Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider

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Going to try birch sap sparkly wine (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Lemmitor @A_[email protected] in this community tipped that if the process serves and luck is on one's side, fermented birch sap can be better than champagne. Right now is the time when sap can be collected, so I'm giving it a shot!

The tree isn't terribly bothered, the tap hole is only a few millimeters deep. I only do one tap per tree.

Plan is to empty these tap bottles off several trees once a day into an intermediate container, use a Campden tablet per container and keep the intermediates in the fridge until I have enough, five liters maybe? Then one liter yeast starter, possibly with some cane sugar to lend a little extra aroma and colour (the sap is clear). Ferment fingers crossed. Serve force carbonated. Wish mi luck :D

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That was a quick one! The result is a dry, refreshing and probably low ABV product. The colour comes from added dark cane sugar. It only took a couple of days to get 6 L of sap out of three trees. And yes, there is a light, hard to describe, maybe citrus-like taste from the sap.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you inoculate it with vigorous yeast and add a bit sugar, you can just pour new bottles into active fermenter with minimal spoilage risk, certainly safer than storing non inoculated medium.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Great idea, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Hmm well they make birch root beer so that could work. Let us know how it goes! :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Birch sap does contain sugar but not a lot. You have to boil 100L of sap down to get 1L of birch syrup (while for maple syrup you only need to boil 60L down to get 1L).

Fermenting the sap directly you're not going to get much of anything, probably less than 0.5% abv if you don't add any other sugars. I know you said you are going to add sugar, but I do wonder if you'll be tasting much flavor from the sap at all if you don't concentrate the sap.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

I know it's not going to be strong. However, having tasted birch sap before I've got a feeling there will still be a distinct taste there after the sugars have been fermented, and that's why I wanted to try this. I have a forest industry book about all the things in trees apart from fiber and lignin, and from there I know that the sap has got all kinds of interesting constituents, so this could turn out to be a health cava :D Concentrating the sap would surely boost the taste, but that's not in my interest for this experiment.