Meet acerum, the boozy pride of Quebec.
On a late trip toQuebec , I found myself standing in the autumnal drizzle atIsle de Bacchus , a belittled - production wine maker on l’île d’Orléans . The winemaker I was chatting with was young and challenging , and tell apart me how he ’d late develop hive and design to try out withmead . Fermentation being fermentation , it only seemed innate to go from fiddle with crushed grape to turning refreshful beloved into mead .
As September ’s pall tested the limits of my wanton jacket , I survey the dense timber that lay beyond the vines , and my mind began to rove . “ Does anyone up here make alcohol from maple sap or syrup ? ” I ventured .
“ LikeSortilege ? ” he enunciate , referring to the cloyingly sweet syrup - spike whiskey popular for after - supper sipping . It look at a few Google searches to make up one’s mind that , no , that ’s not what I meant . “ Oh , fermenting just the maple syrup ? ” he said . “ Hm , I ’m not certain . ”
Design by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist
My answer came the following evening , when I sit down to dinner atChez Rioux & Pettigrew , a ferociously seasonal restaurant in Quebec City . There , the inventive and very Quebec - focused cocktail list feature a drunkenness called Espresso Acertini . It was made with espresso , umber cordial , Madagascar vanilla , and something called acerum O’Dwyer .
I was connive . The acerum O’Dwyer gave my Espresso Martini Riffian a smooth , boozy kick plus a lingering earthiness that gracefully showcased the swallow ’s umber and vanilla extract component part .
Made from distilled Quebec maple syrup with no additives , acerum is a work spirit that can resemble cognac or whisky in the glass .
O’Dwyer Distillerie Gaspésienne
“ When you talk about a maple syrup flavor , people are like , ‘ Oh , a super sugary cordial ! ’ I have to be like , ‘ It ’s not Sortilege , so get that out of your nous , ’ ” say Michael Briand , conscientious objector - founder ofO’Dwyer Distilleriein Gaspé , Quebec . “ If they cerebrate it ’s going to be a sweet liqueur and it tastes like a scotch , it wo n’t go well . ”
O’Dwyer is n’t alone , either . It ’s one of five regional outfits behindthe Union of Maple Spirits Distillers , a confederation devoted to promoting the official classification of acerum , dubbing it the “ Spirit of Quebec . ”
So , why have so few people heard of this distinctly Quebecer elixir ?
Distillerie St. Laurent’s seaside barrelhouse|Photo courtesy of Distillerie St. Laurent
“ Usually , where there ’s an orchard , you ’ll see barrels of brandy or Cognac in somebody ’s basement . But maple sirup , people just never thought you could make alcohol from it , which is silly because it ’s moolah , ” Briand suppose . “ I mean there might be a clangour there , because people are so used to it being a domestic product for pancakes and cookery . Making alcohol out of it might be a minute off - putt , but we ’re fix there . ”
As order by the Union , acerum can be made from turn and distilling either maple sap ( open , unprocessed sugar water straight from the tree ) or syrup ( a more pasty , concentrated sap produced through boiling ) . O’Dwyer ’s version clocks in at 43 % ABV and is derived from a special type of maple syrup that Briand report as more closely related to molasses than gold - hued waffle sauce .
Funny enough , it was a botched attempt to get into the artisanal rummy game that led the still to embrace acerum .
Maple-based wine|Domaine Acer
“ We were buying molasses from Jamaica and the monetary value of moving it was just silly—1000 liters weighed like three piles — so the shipping alone is taking all of your net income , ” Briand recalls . “ So we said , ‘ Why do n’t we just employ our al-Qaida store of sugar , which is maple syrup ? ’ ”
That conduct Briand and his business partner , master distiller Frédéric Jacques , down an acerum enquiry rabbithole . First , they needed to acquire a society that could supply them with enough maple sirup to make distillate not just possible but , hopefully , profitable . Quebec ’s maple sirup manufacture is almost comically govern — even leading toa world famous heist — so the squad decided to cut out the middleman and go directly to the top .
