Sap sent to the beer tap
CHATHAM, N.Y. — The maple sap bubbling away in Ron Davis’ upstate New York sugar house is destined for pancakes, waffles, sweets and — for years now — beer kegs.
The local syrup adds a touch of woodsy sweetness to the maple amber beer made by nearby Chatham Brewing, one of a cadre of craft brewers nationwide bridging the gap between tree tap and bar tap. The amount of syrup destined for pint glasses from this spring’s maple run is a relative trickle, but maple beers offer something for the growing numbers of local food lovers and craft beers aficionados.
“It’s not sugary or something like a cider,” said Will Richard, drinking a pint with friends at the brewery’s bar near the Massachusetts line. “You have that almost like a hickory taste that you get from maple syrup but just not the overwhelming sweetness of it.”
Maple beers fit into an artisanal age that sees craft brewers extracting flavor from bananas, oysters, Sriracha sauce and bacon.
Many maple brews are often offered seasonally to coincide with spring maple runs or autumnal leaf falls. In Green Bay, Wis., Hinterland sells its maple bock January through April. Chatham’s maple amber is a year-round offering. And while craft brewers will add syrup at different points in the brewing process, Chatham head brewer Matt Perry pours it into to the maple amber after fermentation so the syrup flavor comes through. He favors the darker, heavier syrup from later in the run.
In Vermont — the woodsy heart of America’s syrup-making belt — brewer Sean Lawson of Lawson’s Finest Liquids has become a sort of maple maestro with brews like Sticky Ale and Maple Tripple Ale, which is brewed with maple sap.
