Jay's Brewing

I wanted to throw out another plum recipe since so many people are having an insanely great harvest plums.  Apparently in this area, it’s been one hell of a harvest for plums.  Well if you are tired of making just plain wine with your plums, here is a Sweet Plum Melomel. This melomel is best served with Asian food.

Yield: 1 Gallon

4 lbs plums, halved and pitted

4 lbs honey

1 teaspoon acid blend

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 package Montrachet yeast

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1/8 teaspoon grape tannin

Directions

1. Put the plum halves into a fermenter.
2. In a large pot, boil honey in the water (1 part honey 2 parts water)
3. Pour the honey mixture over the fruit and let cool
4. Add the acid, pectic enzyme, add enough water to make 1 gallon
5. Add yeast nutrient and yeast
6. Allow the mixture to ferment
7. Rack after your vigorous fermentation stops.  Put in 1 gallon jug
8. In 3 months rack again
9. In 6 months rack again
10. Then bottle and cork
11. Age for at least 6 months before opening your first bottle

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It is helpful to have some sort of guide when making any type of beer or wine.  When it comes to mead though, it is style that can be so abstract, and you have so much freedom, it’s nice to have some sort of guidelines to give a helping hand.

This information can be found probably the best mead book out there in my opinion, The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schram.

When adding fruit to a mead, it’s best to know how much to add of what fruit in order to get the flavor you intend in your mead.  There really isn’t a rule of thumb saying, “Add 3 lbs of every type of fruit to get a light flavor and 6 lbs of any fruit to get heavier flavor”.  Different fruit gives different amounts of flavor.  That is why this is so helpful.  All of these additions would take place in Secondary and all are for 5 gallons of mead.

Blueberries

Mild Fruit Character – 5 lbs in secondary

Medium Fruit Character – 7 lbs in secondary

Strong Fruit Character – 11 lbs or more in secondary

Cherries Sweet

Mild Fruit Character – 5 lbs in secondary

Medium Fruit Character – 7 lbs in secondary

Strong Fruit Character – 10 lbs or more in secondary

Citrus Fruits

Mild Fruit Character – 5 lbs in secondary

Medium Fruit Character – 7 lbs in secondary

Strong Fruit Character – 9 lbs or more in secondary

Melons 

Mild Fruit Character – 3 lbs to 5 lbs in secondary

Medium Fruit Character – 7 lbs in secondary

Strong Fruit Character – 9 lbs or more in secondary

Peaches 

Mild Fruit Character – 5 lbs to 7 lbs in secondary

Medium Fruit Character – 10 lbs in secondary

Strong Fruit Character – 13 lbs or more in secondary

 Pears

Mild Fruit Character – 5 lbs to 7 lbs in secondary

Medium Fruit Character – 9 lbs in secondary

Strong Fruit Character – 11 lbs or more in secondary

Plums (use skins as well) 

Mild Fruit Character – 4 lbs to 6 lbs in secondary

Medium Fruit Character – 8 lbs in secondary

Strong Fruit Character – 10 lbs or more in secondary

Raspberries

Mild Fruit Character – 2 lbs to 4 lbs in secondary

Medium Fruit Character – 6 lbs in secondary

Strong Fruit Character – 8 lbs or more in secondary

Strawberries  

Mild Fruit Character – 5 lbs to 7 lbs in secondary

Medium Fruit Character – 11 lbs in secondary

Strong Fruit Character – 13 lbs or more in secondary

A note should be that after your mead has hit the ABV of about 10% you can really add fruit with out much sanitation even though it is good practice to do so regardless.

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I’m always a bit surprised when homebrewers don’t keep records of what they brewed.  To me it vital part to the hobby.  Now to the extent of it, that’s always up for debate but there are a few things that I would try to write down when ever I make a beer.

(You Don’t Keep Records?!)

Sometimes you have a really good beer and you want to do a repeat, or you have a beer that didn’t turn out the way you wanted it too.  If you have no records of it, it’s really hard to make adjustments or to be able to change anything. The beer will forever be a mystery.  The list of what I put in my records is is below, we’ll break down each suggestion on the list to describe why it may be a worthy cause for you to include it:

1. Date of when you made beer
2. Name of beer (one of the best parts of this hobby)
3. Volume of the batch
4. List of ingredients as well as amount
5. Time boiled
6. Boil time for hops
7. Temp of wort when pitched.
8. Date of racking or bottling
9. How much corn sugar was used if bottled or what psi for keg
10. Comments or suggestions of fermentation, and how it acted during fermentation
11. Overall impression

Date of when you made the beer

The reason why you want to do this is because of 2 reasons:

1) To help jog your memory about this beer.  If you have a big journal of beers that you’ve made, it is helpful to have a basic time frame of when you made it.  If it was years ago, your skill level might have changed as well, or you have might have been making a different style of beer all together.

