Recipe

Mocqua

A North American Original
alcoholic beverage made from Maple Syrup

According to an article by Rowland E. Robinson in the April, 1896 issue of The Atlantic monthly (click here to read the whole article), A mighty hunter by the name of Woksis (his tribe is not given) went forth one morning to hunt. He instructed his woman, Moqua, to have dinner ready for him upon his return, so she put a cut of moose meat to boil in an earthen pot of water over the fire. She became absorbed in the making of a pair of moccassins for her man and forgot the dinner. The bark cord suspending the pot over the fire burned and the pot of water was dumped into the fire. By the time she got the fire restarted, she realized that there was no time to go for more water, so she used the sweet water that had been collected from a maple tree for drinking. Going back to the moccassins, she again forgot the dinner (slow learner?). The maple sap boiled down to a very thick brown substance. She knew the dinner was ruined and when she heard her husband returning, she hid. When she heard no sounds of anger, she peeked out from her hiding place and saw that Woksis was enjoying the ruined meal! When he finished the meat and scraped as much of the brown stuff out as he could, he even broke the pot so that he could lick the sweetness from the shards. Thus was maple syrup discovered by Moqua.

It can be expensive to make, but is well worth it!

Batch Number:		020209b	Starting Gravity:	1.100
			Final Gravity:	0.996

Ingredients:
Fermentable 1:		1 Gallon Pure maple syrup

	Yeast:	White Labs WLP715 Champagne Wine Yeast

Process:	Brought to a boil with about a half gallon of water Immediately upon boil, heat removed Water added to bring gravity to 1.100 target (total volume approx 4.5 gallons) Yeast Pitched
Notes:	I wonder if I should add yeast nutrients - I have no idea whether there are any nutrients present in maple syrup for the yeast. I will watch and if fermentation does not start, or slows, or stops early, I will add yeast nutrients as for mead. 12 February 2002: Yeast nutrients will not be needed. 3 November 2002: Bottled. The color is a rich golden tone. The flavor is sweet with a definite alcohol tang. The maple flavor seems just barely smoky. 24 December 2003: This has continued to ferment a little in the bottle and now has a slight sparkle.