I'm a homebrewer (zymurgist) What happens if I ferment Maple Syrup?

Answer 1

You have to dilute maple syrup before pitching yeast. You would have to dilute it a little bit (aim for a gravity of about 1.080). Since it's all sugar, it will ferment out to below 1.000. You'll end up with a dry, wood-tasting drink.

Answer 2

What dogglebe said, give him the points. But one more thing, get real maple syrup, expensive though it may be. The fake stuff is mostly sucrose and/or fructose, plus artificial flavor. Pure hangover bait, plus it tastes lousy. Regrettably, I know this firsthand.

Answer 3

Maple syrup is a sweetener made from the sap of maple trees. It is most often eaten with pancakes or waffles, but is also put on everything from ice-cream to corn bread. It is also used as an ingredient in baking or in preparing desserts.

Contents [hide]
1 Production
2 Grades
3 Use
4 Imitation maple syrup
5 See also
6 External links



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Production

A bottle of maple syrup produced in Quebec.Maple syrup comes from eastern Canada, particularly Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick, and the northern United States, especially New England, New York State and the Great Lake states. it can be made wherever maples grow. A maple syrup production farm is called a sugarbush or the sugarwoods. Sap is boiled in a "sugar shanty", "sugar shack", "sugarhouse" or "cabane à sucre", a building which is louvered at the top to vent the steam from the boiling maple sap.

Canada produces more than three-quarters of the world's maple syrup. The province of Quebec is by far the world's largest producer. The provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick produce smaller amounts.

In Quebec (as well as extreme eastern Ontario), the process has become part of the culture, and city folk often go to the cabanes à sucre in early spring, where rustic meals are served with maple syrup-based products. Tire sur la neige, also known as "sugar on snow," is a seasonal treat of thickened hot syrup poured onto fresh snow then eaten off sticks, like taffy, as it quickly cools. Owing to the sugar maple tree's predominance in south-eastern Canada (where European settlement of what would become Canada began), its leaf has come to symbolize the country, and is depicted on its Flag.

Traditionally, maple syrup was harvested by tapping a maple tree and then letting the sap run into a bucket, more advanced methods have, however, since superseded this.

Production is concentrated in February, March and April, depending on local weather conditions. To make the syrup, holes are bored into the maple trees and hollow tubes ' are inserted. These drip the sap into buckets or into plastic pipes. Modern use of plastic tubing with a partial vacuum has enabled increased production. A new hole must be drilled each year, as the old hole will produce sap for only one season due to the natural healing process of the tree, called walling-off.

The sap is fed automatically from the storage tank through a valve to a flat pan to boil it down until it forms a sweet syrup. The process is slow, because most of the water has to boil out of the sap before it is the right consistency. It takes approximately 40 litres of sap to make one litre of maple syrup, and a mature sugar maple produces about 40 liters (10 gallons) of sap during the 4-6 week sugaring season. Trees are not tapped until they have a diameter of 25 centimeters (10 inches) at chest-height he tree is at least 40 years old.

Maple syrup is sometimes boiled down further to make maple sugar, a hard candy usually sold in pressed blocks, and maple toffee. Intermediate levels of boiling can also be used to create various intermediate products, including maple cream (less hard and granular than maple sugar) and maple butter (creamy, with a consistency slightly less thick than peanut butter).

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Grades
In the United States, maple syrup is divided into two major grades named Grade A and Grade B. Grade A is further broken down into three subgrades; Grade A Light Amber (sometimes known as Fancy), Grade A Medium Amber, and Grade A Dark Amber. Grade B is darker than Grade A Dark Amber.

The grades roughly correspond to what point in the season the syrup was made. Grade A Light Amber is early season syrup, while Grade B is late season syrup. Typically Grade A (especially Grade A Light Amber) has a milder, sweeter flavor than Grade B, which is primarily used for cooking and baking.

In Canada, there are three grades containing several colour classes, ranging from Canada #1 (including Extra light, Light, and Medium) through #2 (Amber) and finally #3 (Dark). A typical year's yield will include about 25-30% of each of the #1 colours, 10% Amber, and 2% Dark.

A non-table grade of syrup called "commercial" is also produced. This is very dark, with a very strong flavor, sometimes also with off-flavors (metabolism, buddy, ferment). Commercial maple syrup is generally used as a flavoring agent in other products.

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Use

Two taps in a maple tree, using plastic tubing for sap collection.Maple syrup and its artificial imitations are the preferred toppings for crêpes, pancakes, waffles, and French toast in North America. Maple syrup can also be used for a variety of uses, including: biscuits, fresh donuts, fried dough, fritters, ice cream, hot cereal, and fresh fruit (especially grapefruit).

It is also used as sweetener for apple sauce, baked beans, candied sweet potatoes, winter squash, cakes, pies, breads, fudge and other candy, milkshakes, tea, coffee and hot toddys.

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Imitation maple syrup
Most "maple-flavored" syrups on the market today in the United States are imitation maple syrups (table syrups), usually with little (for advertising purposes) or no real maple content. They are usually thickened far beyond the viscosity of real maple syrup, as well. They are less expensive than real maple syrup. US labeling laws prohibit these products from being labeled "Maple Syrup", many simply calling the imitation "Syrup" or "Pancake Syrup". Québécois often refer to these cheap imitations as Sirop de poteau ("Pole Syrup"), implying the syrup has been made by tapping