How to Make Birch Sap Wine
Tapping the Birch Tree, Ingredients, Recipe & Birch Wine Preparation
Jun 26, 2009
At the correct time of year birch tree sap can be extracted and drunk directly from the birch tree; it is a refreshing liquid possessing a taste and texture akin to slightly sweet, slightly syrupy water. Used as a tonic in countries such as Finland, Poland and Russia, it also can be used for making wine.
Tapping the Birch Tree Sap for the Home Wine Making Supply
Birch tree sap should normally be extracted, or ‘tapped’, in the first two weeks of March when the sap is rising through the birch tree (regional and seasonal variations can occur). It is important to select mature, larger birch trees as tapping a young tree can be damaging. Birch trees of approximately 10 inches in diameter can be tapped for 2 days without harm. Collecting from a number of trees is preferable so as to further avoid damaging or killing an individual.
Birch Sap Wine Tapping Method for Home Wine Making
To extract 1 gallon of birch tree sap it is best to tap 3-4 trees. Firstly, select a point on the tree a few feet from the ground. Using a knife or small hand drill bore a small hole into the tree large enough to insert a plastic tube. Penetrate just through the bark (normally a few centimetres) slanting slightly upwards as you go.
Tree sap will often start to flow straight away; if not then perhaps it is the wrong time of year. The birch sap should also be clear, as a particularly cloudy liquid is not good for wine making.
Fix one end of a plastic tube into the hole and let the sap flow into a container placed below. Repeat this process with the other trees and then leave the containers to fill for 1-2 nights.
Once the tree sap has been collected, remove the tubes. The holes will heal naturally, but the healing process can be aided by plugging them with cork or firmly placing a piece of birch tree bark over the hole.
Birch sap itself perishes and turns sour very quickly. It is best to harvest the sap and prepare the wine as soon as enough sap is collected within the 2 days.
Birch Sap Wine Making Ingredients
You now have your one gallon of birch sap. You will also need:
- 2.5lbs sugar (3lbs for a sweeter wine)
- 8oz of raisins, chopped
- Peel and juice of 1-2 lemons
- A general purpose fermenting yeast
Other ingredients can be used, largely to influence the eventual sweetness of the wine. On the website birchsapwine.com the following is recommended: “Left dry it can taste like a German wine while, if liked sweeter, add the juice of two oranges as well as the juice of one lemon that should be added in both cases.”
Birch Sap Wine Preparation
- Bring the tree sap to the boil in a large pan, then reduce the heat.
- Add the sugar and stir well.
- Leave to simmer for 12 minutes, then remove from heat.
- Place the raisins in a suitable plastic fermenting bucket and then pour in the liquid.
- Allow the liquid to cool then add the lemon peel/juice and the yeast.
- Cover the bucket, then leave to ferment for 5 days in a warm place.
- After 5 days strain the liquid into a glass demijohn and seal with an airlock.
- Leave to ferment, usually for 2-3 months. Then pour into a clean container and allow the sediment to settle.
- Finally, bottle the wine and leave for another 2-3 months before drinking.
Birch sap wine can be served at room temperature or slightly chilled. The wine making process, from birch tree to bottle to glass, should take around 6 months, if you can wait that long!
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