2) Knowing when you made it will also give you an idea about fermentation temps.  In the winter your house may be a bit more cool, in the summer your house may a bit more hot.  Just  gives a bit of an insight.

Name of the beer

This is one of my favorite parts of the hobby, you get to name your beer.   I also name beers to help me remember the beer.  For me, the name of the beer gives a bit of a back story to the beer itself.  In some ways it’s a code to help me jog my memory in the future.

Volume of the batch

I make all different size batches:  2.5 gallon batches, 5 gallon batches, 10 gallon batches.  Those are the most common ones for me.  It may seem obvious to which is which when looking at the amount of recipes but you may see a recipe and just think it was a big or small beer, especially if some time has passed.

List of ingredients as well as amount

This is pretty crucial to being able to make a duplicate of a beer.  Your really need to know what you put in it, as well as how much.

Time boiled

I’ve done recipes where its a 120 min boil or sometimes down to a 30 min boil for one of my favorite Milds I make.  Being able to replicate the boil time will help ensure that you go through the same process again and again.

Boil time for hops

Knowing how much you have boiled your hops is pretty important.   You’ll be able to look at your recipe and see the: bittering, flavor, as well as aroma.  Having these points will help you out for sure.

Temp of wort when pitched

I don’t always write this out, it’s an assumption for me that when I do ale’s I will pitch pretty close to room temp.  I will write this down when there is an exception.  For some Belgium beers, I like to pitch a little bit warmer and for lagers, I like to pitch a little bit cooler.  So when there is a variation or something that I did that is different, I’ll make a note of it.

Date of racking or bottling

Did you do a secondary?  Or did you just let it sit in your primary for a month?  When did you bottle it?  These are all good questions that should be noted.

How much corn sugar was used if bottled or what psi for keg

For the corn sugar I almost always use 5 oz of corn sugar, so I won’t write that down.  But if I bottled with DME I will want to write that down.  For kegging did I force pressurize it? And if so how did I like it? Or did I use corn sugar for the keg?  These are notes that are worth while to keep and will have some value in the future.

Comments or suggestions of fermentation, and how it acted during fermentation

Knowing the fermentation properties will help me know if I should use a blow off or not.  Also if the beer took a while and I needed to second pitch yeast that should be a good note to make.

Overall impression

This is one that is completely subjective.  I like to write down, if it was worth making again, what did people think about it, if I could change anything what would it be, how fast it got drank, did it taste better after 4 weeks in the bottle or 8 weeks, was the carbonation level correct.  When I do this, it’s not to write a story but just a few bullet points so I know on this next one how to make it a bit better or what to be aware of.

(The beer sucked!!!!)

Where is the OG and FG?

I usually don’t write down the OG and FG for my beers, I know slap my wrist.  The reason I don’t is because I don’t particularly care.  If you are trouble shooting your beer, don’t get me wrong, it is one of the most helpful things, but for me I can usually look at a grain bill or an extract and come up with a pretty good guess on what the ABV is going to be.  Also once I start drinking it I will be able to tell after 2 or 3 beers what the ABV is if you get my drift.  It’s a symptom of the chillax brewer, figure why risk breaking a hydrometer when I’m going to drink the beer regardless.

Do I do pen or paper, or use a computer?

I go old school and use a pen and paper with a just a composition book.  I think it is preference at the end.  I like the feel of a journal and the sound of the paper clicking when turning the pages.  I also like the idea that at some point in time I will pass along my journal of recipes, just like I was given recipes.  With that said, make sure that if you use pen and paper you can write in a way that you can read it or someone else can read it or you might as well use a computer.

(Maybe lose the stickers in yours but always a nice touch)

Also there are free calculators for most brewing software.  I just use a composition of a few of them and then it will give me my numbers.  Again I know it’s preference but for me it seems to work.  If you end up using any of these calculators you will be able to get more information and ultimately will be a better tool for in the future.

