Ottawa Brewer Uses Local Maple Syrup To Give Character To His Beer

Jeff Green | Dec 04, 2013

JP Fournier has sent much of his adult life as an amateur brewing enthusiast and promoter of specialty beers.

Now that he has taken his passion to the next level and formed a brewing company, Turtle Island Brewery, he has been looking at a variety of unusual ingredients to give his beer a signature taste in the increasingly crowded marketplace for craft brewers in Ontario.

That’s what led him to Lanark County maple syrup producer Charlie Temple, who has run maple syrup operations in McDonalds Corners and his new location near Ferguson Falls.

For JP Fournier, it was not the prime-selling light and amber syrup that has brought renown to Lanark and District maple syrup producers that caught his attention. “I found the late syrup, the stuff that is sold off in bulk or is used for cooking, the stuff that is heavier and darker, to be very interesting from a beer-making point of view,” said Fournier.

In mid-November, Turtle Island Brewery brought some of that late syrup home to a Winter Warmer event at the 240-seat banquet hall at Temple’s Sugar Camp, and I was lucky enough to receive an invitation.

The event was set up to demonstrate food and beer pairings, and it featured four of Turtle Island's beers and dishes cooked by Temple’s head chef. The idea behind the pairings was for the food and beer to work together to enhance each other, and for the most part they were successful.

Two of the beers featured that sweet and mineral-rich flavour of late maple syrup and, to my taste at least, they are the most successful of the Turtle Island beers.

The first, Turtle Island Dark Honey Brown Ale, which is finished with maple, was paired with marinated sirloin steak twist with Argentinian Chimichurri sauce on grilled eggplant and roasted red pepper.

And the final dish of the night, Lamb Kofta with pistachio and mint was served with the newest Turtle Island beer, an 11% Russian Imperial Maple Stout that is full-bodied, almost thick with several kinds of malt, with the bitter edge of maple coming to dominate the taste.

While I found the Lamb Kofta lacked spice, but enjoyed the crunch of the Pistachio, the beer was very, very good. It also demonstrated, to a greater extent than the Honey Brown Ale, where the maple was more of an afterthought.

The other beers that were served were a Wild Harvest Extra Special Bitter, which was very good, and a Squashed Pumpkin Porter, which I did not care for as much (I should point out that I don’t like either porters or pumpkin-flavoured beers, so my opinion on this beer is less than reliable)

My favorite dish of the night was the one paired with the Pumpkin Porter. It was bacon-wrapped figs served on pureed squash accompanied by a ratatouille tower and olive oil crostini.

Turtle Island brewery products are not available in LCBO stores as of yet. Check Turtleislandbrewery.com for restaurants and pubs that carry their products.