For this year's Big Brew, Chip Wlaton and I collaborated on a Saison.  We added some stuff to personalize this beer, and the results were amazing! 

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Watch out for this yeast, it's super stubborn!  I had mine on a heating pad on low for 8 weeks to keep the temperature at 85 degrees.  It was worth it, this came out very dry - tangy and citrusy!  Yummy!

Here's the big idea - tap the neighbor's massive maple tree and harvest the sap.  Then use the sap INSTEAD of water to make beer.  The beer needs to be a slight thing to get some of the maple character to come through.  Soooo how about a cream ale?  I used Pearle hops and an all-grain recipe with all malt rather than using corn or rice adjuncts. 

When you make beer with maple sap, you don't get pancake maple syrup, instead you get a slightly woody spicy character.  So this beer was a success and failure.  We did get some extra alcohol from the maple sap, but the taste was not what people expected. 

This beer is the third barrel project from the Barrell Fellowship II.  The first two barrel beers were a hit and a miss.