• Water calculator
• Free overall calculator
• Free overall calculator
• Free overall calculator

I did want to give an example of how my beer journal entry would look.  Naturally you can do yours your own way, but for me this is plenty and gives me a ton of information by just looking at it:

July 1st 2017

Cascading Mountain Brew

5 gallon batch

60 min boil

6 lbs Light LME

1 lb Munich Malt

.5 lb Victory Malt

1 oz Cascade (60min)

.5 oz Cascade (30min)

.25 Cascade (5min)

WLP 001

Normal procedure, steep grains @ 150 for 30min, took out added malt extract. Boiled the hops at points listed above.

7/1/17 – made wort, cooled pitched yeast at room temp

7/15/17 – bottled beer using 1 cup and 1/4 dme.

8/15/17 – had my first bottle, tasted good but I’ll wait one more week should taste better

8/24/17 – taste much better, the carbination is spot on

Notes:  The fermentation was strong, but I didn’t need a blow off tube. I personally liked the carbonation level, I want to keep using DME for this beer.  It had small bubbles.  The hops didn’t have a lot of nose but the beer was a bit bready and kinda tasted like grapefruit.  Consider dry hopping or having an addition of hops for flame out next time you brew this, maybe use Citra for dry hop or another citrus like hop. People that didn’t like IPA’s didn’t like this beer, so it is a polarizing beer in that regard.  Best for hot summer days after you get done mowing the lawn.  Taste better in bottles after a month.  It’s worth a repeat in warmer weather.  Next time make it earlier in the summer around May or June so it’s  perfect for the first really hot days. 

Note #2: Took about 2 weeks to drink 

If I were to look over that in the future, I would get a pretty good impression about the beer pretty quickly.  I would have a good sense about a lot of aspects of the beer.  For my preference there would be no need to write down more, I am satisfied.  I know by looking at this beer it is going to be around 5%-6% some where in that ballpark.

Conclusion

I think that keeping notes for beer is pretty important.  I like to do mine with pen and paper because of the idea of passing it along sometime in the future or just the fact that it feels more, “old school”.  I believe that it is preference though for what you are trying to get out of it and that there isn’t a wrong way to do it or a right way to do – just what works for you.  Also if you plan on writing down your journal by hand, make sure to have it legible enough where you or the future recipient can read it with ease.  Feel free to form this habit with your wine, mead or even soda making as well!

Like always hope you enjoyed!

Mead in general is pretty easy to make.  Honey, water, yeast – and that’s just about it.  This recipe for mead is called a sack mead.  This mead is sweet, light and true to the mead heritage.  If you refer back to an earlier post you can find out about different types of meads that you can make.  This one is called a Sack mead – the flavor is really full of honey.

Yield: 1 Gallon

3 lbs orange – blossom honey

1 teaspoon acid blend

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 package mead yeast

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1/4 teaspoon grape tannin

Instructions

1. In a large pot, boil honey in water.  1 part honey to 2 parts water.
2. Boil for 10 minutes, skim off any foam that forms.
3. Let it cool and then transfer the honey to fermententer.
4. Add acid blend, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, tannin and yeast to mixture.
5. Let if ferment.
6. In 3 months rack into another fermenter.
7. Let sit for another 2 months, then bottle.
8. Let it age for 6 months before you drink.

It’s a pretty easy drink to make and taste so good!

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Sometimes with beer recipes you’ll see next to the hops a number followed by AAU.  If you are new with the world of brewing it’s understandable that you might not have a clue what this means.  An example is below:

5 lbs Light DMe

6 AAUs Fuggle (60min)

10 AAUs Kent Goldings (15min)

Safale 04

What the AAU is referring to is the weight and the alpha acid of that particular hop.

How to get the AAU’s you use this formula:

AAU = Weight (oz) * % Alpha Acids (whole number)

Calculating AAUs for a recipe is a way to ensure that your beer will remain at the same level of hoppyness from batch to batch.  It’s a nice calculation to use because, hops acidity changes from year to year.  Also if you had to substitute hops ever this measurement  will allow you to get a more accurate approach on the bitterness of the hop.

Going back to the example,  if we know AAU and we then know alpha acid (4.2% for Fuggle) and we plug those numbers in it looks like this:

6AAU (Fuggle Hops) = oz * 4

We just need to change around the formula to better fill our needs which is to find out how many ounces we need for this particular recipe.  It would look like this:

oz = (AAU/Alpha Acid)  

Again we just put back the numbers into the formula and plug away:

oz = (6/4)

1.5 oz 

To check our math just put it back in the original formula.

