ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – Next weekend is going to be a sweet one in Delta County.
April 5 and 6 is Michigan Maple weekend. Both days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the MSU Forestry Innovation Center is inviting the public to celebrate.
“We’ll be available for tours,” said Center Director Jesse Randall. “If the weather permits, we’ll be in the sugar bush. We’ll talk to you about how trees are tapped, how the sap is gathered, how it’s analyzed.”
Then, the tour will head to the sugar house, where the sap goes through an evaporator.
“We have to lose about 42 gallons of water as steam to make one gallon of syrup,” Randall explained. “Raw sap will drop into the back pan, it’ll boil through the back pan, and that front pan is where it develops its flavor and the color that you know as maple syrup. In about ten to twelve minutes, that drop of raw sap has now left the machine as pure maple syrup that’s 66.5% sugar.”
The Maple Weekend Goodness will extend beyond the center, thanks to two community partnerships. Friday through Sunday, the Escanaba Elks will host themed events for members, including a pancake breakfast with syrup from the MSU Forestry Innovation Center. In Gladstone, Saunders Point Brewing will be pouring some sweet drinks.
“We’ve provided them some knowledge and some maple syrup to make a maple nut brown ale,” said Randall. “They’re going to tap the keg on Friday night, and it’ll be available all weekend long. As long as you stop at the sugar house and you get one of our fancy pins, it’ll be a dollar off the maple beer.”
According to Saunders Point Owner Jake Mills, maple was a flavor the brewery had not previously tried.
“We selected a brown ale as our base beer because we wanted a balanced, malty backbone that wouldn’t overpower the syrup’s delicate nuances,” said Saunders Point Brewing Owner Jake Mills. “A stronger base like a stout might have masked the maple flavor, but the brown ale allowed the syrup to shine without making the beer overly sweet. In our trial runs, we experimented by mixing varying amounts of syrup to dial in the perfect flavor profile. Adding another twist to the process, we needed to ensure the yeast wouldn’t convert the added syrup into more alcohol. We cold crashed the beer to remove most of the yeast, then applied specialized additives to inhibit any residual yeast activity. This allowed us to back sweeten the beer with the syrup without further fermentation, preserving the intended balance between malt and maple.”
Mills says this Maple Weekend collaboration could be the start of bigger things to come with MSU and Yooper Forestry.
“Building on the creative energy of our ‘I’d Tap That’ maple syrup beer collaboration with Yooper Forestry, we’re excited about the possibilities ahead,” he said. “We’re especially thrilled to announce that we plan to make this an annual tradition where we can continue to refine and perfect our recipe. The upcoming release will allow us to tweak the balance between the unique characteristics of maple syrup and our perfectly crafted base beer.”
During Maple Weekend, the center will host the Bobaloon’s Café food truck, offer syrup samples, and have Yooper Gold Pure Maple Syrup products available for guests to purchase. Randall says it’s sure to be delicious and educational weekend for everyone.
“Here in the U.P., a lot of people make maple syrup—they’re in their backyard, they go to camp,” he said. “This is a way we can show them how they can add that into their revenue stream. It’s just nice that MSU and Ag Bio Research can open the facility for the community to come out, learn about maple syrup, and really pick the brains of all of those of us that work in maple syrup day in and day out. It’s a great family event, so plan to spend some time out here.”
For more information on Maple Weekend activities, click here. The Michigan State University Forestry Innovation Center is located at 6005 J Road.
