A recent Sunday afternoon found the brew crew at WSBC for an overdue brew session. JD had been busy collecting maple sap this spring and suggested using it for a beer. Why would anyone say “No”?
On hand for the event was special guest Greg of Lone Cedar Brewing – Sprague, NE. (Thanks for the ride along Greg.) Greg brought a couple growlers for the gang to enjoy. Thanks! In addition to Greg was host JD, Pirate Paul, Todd, Jacob, Matt and myself. As always, a good time was had by all.
There were a few extra curriculars going on so we didn’t hit Greg’s brews all too hard. One of them was his Sunset Red (below) and the other was v 2.0 of his SMASH “How’s the Water?”.
Other sampling involved WSBC Xmas Ale 2013/25, Leftovers and other things that shall go unmentioned.
The weather was a tad on the cloudy, cooler side with some rain eventually moving in. This brought the outdoor brewing somewhat indoors.
JD apparently had some excess time on hand and put it to good use redesigning the false bottom on the mash tun. Some random stainless gas grill burners and ingenuity replaced the stainless braid “worms” that had been previously used.
While Pirate Paul and Todd were wrestling with the fermentation barrel sanitization with Jacob supervising, JD took a moment to hang out at his Rauchen Tafel. By the looks of it though, it might be mislabeled.
All went well and in the end some 30 gallons of something ended up where it was supposed to be.
Spring Maple Ale used 22 lb of condensed sap that JD collected. With that much sugar content, the grain bill was considerably less than otherwise would be needed for a 30 gallon brew.
Maple Spring Ale
Grains
- 20 lb – 2 Row Pale Malt
- 2.4 lb – CaraPils
Sugar
- 22 lb – Condensed Maple Sap (10 minutes)
Adjunct
- 1 lb – Rice Hulls
Hops
- 2.5 oz – Magnum (60 minutes)
- 3 oz – Fuggle (10 minutes)
Yeast
- Wyeast American Ale 1056 – Starter
The finished beer should be around 5% abv with a bitterness in the 25 IBU range. The color is estimated to be in the 14.5 SRM ballpark.