AAU = oz * alpha acid

6 = 1.5 * 4

6=6

We would need 1.5 oz of fuggles at 4.2% to get the, “correct” level of bitterness out of the beer.

Conclusion

The reason why using AAUs for your recipe can be helpful is that even if the crops alpha acid changes from year to year, by using AAUs as your measurement rather than just ounces it will allow you to get a more consistent beer when making repeats.  Hope you enjoyed.

Cheers,

Plum trees are blossoming right now.  Have too many?  Well that’s not a problem any more.  It’s time to take those extra pieces of fruit and make a delicious wine out of them.  This wine recipe is a dry plum wine.

Ingredients 

Yield: 1 Gallon

3 pounds black plums

2.5 pounds sugar

Juice of 2 oranges

1/4 teaspoon tannin

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 package Lalvin RC 212

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1 teaspoon acid blend

Directions

1. Cut the plums into halves removing the pits.
2. Transfer the fruit to a plastic bucket and mash fruit as well as you can.
3. In a small pot, add 1/2 gallon of water and sugar.  Bring to boil and mix together.
4. Pour the mixture over the plums.
5. Add all ingredients to bucket.
6. Let the mixture ferment for 1 week.
7. Rack the solids from the liquid, keeping the liquid.
8. Rack into a glass container.
9. Let mixture ferment for 1 month.
10. Rack mixture let it sit for 2 months.
11. Rack one more time, let it sit for  1 month.
12. Bottle, cork and cellar.
13. Wait 3 to 6 months before you open your first bottle.

It’s officially that time to start thinking about Russian Imperials.

 In The Summer Time?  

Yea, this is the time to make Russian Imperial.  The reason why you want to make your Russian Imperial stout now is because they take so long to mature.  Making a big beer now gives plenty of time for them to age and still be able to drink them at least by the end of the winter.

The history behind this beer is pretty cool in my opinion.  Like most beers, there is a story behind this one.   The story behind Russian Imperial stouts is that Catherine The Great of Russia was very partial to darker beers.  She would order them in large quantities again and again from London.  She would drink them and give them to the military that was fighting in Germany as well as colonist that were in Sierra Leone and Botany Bay.

When I first started looking into this beer, I always thought that the Russian Imperial beers were high for in gravity so they wouldn’t freeze and high in hops which were are a natural preservative so that they could travel to Russia from London.  Without a doubt, I’m sure that the recipe was created with some consideration in mind to that traveling but, this beer was also served in warmer places…odd.   That made my conclusion go towards that Russians maybe just like big beers, who knows?  Regardless of the back story it is neat to make a style of beer that Catherine the Great would approve of.

So without any more delay, here is a Russian Imperial Stout recipe.   And for all-grain brewers feel free to check out our conversion chart.

Russian Imperial Stout

OG: 1.108

FG:  1.021

IBU: 103.2

SRM: 31.2

ABV: 11.6%

Yield: 5 Gallons

Ingredients

12 oz 60L Crystal Malt

12 oz Chocolate Malt

4 oz Roasted Barley

3 oz British Black Malt

11 lbs Golden Light DME

1 lb Corn Sugar

2 oz Target Hops (60min)

.5 oz Target Hops (45min)

.5 oz Target Hops (5min)

White Labs Irish Ale 004 or Saf 04

Directions:

1. Heat 3 gallons of water up to 150 and steep grains
2. Steep for 30 minutes then take out grains
3. Add 11 lbs of malt extract and 1 lbs of corn sugar
4. Bring to boil
5. In beginning of the boil add 2 oz of target hops
6. Boil for 15 min
7. Add .5 oz Target hops
8. Boil for 40 min
9. Add .5 oz target hops
10. Boil for 5 min
11. End boil, cool down, put in fermenter, pitch yeast

Notes About This Beer:

This beer will mellow out in flavors over time it can keep at cellar temps for up to 2 years.  As far as when you can drink it I would recommend that you start to have your first bottles after 6 months.  It probably will start to be pretty good around 8 months.  Since it is such a big beer, you really want to allow some time for it to mellow out and for the flavors to mesh well together.

