Maple Sap Wine

[wineon4]

Has anyone tried this. I make my own Maple Syrup from trees I tap at my cabin. Usually it takes 60 to 75 gallon of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. I made 4 gallon of great syrup. This year I took the last 40 gallon of sap and boiled it down to 5 gallon and made wine. Has a strong overpowering taste of Maple. I am hoping that as it clears more and ages it will mellow some. I may put some Bentonite to it and hope to strip away some of the unpleasant flavors.

 

[wineon4]

Clearing nicely, tasted today and not to bad but not good either. Has a high alcohol taste. I will allow to age in the carboy until the holidays then I plan to mix 50--50 with apple juice and add mulling spice and serve as a warm holiday drink.

 

[Julie]

Runningwolf made a wine that I was lucky enough to get a bottle of, it was an apple wine that he added maple syrup and honey. This was very good.

 

[Turock]

I've had wine made from very diluted maple syrup and it was interesting--the maple flavor was in the background and not too intense. Seems he diluted it down to get it to that point. I was thinking the same thing--that it might be very good using it as an additional flavoring to other wines. You'll have to do some bench tests to get it just right.

It probably would have been better to ferment on some bentonite but you can add the bentonite now because it certainly will aid it in clearing real nice. I'd give it plenty of time to age. Even if it's high alcohol--once you blend it with wine, it will be fine. After all, extracts are made in vodka and the higher alcohol in it is not a problem. Essentially, you've got yourself 5 gallons of extract, if nothing else!

 

[wineon4]

Turock, yeah it reminds me of maple extract for baking, so strong. Hope to age it then use it for blending and as a warm spiced holiday drink. Might give away to family and friends along with a spice pack as a gift along with instructions to warm and spice it. May make a unique gift.

I love bench testing

 

[Turock]

Yeah, that's the spirit! Good luck with it--let us know it turns out. It sounds extremely interesting and unique!

 

[jswordy]

This sounds so good ... too bad you can't back flavor with pancake extract.

 

[wineon4]

I cleared with Bentonite and it was looking great even mellowed some but this past weekend it started to show evidence of fermenting again, CO2 passing through the airlock. This wine has been stabilized for a month and now this after I racked it off of the Lees left from the Bentonite. Any ideas why.

This wine is really confusing me. I thought it would be a simple wine to make. Take 40 gallon of maple sap and reduce to 5 gallon, add acid blend, pectic enzyme, yeast and ferment, rack, clear, stabilize and backsweeten, but NO it has to give me fits much like teenagers do

 

[BernardSmith]

Two thoughts - coming from my ignorance and not my knowledge so treat them for what they are worth 1). Is it possible that the wine is not in fact refermenting but that changes in temperature (the weather warming) are resulting in the wine being unable to hold as much CO2 today as it did last month. You are seeing bubbles in the airlock but you never mentioned whether in fact you tested the gravity of the wine. Is it in fact dropping? That would be an indication that the wine was fermenting again. But a contrary thought is 2) even if it was fermenting after you stabilized it might this be a bacterial fermentation (MLF) I have no idea whether maple syrup is susceptible to MLF without deliberate inoculation. Someone more knowledgeable on the forum may have an answer to that.