by Peter Bailey
Pitter-patter, let’s get at ’er, as they say on Letterkenny. Winter is ending, spring is coming, bring on the new normal.
I grew up in Letterkenny land, in a small Ontario town on Lake Huron two hours northwest of Toronto in the seventies. With stately sugar maple trees lining the streets, Port Elgin’s motto was The Town of Maples. My dad and seemingly all the dads worked at “the point”—the nuclear power station down the road. TV was either CTV or CBC, with Hockey Night in Canada always featuring the hapless Maple Leafs. Winters were full of epic snow because of the lake effect. Sometimes the lake would freeze mirror-flat and we would skate and pass the puck for miles. In spring the sap would run and sugar shacks opened for business in the maple woods nearby. Sugar shacks (cabanes à sucre) are where maple syrup is made, barns in the maple woods where the sap collected from trees is boiled down in open pans. Maple sap is 97 per cent water, so it takes 40 litres of sap to yield one litre of syrup. A youthful surprise was discovering that most maple syrup is made in Quebec, not Ontario. Canada produces about 75 per cent of world maple syrup, with over 90 per cent of that made in Quebec.
Moving to Edmonton in 1981, I left mapleness behind, for there aren’t any sugar maple trees on the prairies. I love the gorgeous green and gold of our autumn, but I still miss the flaming red maples of an Ontario fall. So it was a pleasant surprise this January to find some Alberta-brewed maple beers on the shelf at my local. Maple is an unusual addition to beer—The Oxford Companion to Beer makes no mention of maple in its thousand pages. A strong, sweet flavour, paradoxically it is easy to lose the maple taste in the finished beer. Maple syrup is essentially sugar and the yeast used in brewing loves to eat up that sugar and turn it into alcohol. Brewers solve this problem by limiting fermentation or adding maple later in the production.
Duchess Bakeshop co-owner Giselle Courteau is a local maple enthusiast. As a proud third generation Franco-Albertan, Courteau noted to me that, “even without any maple syrup producing trees in Alberta, we still consider maple syrup to be an integral part of our food culture and tradition. Courteau has fond memories growing up in Edmonton and attending public cabane à sucre events, especially one at Fort Edmonton which was the highlight of the Franco-Albertan year. Courteau devoted a chapter in her excellent Duchess at Home cookbook to sugar shack maple memories and recipes, like Tarte au Sucre (maple sugar pie), Tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean, Maple Baked Beans and Maple and Beer Baked Ham. Courteau makes the baked ham recipe with Blindman’s Triphammer Robust Porter.
In 2021 Duchess collaborated with Establishment Brewing on Cut the Cake, an imperial stout with cacao nibs, inspired by the bakery’s iconic Duke Cake. Courteau loves beer with her tourtière. She’s a fan of Sea Change The Wolf and her husband loves all things SYC, Odd Company and Bent Stick. At home, maple syrup is a staple for Courteau and family. It is on their breakfast table and she usually adds a splash to her coffee. She gets her maple syrup from friends at Sugar Moon Farm in Nova Scotia, with her family of four using six to eight litres a year. And I love this idea: Courteau and her husband built their own little tire sur la neige (maple taffy on snow) trough and pull it out for a backyard party every March. I’m borrowing this idea for an homage to my maple youth, a backyard sugar shack—with maple beer.
Maple beer six pack
Maple is Canada’s own flavour so it’s a delight to see Canadian brewers using it in their beers. Strong and sweet, maple needs to handled with care in beer. Here’s six beers that use maple well.
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Alley Kat Super Sappy Maple Ale, Edmonton
Alley Kat’s winter seasonal is a big sugar bomb of an amber ale with an intense maple flavour along with notes of vanilla and caramel. This might be the perfect accompaniment for all those pancakes and syrup on Shrove Tuesday.
Canmore Brewing Chocolate Maple Porter, Canmore
A smooth, dark porter made with caramel, chocolate and black malts plus Canada Grade A Dark maple syrup. It has a nice roasted maltiness with a touch of chocolate and maple sweetness. Gold, 2021 Canadian Brewing Awards.
Cannery Brewing Heist Maple Stout, Penticton
The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers operates a strategic reserve of maple syrup to keep prices stable. Back in 2011 over $18 million of syrup was stolen from the reserve. Heist is Cannery’s homage to that famous theft, a creamy, roasty stout with strong notes of sweet maple.
Dieu du Ciel Equinoxe du Printemps Maple Scotch Ale, Montréal
There are hundreds of sugar shacks around Montréal, including Martin Picard’s legendary Cabane à Sucre au Pied de Cochon about 45 minutes north. Picard elevated sugar shack cuisine to gourmet level, rewarded with a visit by Anthony Bourdain. Spring Equinox is a marriage of Scotch ale and Quebec maple syrup, brewed since 1999.
Eighty-Eight Brewing x Chartier: Sugar Shack, Calgary
The complex Pecan Maple Whiskey Fudge Brownie Dessert Stout is a collaboration between ’88 Brewing and Chartier, a French Canadian-style restaurant in Beaumont. ’88 mimics Chartier’s brownie in a beer, adding Sortilège Maple whisky, maple syrup, cocoa nibs, vanilla and pecan extract. Big bodied, rich, sweet and flavourful.
Zero Issue Scarecrow Barrel Aged Imperial Stout with Maple, Calgary
A big, big beer at 11.5 per cent ABV. Maple syrup is added to Zero Issue’s Russian Imperial Stout that is aged for months in bourbon whiskey barrels. The maple is understated, playing a supporting role to the top note of woody bourbon. A sipper for those cool spring evenings.
Peter Bailey is going to make it through this year if it kills him. He’s @Libarbarian on Twitter and Instagram.