Having a beer this big you will want to double pitch your yeast or have a pretty big starter.  Either one, there is a lot of fermentable sugars and the yeast will lag out if you don’t give it help.  It still might lag out towards the end and if that is the case, consider pitching champagne yeast to help dry it out a bit.  Use that as a last resort though.

I should tell you though, the world of high OG beers is one that is not my forte.  I have customers that own this style realm, I am just a visitor. I generally don’t make a lot of them – usually I’m on the other end of the spectrum.  So personally, it will be a nice to get one going and have it ready by winter season to share with friends and family.

Hope you enjoy.

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The Randal is an interesting piece of equipment that was created  at the dogfish brewery in Maryland.  It helps enhance certain flavors with kegged beer.

So what is a Randal? 

A Randal is pretty much a water filter that your kegged beer passes in and out of to pick up aromas of what ever you chose to put inside of it.

Most commonly it is used for IPA’s and the brewer will put hops in the randal to pick up  hoppy aroma’s.  Honestly though, you can put other things inside: bourbon soaked oak chips, fruit, vanilla beans, pretty much if you can think of.  Any way you choose to use it, it adds a new dimension to the beer.

(Vanilla beans in a Randal would be so good paired with a vanilla porter)

Are they affordable?

If you wanted to buy the dogfish type of Randal I think they are kinda expensive from what I’ve been told.  For that reason, I don’t own one.   I recently have been searching the internet for directions on how to build one because I just knew that they couldn’t be that expensive to build.  After some research I found that my hunch was in fact correct.

I finally found a great blog post on how to do.  Since, I haven’t made it yet I can’t really put my own directions on how to do it because I will be following the ones I found.  The directions as well as the original blog post are found below.  All in all it is about $20 in parts.  Not that shabby!

The Original Blog

Parts Needed

• A whole-house water sediment filter
• 3/4 to 1/2 inch reduction fittings, then 1/2 inch to 1/4 flare fittings
• A tube for the middle to act as a filter (it’s widely suggested to use a stainless steel tube, but I used a 10.5″ length of 1″ blowoff tube). I drilled about 20 holes in the bottom 1/4 of it to force the beer down through the hops.
• About 10 feet of beverage line and some clamps, and a picnic tap (I used 1/4 inch beer line) a few ounces of hops.

Here are the parts laid out (sorry for the dark background). I’ve already assembled the brass fittings to the filter inlet and outlet. I chose a picnic tap, because while I am testing it out, I’ll have it set up on its own, not hooked up to the kegerator (this will also make comparison easier, hopped vs. unhopped).

Here’s the Randall cleaned, sanitized and assembled.

I threw a couple of ounces of Centennial in for testing. I could have fit another ounce or two at least.

So far, so good! Now I need to introduce pressure and beer! I had a small leak at first that was easily fixed. I assumed the beer would foam up pretty good, and it did. The filter did a pretty good job of keeping particles out, although there were a few in the glass, mainly from hop leaves that dropped into the tube while filling it. I did notice a nice kick in aroma and flavor, but I decided that I am going to use a different hop.
Here’s a shot of the glass!

All in all, it was a success! It only took about an hour to build, and was around $20 in parts. I think keeping it separate from the kegerator was a nice idea, since now it’s kind of portable. I don’t know how often I’ll use this, but it’s here, and I think it’s kind of cool! Now I just need to read up on keeping the foam down so I can fill a growler with it!

Conclusion

Why I might not use this for every beer, I think it would be pretty nice to have on one hand for those gourmet beers or summer IPA’s.  For the price, a better question is why not.

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Sugar is sugar right? That may be true for other things but for brewing, that could not be further from the truth. When brewing beer, you need to know what you are adding because different types of sugars will give you different results, some wanted and others unwanted. Before we get into the different specific types of sugars we should do a pretty general break down.

Fructose aka Levulose

A very rapid fermentable sugar. It comes from a wide range of different types of starches. When something says, “High in fructose”, that does not necessarily mean that it is 100% fructose, it is more likely that it is blended with Glucose, usually the blend will be something on the lines of 40% fructose and 60% glucose.

Glucose

A very fast fermentable sugar. It is derived from starch. Glucose in the brewing world is also called, “Dextrose”. On a molecular level they are the same, Dextrose though comes from corn specifically and is also called, “Corn Sugar”.

