Leopards Ate My Face

I do maple syrup, still kind of a mickey mouse operation no pump for a vacume yet so I am not competitive money wise, but I use off tasting syrup, and washings from bottling the syrup, to make a maple wine. Some of it is really good, some also turns into vinegar, I've way way too much vinegar, but it's sort of like mead the maple wine, and gets a wide range of complex flavors all from the same ingredients, just water and syrup/concentrated sap and yeast, albeit different strains, which I've had trouble finding strains that work well. I've low temperatures so in season so that's a factor, 50 degree fermentation or less.

But the stuff with wild yeast is interesting too, it changes the flavour, but is not particularly alcoholic. Everyone thinks the wild yeasts work well enough for alcohol and they really don't usually but it depends, which is why wines traditionally had the emphasis on what year and regions it was from, as they were using the natural yeasts.

But taste wise the natural yeast might produce some of the best complex tastes in that regard. I also add some stuff occassionally, spruce tips, white pine needles, stinging nettle shoots. What else, yarrow shoots, blackberry roots, the really interesting one was burdock root, but it's hard to get burdock root it always breaks off. The taste would be better elsewhere honestly but it's interesting. Blackberry roots not so great I just have masses that I pull anyway.