“ We use the end - time of year tomfool , ” say Briand , noting that the Quebec Federation of Maple Syrup Producers had hear to market it as a culinary intersection , but “ it never caught on . Maple syrup producer have to give a sure quota to the Federation , but the manufacturer want to deal as much degree A or whatever as they can , so they ’ll give away the end - time of year hooey . ”
After testing with this end - of - season sap , Briand and his team found it performed similarly to molasses . “ When we compare ours with other acerum on the market , we can feel more notes of maple at the end , because the closing - time of year syrup is much stiff . ”
From there , the distillation process is similar to whiskey . O’Dwyer ’s squad pasteurizes the sap , dilutes it to decrease its redolence , place it in the mash tun until it vex to 172 ℉ , measures the Brix , “ and then slaps it in the fermentor , ” he pronounce .
Several argue that acerum should become the province ’s official spirit . It build sense , given the sphere ’s steadfast preference for embracing local trade good from hemangioma simplex to wine to mushroom to seaweed . Acerum also speaks to many Quebecers ’ penchant for outside - of - the - box experimentation .
“ A lot of places are attempt new and funky things , ” says Briand . “ We have the first risky mushroom cloud noose in the earthly concern , and our amaretto is made from lichen moss and Bronx cheer leave-taking . You have [ fellow acerum producer ] Distillerie St. Laurent using freaking seaweed in their gin . You take what ’s around your sign of the zodiac . ”
Other ambitious Quebec distillery shoulder the Union of Maple Spirits Distillers ’ delegacy includeDistillerie St. Laurent , a sprawl cognitive process rig along a woolgathering , pastoral stretch of the St. Lawrence River . It ’s been in business since 2014 , but had been toying with a maple eau - de - vie on a ( jolly illegitimate ) homebrew - level for several years . St. Laurent even coined the term acerum—“acer ” is Latin for maple , a term some vintner had already adopt — upon its first bottled release .
St. Laurent quickly made a name for itself by developing a series of gins steep with head - turning homegrown factor like laminaria seaweed from the St. Lawrence . pair off with a production line of ok Canadian whisky , the company blossomed into one of the most famous distilleries in the responsibility , establishing a global dispersion web and picking up a handful of international awards . In 2017 , Distillerie St. Laurent was asked to work a maple - focalize confederacy byDomaine Acer , a northern Quebec maple farm and wine maker that obtained the first license for the artisanal production of maple - found alcohol in 1996 , and had been making specialisation maple wines ever since .
Some 310 miles south , Distillerie Sheffordset up shop on a maple farm near Montreal , absorbed on using the land ’s copiousness of sap to make their own distill maple beverage . Coincidentally , Shefford also used the name “ acerum . ” license in 2017 , the company join the Union shortly thereafter . O’Dwyer open in 2016 , but start cranking out acerum in 2019 , the same yr it joined the Union . AndDomaine Small , an ironically wide organic maple woodlet , vinery , and microdistillery in southern Quebec ’s Chaudière - Appalaches realm , signed on in 2020 .
While there ’s undoubtedly strength in identification number , convincing consumer to get in on the acerum natural process has n’t always been leisurely .
“ We ’re try out to make this new category of alcohol , but people are not indisputable , ” says Briand . “ It would probably be the same for gin — imagine if you were like , ‘ Hey , I got this really good product that taste like pine needle ! ’ People would be like , ‘ You are crazy . ’ We ’ve bring forth to be patient and consistent . ”
The secret has been to tip into acerum ’s unique character and never , ever , trying to pretend it ’s something it ’s not . That ’s something the people of Quebec , a responsibility that ’s not quite North American and not quite European , get laid a affair or two about .
“ You have one factor : maple sirup or sap from a maple tree . You ca n’t contribute sugar , you ca n’t impart anything after , and it has to come from Quebec , ” says Briand . “ We want it to have its own signature and we ’re not trying to copy rum by using a lucre fundament like molasses . We ’re within Canada , but it feel like its own footling country . It ’s instill within multitude here to do their own thing . ”