Lactose

This is a non fermentable sugar when using beer yeast, it can be fermented with different types of wild yeast. The flavor is sweet and comes from milk. Adding this to beer will make your stouts, “Milk Stouts”.

Maltose

This is a fermentable sugar but just considered a slower fermentable sugar. It naturally occurs in malt and other sweeteners.

Sucrose

Rapidly fermentable by beer yeast. It is a natural fermentable in found in malt. As a brewer you can invert this type of sugar.

For Homebrewing What Does That Mean?

Now that we have a pretty general understanding of the different types of sugars out there, let’s get into the specific types and what effect they will have on your beer.

Candi Sugar

This is used with Belgium beers and strong ales as well. It is slowly crystallized sucrose. They can be either amber, brown, or white. The darker the color just happens based off of how much is has caramelized. The way which they are used is to lighten the beer body but it increases the alcohol which is produced. Lots of times you end up using less than 20% of your total fermentable sugar.

Cane & Beet Sugars

These are common table sugars which are 100% sucrose. If you use more than 20% cane sugar or beet sugar in fermentation you run a risk with having a cidery tasting beer. Using white sugar really does not add any significant flavor to beer and is generally not recommended. You can however invert cane sugar or beet sugar and it will help with eliminating all or most unwanted flavors. We do have a post about how to do that process. It is possible for an inversion of sucrose to occur if you add 100% sucrose to boiling wort. For what ever reason, Mr. Beer will tell brewers that you need to prime your bottles with table sugar. I would NOT do that at all. Every time you are going to get a cidery flavor from it.
Corn Sugar

A refined corn sugar is also known as dextrose. Dextrose is considered glucose. It will lighten the body of the beer at the same time contribute a higher ABV%. Also corn sugar can be used for priming bottles or causing natural fermentation in the bottles which will carbonate your beer. The standard ratio is use 3/4 cup of priming sugar (aka dextrose or corn sugar) to a pint of water (.5 liters) and it will be good for a 5 gallon batch.

Lactose

Since lactose is a non fermentable sugar if added it will help with the body as well as residual sweetness. Lactose does not dissolve easily in beer either. It should be added in small amounts to the beer to help it dissolve faster. Most of the time that this is added in beers, it will be for a, “Milk Stout” beer. It leaves a bit of an increased mouthfeel as well.

Palm Sugars

Palm sugars are sap from tropical palm trees which causes a yellow color. It is often found in specialty food markets and pretty common in Asian markets as well. Personally, I haven’t seen to many beer recipes call for this, I’ve seen it more with wine recipes.

Molasses

These are uncrystalized sugars and impurities that are removed from refinement sugars. Adding molasses to beer will change the color and the flavor. It’s flavor will add a buttery, toffee-like flavor. There are 3 different types of molasses: 1)Light 2)Medium 3)Blackstrap. If you wanted to prime bottles with it instead of corn sugar, use 1 cup of molasses for every 3/4 cup corn sugar. I would be careful when it comes to using molasses. Every time I have used it I can always taste a rum like flavor.

Raw Sugar

This is similar to light brown sugar. It has a very small amount of molasses to its color, but as far as character goes – it’s essentially the same as cane or beet sugar. Since there a small amount of molasses in it you will find a slight rum flavor in your beer. In the past I’ve used this with some Scottish beers I’ve made or even a few Ambers.

Agave Syrup

This is a sweet juice that is from Mexico that is used to make tequila. Normally homebrew shops don’t carry it but always fun to experiment with in your homebrews. Personally I’m not really sure if it is a fad or not, but a lot of people seem to add Agave to their wheat beers. Personally I have never used it before nor have I tried one with it in it so I really lack any further incite on it.

Maple Syrup

Actually maple syrup in homebrew is one of my favorites sugars to use. My favorite Pale Ale that I make uses maple syrup in it and also it is used for priming instead of corn sugar. The effects of it always remains the same when people open it, “it smells like breakfast”. If you want to jack your ABV really high use it before you pitch the yeast, if you want the smell as well as the taste of maple syrup then use it when you get to the bottling process.

Rice Syrup

Rice syrup is a combination of sugars that are taken from a modified malting process. It is used mainly in American lagers. It will leave a crisp flavor to the beer.

Conclusion

There are a ton of different possibilities of the types of fermentable sugars you can add into your beer.  Depending on what you are trying to achieve it should narrow your choice of what you would add as a fermentable.

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