![How to Make Maple Mead [Fermented Maple Syrup]](https://myfermentedfoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Depositphotos_61361975_ds-701x1024.jpg)
Maple mead is a type of mead with a clean, refreshing taste that makes you crave pancakes! Maple mead is also known as Acerglyn (pronounced as As’ cerg lin with emphasis on the apostrophe).
This type of mead is made using honey and maple syrup (half half) instead of just honey. (If this is your first time making mead, I recommend checking out my basic mead recipe first). As with most mead varieties, the recipe for Acerglyn or maple mead tends to vary from brewer to brewer.
In any case, the result – when you get it right – is a beautiful, full-bodied, liquid gold that is deliciously sweet and comes with a silky-smooth texture.
The taste of maple mead can be best described as dry and refreshing and you will definitely feel its notes on your tongue and in your nose. Traditional mead makers insist on using Grade B maple syrup for making maple mead; this way – the resulting mead will have a richer flavour of maple. If you live in a maple-growing area, you can even substitute water with maple sap.
Maple wine vs maple mead
Maple mead and maple wine are often confused for each other. In reality, there are many differences, the primary one being that maple wine does not contain any honey and it is just fermented maple syrup.
Maple mead, on the other hand, contains honey which provides the necessary sugars for the friendly yeasts during fermentation. Maple wine only contains maple sap or maple syrup and it tends to have that woodsy, dry taste. Maple mead is a lot sweeter than wine.
Now, let’s look at the recipe for maple mead.
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Maple Mead Recipe
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Here is a recipe to make maple mead aka Acerglyn.
Ingredients
- Clover honey 2 lb
- Pure 100 % Maple syrup 12.5 oz (use grade B maple syrup for a richer, fuller flavour). Make sure you use pure maple syrup only and not breakfast syrup or pancake syrups.
- Warm de-chlorinated tap water or spring water – 1 gallon
- ½ tsp Fromax yeast nutrient
- 1 package of white wine yeast
Instructions
- Sanitize everything including your fermentation glass jar, a funnel, and the yeast packet. Do not forget to sanitize the scissors you use to open the yeast package as well as the stopper or airlocks. Buy a reliable sanitizing solution and place all your tools in it.
- Fill up the jar with 1 gallon of warm water.
- Using a funnel, add 2 pounds of honey to the water.
- Next, add 12.5 ounces of maple syrup to the water and shake the jar well. This will help incorporate oxygen in the mixture to aid the fermentation.
- Some brewers heat the water along with the maple syrup and honey. This step is recommended only if you purchase your honey from a farmer’s market and get your maple syrup from a tree. In such cases, there is a high chance that you store the honey and syrup in containers and these could get easily contaminated. If you are directly pouring your honey and maple syrup from store-bought bottles, then there is little chance of them containing unwanted microbes.
- Now add the yeast and the yeast nutrient.
- You can now take gravity reading using a hydrometer and it should be in the range of 1.042 to 1.090. This reading will ensure at least 10% alcohol content in your mead.
- Place the airlock with a stopper and allow the mead to ferment for about a month between 66°F and 76°F.
- Taste the mead after a month. If it is too sweet, continue to ferment and taste again after a few weeks, until the sweetness is where you want it. You can also take gravity readings. Ideally, they should be between 1.010 and 1.016.
- Bottle the mead.
Conclusion
Fermented maple syrup or maple sap with or without water is maple wine. Add in honey and you’ve created Acerglyn or maple mead.
Maple mead fully captures the sweetness of maple syrup and is a lovely golden beverage that is ideal to drink with a weekend brunch, and especially in the fall months. I hope you try out this easy recipe of maple mead and enjoy the process as much as I did!
i’m just getting into mead making but definitely have the mead bug! I also love maple syrup, and when I learned of acerglyns, I got really excited, but was told that acerglyns leave no trace of the maple flavor?
The flavor of maple in the mead is very mild; subtle. The longer you age your mead, the stronger the flavor gets. There is an interesting discussion on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/mead/comments/6su9bq/anyone_ever_use_maple_syrup_in_mead/
There are people who age their meads for over 10 years to get a strong flavor! Not sure I’d have the patience to wait that long 🙂