mazer?),I'm a little confused.
Is the flavor of Maple so subtle that it can easily be overpowered by the flavor of the honey?
If the sap is 2 percent sugar,how does this relate to SG?How much honey would be needed for a 1 gal. batch(honey stash running low).
To sterilize sap I could boil.By boiling I would evaporate water and increase the sugar content.It doesn't make sense to boil down to syrup and then add water.I wonder what would be the optimum sugar content for the sap for it to be used in a mead recipe?
I do not make maple syrup.I have a good friend who runs the sugar house for a local nature center.We often compare honey and syrup and there are many similarities.He uses a hydrometer to measure SG and apparently this is how you can tell when the syrup is done.I also think they use temperature in some way.
The numbers still confuse me.I'm having trouble connecting percent sugar,SG.and percent alcohol.Honey isn't honey unless it's less than 18 percent water.How does that relate to finished syrup?
As far as syrup grades go,I like my honey and my syrup dark and strong flavored.
And as for birch,we have black birch and it has a very distinctive aroma.I can't imagine what that would taste like in a mead(or a wine )
Jack