Family Trees: Sandy Springs Brewing Brews with Maple from the Family Farm
By David Nilsen
Andy Conrad is the fifth generation to tap his family’s maple trees near the small town of Minerva in eastern Ohio. He and wife Amanda own Sandy Springs Brewing Company, a charming brewery in downtown Minerva with its own on-site Airbnbs, and each spring they brew Happy Sappy Imperial Amber Ale with maple sap from his family’s grove, maple syrup, cinnamon, and clove. The connection to these Conrad family trees runs deep.
“My family started [making maple syrup] over a hundred years ago,” explains Andy. “When I was in high school in the mid-nineties, my father started it up again. A lot of the trees that we still use are over a hundred years old. My grandfather planted a whole orchard, so we're using a lot of those as well.”
Andy and Amanda’s young daughter is now the sixth generation to walk among these trees, and early March typically sees the Conrads tapping trees and collecting sap. Andy says the right temperature conditions have to be met before its time to tap.
“You’re looking for a freeze and thaw cycle,” he says. “When you start to get those first sunny, 50 degree days, you're liable to get a good run. It's kind of weird how it works. When the weather warms up outside, the internal pressure of the tree and the wood are actually higher than the atmospheric pressure and that's what drives the syrup out of the tree.”
Brewing with Maple Sap
At Sandy Springs, the Conrads use maple sap for 100% of the brewing water for Happy Sappy, which provides a gentle maple flavor foundation and a slight boost in fermentable sugar. The sap comes out between 3-4° Plato (1.012-1.015 OG), with the higher readings coming early in the tapping cycle. Amazingly, it’s acidity hits exactly 5.2 pH, an ideal level for brewing, and doesn’t need to be adjusted at all.
Over a two day stretch, the Conrads will need to collect 270 gallons of sap for the 5 bbl batch they’ll end up brewing.
“A wagon gets pulled around the farm by our tractor, and that holds about 125 gallons,” says Andy. “Once that's full, I can load that into our truck, bring it down to the brewery, and then I can pump it into our HLT [hot liquor tank, the vessel that holds hot water for various brewing applications]. It's always a tough time of year because I have to really fit that into the brewing schedule because that HLT has to be empty, nothing in it.”
The family no longer makes maple syrup on the farm, so Andy sources Ohio maple syrup from other farms to add to the beer. The syrup gets added at knockout—the point at which the heat gets turned off to end the boil—in order to preserve some of its aromatics while still sterilizing it. A portion of the finished beer gets aged in BLiS maple bourbon barrels from Michigan.
Despite the unbroken lineage of ownership of the maple grove, the Conrads no longer make their own syrup.
“We don't make maple syrup on the farm anymore just because there's not enough family help and I don't have the time to do it,” Andy explains. “I know we have to do some adjustments to our evaporator where it's boiled down. That needs some work. My dad built it in 1995, so it's getting up there in age.”
A Family Endeavor
While syrup is no longer boiling in the sugar camp, Andy still takes pride in getting to put these storied trees to good use and give friends, family, and customers a chance to taste part of the family legacy.
“I have a deep connection with the farm,” he reflects. “I always feel like I can almost feel my ancestors out there when we go out to gather. They've been doing it for so long, it's been a family tradition. Our family gets together and goes out and taps trees. Some people set out buckets, some people tap, some people put the spiles in the buckets. The last few years it's been really fun because we've had regulars that come to the brewery a lot who really want to come out and help. It's been turning more into a big social gathering. It tells stories of our family history.”
While brewing Happy Sappy connects Andy and Amanda to family history, it also connects them to their own early homebrewing days.
“We've been making that beer since 2008,” he says. “I look back and look at our early days of homebrewing because that was probably our second or third shot at home brewing. We thought, ‘let's try using tree sap and some maple syrup to see what happens.’ Every time we would tap it, we'd always sit on the front porch with my family. We'd each have small little glasses of it because it's always been between 11 and 14% ABV. We'd say, ‘I'm going to have another halfer’ and then ‘I'm going to have another halfer.’ After quite a few halfers, we were all just having a good old time sitting on the front porch and looking out over the fields.”
Unfortunately, uncooperative weather conditions might prevent Sandy Springs from brewing Happy Sappy this year, a problem that might become increasingly prevalent as climate change continues. For now, Andy and Amanda Conrad are savoring memories and their unbroken connections to the family trees.
