Birch sap wine

[Chris Gagen]

So yesterday with a group of friends after a bbq we decided to go tap a couple of Silver Birches. Was very pleasantly surprised to find 2 full demijohns of sap after only 24 hours! Now searching for recipes for making the wine and so far am taken by Ben Law's one with raisins but also found some rather disappointing reviews of BSW as a tipple.

It's left me thinking what about asking you lot for opinions, recipes, experiences etc. Looking forward to Arbtalkers offerings.

[headgroundsman]

drinking the sap is the new in thing. You can ferment it as a beer or with an airlock as a wine. If you have made wine before I am sure you can just have a go and see how it turns out. I have made some in the past and it was good but left a dryish taste

[IanW]

make ice cubes with it and chill your favourite drinks..... or just drink it on its own!

 

Sprig of mint and slice of cucumber..... chilled is very refreshing!

[sean]

Out of interest what method did you use for tapping?

[Chris Gagen]

Brace and bit with a spile made from copper pipe (I've since read that copper can be toxic to trees?)

Plugged the hole with hazel

[beachbum73]

I tried some birch water the other week, chilled it was really refreshing!

[ashtree]

I had a neighbour with a stand of five silver birches who made wine from the sap every year. He drilled a hole, poked in some clear plastic tube with the other end in a demijohn and waited. It was amazing how fast the sap ran out almost like a tap, but what fascinated me was the way that when a cloud obscured the sun the flow dried up within minutes only to resume when the sun came out again.

 

He made a lot of birch sap wine and he drank a lot of birch sap wine, so did his wife.

 

They both died young within six months of each other.

 

Not saying it was the birch sap............could have been the fags.

[Steve Bullman]

I had a neighbour with a stand of five silver birches who made wine from the sap every year. He drilled a hole, poked in some clear plastic tube with the other end in a demijohn and waited. It was amazing how fast the sap ran out almost like a tap, but what fascinated me was the way that when a cloud obscured the sun the flow dried up within minutes only to resume when the sun came out again.

 

He made a lot of birch sap wine and he drank a lot of birch sap wine, so did his wife.

 

They both died young within six months of each other.

 

Not saying it was the birch sap............could have been the fags.

 

Oh dear. First thing I do when i see birch sap running after a good pruning is stick my head underneath and drink it!!!!

 

What did they die from?

[ashtree]

Cancer I think, so most likely the ciggies.

 

There was a lot of wine made in that house, he made it from anything he could get hold of.....quantity not quality was his watchword. I have known him make twenty gallons at a time and always started drinking it while it was still fermenting, he would dip a half pint mug in and called it a nice drop of "nasty", which it certainly was. I could never stomach it, you'd only ever try it the once.

 

Still they lived a happy life so now't wrong with that.

[born2trot]

Out of interest what method did you use for tapping?

 

In Ukraine where it's extensively harvested they don't drill it . just a piece of angle stainless or alloy hammered in to the tree with filtered bottle below . Normal to add sugar and perhaps lemonjuice , drunk quickly as doesn't keep well , absolutely invigorating drink cold