Last night Mike and I brewed up my maple porter recipe.

Here is a photo of the half gallon maple syrup jug from Morse Farms:

I told Mike that it tasted so hearty that it would put hair on your chest…and back. When I poured in the maple syrup, I stirred the brew so it wouldn’t scorch on the bottom. Unfortunately, the ring that held the cap on the jug fell into the pot and I didn’t notice until after I shut down the flame. Oops. Mmmm Plastic-y.

Here’s a photo of the wort chiller cooling down the brew for fermentation:

After the boil was done, we took a measurement of the sugar content of the wort known as the specific or in this case the starting gravity. Mike has a refractometer so it made this measurement very easy. My starting gravity was a little higher than I thought it was going to be. I got a reading on 1.080. Water has a starting gravity of 1.000. Most beers have starting gravities in the 1.040 range. It’s gonna be a big beer in terms of alcohol content if my yeast do their thing correctly.

I did make a yeast starter the night before. I boiled 4 ounces (by weight) of dry malt extract in 48 ounces (by volume) of water for 15 minutes. I let it cool to around 70 degrees and I pitched my British Ale yeast into my large, growler sized bottle.

I pitched the whole bottle when we got the wort to 75 degrees…so I am hoping that I have a large enough yeast army to attack this maple porter.

Since I couldn’t find what I was looking for in my local megamart, I found a nice Vermont farm online that sells Grade B Maple Syrup:  http://www.morsefarm.com/

When I think maple syrup, I think Vermont.   I think I picked a good place.

The ordering process was very easy.  I selected the cheapest shipping options they offered.  I hope to get the syrup by next week so I can brewing soon. 

We’ve got competitions to enter!