Maple Mead!

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ethanhaven25

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Has anyone here ever made a maple mead??? I'm experimenting! Tonight I started a batch, a small one, just one quart. I added maple syrup, sugar, clove, and cinnamon along with my yeast. I'm curious as to how it will turn out!!!!!!!!!!!!! [emoji51][emoji51][emoji51]
 
Not sure that you can call a wine a mead if it has no honey. I think that mead made with honey and maple syrup is sometimes called an acerglyn but that said, maple syrup itself is full of sugar so I am not clear why you felt the need to add more sugar. Do you know the starting gravity of your recipe? Was it low?
 
Has anyone here ever made a maple mead??? I'm experimenting! Tonight I started a batch, a small one, just one quart. I added maple syrup, sugar, clove, and cinnamon along with my yeast. I'm curious as to how it will turn out!!!!!!!!!!!!! [emoji51][emoji51][emoji51]

Can't wait to hear how this turns out. Keep good notes so you can tweak it next time and see what works best. I am not a big clove fan. Might try it without next time but add some orange peel or zest instead. Mead usually takes up to a year for the flavor profile to mellow out so give it some time.
 
As Bernard stated, maple syrup and honey is called acerglyn. I have made it in the past with decent success. I don't have the exact recipe in front of me but it was a mix of the two, syrup and honey. ABV ended up around 15%. I thought it had a very slight bourbon taste to it. Others thought it did not and was heavy on the alcohol. Either way, it was expensive to make a gallon, in relation to other wines.
 
I forgot to add that there was honey in it as well. My SG was only 12% so I added sugar to increase that. The last SG reading was 20% after adding the sugar. It smelled wonderful this morning and the yeast are going insane!!!!!!! I'm excited for the end result. Just a little experimentation since this hobby has become addictive!!! [emoji23]
 
Curious if you used real maple syrup or the fake manufactured stuff? Sounds like it would be pretty good, might have to make a batch myself come this spring when I start up the annual maple syrup 'factory'..
 
I forgot to add that there was honey in it as well. My SG was only 12% so I added sugar to increase that. The last SG reading was 20% after adding the sugar. It smelled wonderful this morning and the yeast are going insane!!!!!!! I'm excited for the end result. Just a little experimentation since this hobby has become addictive!!! [emoji23]

What type of yeast did you use?
 
Awesome! When this finishes out, you have to give it a sampling and let us know how it turns out! Sounds delicious.
 
Oh I definitely will!!! I just tried to siphon my wine for racking and it was my first time using a siphon to rack. It was a complete MESS! I now have wine all over my kitchen, a lot of wine wasted, and the siphon thing sucks, no pun intended ... In a bad way! What the heck? I thought siphoning makes racking easier?
 
Oh I definitely will!!! I just tried to siphon my wine for racking and it was my first time using a siphon to rack. It was a complete MESS! I now have wine all over my kitchen, a lot of wine wasted, and the siphon thing sucks, no pun intended ... In a bad way! What the heck? I thought siphoning makes racking easier?

Not following why the mess. I have a hose attached to a racking cane. Put cane in primary bucket. Suck on end of hose and quickly insert into carboy. Wah lah. Should be very little, if any, spillage.
 
Get a racking tube clip, a couple if need be, to keep the the racking cane off the bottom of the bucket/carboy and secondly you can use it to keep the other end down in the carboy you are racking into.

Understand the mess - Lost a quart of strawberry wine last summer in one of my first ferments. Turned away and it was on the basement floor in a hurry. NOT FUN. Since then I'v'e tried a self-starting siphon but returned to the racking cane. I prime it with distilled water (Only takes 2-3 ounces) or I use the wine from my SG testing tube. Don't like putting my mouth on the tube for the wine someone else may be drinking - even though they may not know and my germs should be killed off by the alcohol and K-meta.
 
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It's an auto siphon. Think I'll just use my mouth next time, the pumping made a huge mess and did not work very well ... [emoji27]
 
Every batch I've made so far I just used a 4 foot long piece of food grade vinyl hose. I grab the hose in a closed fist, with the end of it about in the middle of my hand. Stick my mouth in the area between my thumb and index finger and suck. Doesn't touch the hose, works great. Haven't had a problem yet. But then again, I'm a cheapskate.
 
My auto-siphon sits out most rackings now. Just prefer the smaller cane - BUT still have to go get those clips. Standing there holding that racking cane all through the process gets old.
 
It's an auto siphon. Think I'll just use my mouth next time, the pumping made a huge mess and did not work very well ... [emoji27]

Great idea. I use my mouth all the time. Price everyone pays for free wine.
 
I've got an Allinone pump now but used a raking cane for 7 years, no problem. It is a 2 part cane (the cane and a tube the cane fits snugly into) with a thimble that fits on the end of the cane. The thimble keeps the cane off the bottom of the carboy by about 3/4" and you start the siphon by just pumping the cane up and down once or twice. With hose in empty carboy and other end on the cane, I don't spill a drop! I thought every starter kit had one of these in it.
 
I think some folk siphon into a bucket or into a carboy where the mouth is quite wide - If the length of the tube is too short or if the end of the tube is not somehow fixed firmly into the target container then what can happen when you pump the siphon to prime it is that you remove the end of the tube from inside the target and so you find yourself swimming in wine that is being pumped everywhere but inside the target container. The two obvious solutions are to use a length of tubing that is many feet larger than the length you think you need and to find some way to firmly attach the tube to the inside of the mouth of the target. Pumping the siphon won't then dislodge the tube from the secondary (or target)...
 
ImageUploadedByWine Making1473389182.265968.jpgi need to keep a journal!!! This wine tastes freaking AMAZING!!! Just the right amount of dryness, alcohol, EVERYTHING! It's literally just a mixture of all the wines I made left over from bottling. Just the extra. I poured into one huge jar, racked a few times, then bottled. It's been sitting in the fridge several days and I figured I would try it bc it's was looking very pretty! See, mutts are the best!!! [emoji38][emoji190][emoji485]
 

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