Making birch syrup

[vernon]

Does anyone have tips on making birch syrup from start to finish? Pulled 100 taps from maple and tapped 100 birch.Will 100 taps be enough? If i can get enough sap how do you finish? Made 20 gallons of maple syrup and trees dried up and have lots of wood left and time.Thanks Vernon

[BC Birch Tapper]

We've been making it for several years and have written a manual on just how to do just that. Check out the classified ads part.
We just put a handful in the mail today.
Birch is as different from maple as night & day, different tree, sugars & end use.
Birch is about 100 or 120 to 1 & glucose & fructose so you can't heat it over 100 deg C or you'll scorch it & make tar.

Check our some of the other threads on Birch

[vernon]

How do I get a msnual? Vernon

[markct]

can you make birch syrup with an ro? seems that would help with the low sugar

[BC Birch Tapper]

Send us an email & we can work out the details

[BC Birch Tapper]

Yes an RO defiantely helps in the birch world.

[MillbrookMaple]

I was just wondering if the birch sap can handle a full boil up to 45 brix? All of my density equipment, (Hydrometers, Refractometers, Hydrotherm) Stop reading around 12-18 or start reading around 45. I wanted to pull the sap off the evaporator at a safe brix to not scorch it and transfer it to my double boiler set up. So if I can take it till it starts to read at 45 that would be ideal but I don't want to scorch it after all of this effort so far. We have about 120 trees tapped and I think I'll finally have enough sap tonight in a 24 hour period to justify cranking up the RO. Boiling .4 sap sucks! ;)

[BC Birch Tapper]

I doubt that you can get anywhere near 45 even with an RO.
We can get 25 to 30 max & we have to pull it off & finish on another heat source. Youll find that you have to drop your heat/fire down in the evaporator as the sugars concentrate & your efficiency in the evaporator goes out the window. Each setup is somewhat different so your pull off rate may be somewhere near 30. Then the slow finishing occurs.
Youre getting close when you see little bubbles on the top of the syrup. You can go for hours & then burn it at the end which is quite discouraging, but you're not a true syrup maker until you've burned some, & I'm a syrup maker.

[governor]

The way it is done in alaska by the "expert's expert" is on 10-12% sap through an RO it is brought to 224*F and drawn off at 67 Brix..

[BC Birch Tapper]

I also talked to a fellow in Ontario who had a large evaporator 4 x 10 or something with a ceramic blanket on oil who ran his pans very shallow & got 60 deg brix on the evaporator. Again every operation is different & you need to work with what you've got.

[governor]

I was just wondering if the birch sap can handle a full boil up to 45 brix? All of my density equipment, (Hydrometers, Refractometers, Hydrotherm) Stop reading around 12-18 or start reading around 45. I wanted to pull the sap off the evaporator at a safe brix to not scorch it and transfer it to my double boiler set up. So if I can take it till it starts to read at 45 that would be ideal but I don't want to scorch it after all of this effort so far. We have about 120 trees tapped and I think I'll finally have enough sap tonight in a 24 hour period to justify cranking up the RO. Boiling .4 sap sucks! ;)

.4 sap is not worth processing period! we stop at .7 max and that makes really strong dark syrup.

[governor]

I was just wondering if the birch sap can handle a full boil up to 45 brix? All of my density equipment, (Hydrometers, Refractometers, Hydrotherm) Stop reading around 12-18 or start reading around 45. I wanted to pull the sap off the evaporator at a safe brix to not scorch it and transfer it to my double boiler set up. So if I can take it till it starts to read at 45 that would be ideal but I don't want to scorch it after all of this effort so far. We have about 120 trees tapped and I think I'll finally have enough sap tonight in a 24 hour period to justify cranking up the RO. Boiling .4 sap sucks! ;)

.4 sap is not worth processing period! we stop at .7 max and that makes really strong dark syrup.

[BC Birch Tapper]

Ours is about 0.5 & yes it it is strong & dark but the chefs love it & so do we.
We sell ours for $88 per litre

[MillbrookMaple]

The way it is done in alaska by the "expert's expert" is on 10-12% sap through an RO it is brought to 224*F and drawn off at 67 Brix..

A couple more questions. Do you boil on a regular style evaporator or is it a steam evaporator? I am boiling this on a small 2x4 wood fired evaporator that belongs to my friend since after the RO I expect to only have about 20-30 gallons of sap. We have about 100 taps that we are running and hopefully will be able to RO the sap every other day and boil. .5 is what we got last night when we collected and the trees really have just started to run. Does the sugar content and sap volume climb during the beginning of the season?
Boiling point in our location runs between 208-210 range at our elevation. Based on sea-level are you drawing off at 12 degrees above boiling point and that is about 67 Brix? Maple draws off around 7 above boiling for 66.5 Brix. Lastly what causes the burning/scorching? Is it just the temp burning the sap or is it the sugar sand, Nitre, or what ever birch syrup makers call it precipitating out of solution, settling on the pan, and burning in flakes?
I made some very dark syrup (Birch) on the stove in a double boiler a couple of nights last week and found that I liked the syrup at around 70 Brix and everyone though it tasted like a mix of caramel and molasses. I also made some around 60 and didn't like it as much. I would imagine that just like Maple the RO should help lighten the syrup some and temper the flavor slightly. Thanks for the input everyone!

[Snowy Pass Maple]

MillbrookMaple -

I'm across the river from you (near Millbrook) also tapping some birch. How are you keeping the sap cold? Temperatures have been in the 70s this week which is way above normal and I'm very worried about spoilage.

I'm collecting out of buckets every 12 hours. I've been running them through a 1 micron filter and UV lamp into storage; aiming to then get them through RO within 12-24 hours and then into the fridge to cool down. I have been throwing blocks of ice in jugs to try to keep sap cool, but can't really get it below 60. Not sure this is going to work out well until things cool down a bit!

[BC Birch Tapper]

we use a drop flue 2x6 & pull off at around 25 deg brix & finish on a double boiler
The sugars change as the season progresses but the % stays the same. Initially it has a bit of sucrose but that falls out as the sesason progresses. The main sugars are fructose & glucose which have a lower bioling temp than sucrose. progresses. Birch has about 8 % micronutrients as opposed to about 2 % for maple. The end of season syrup is better for blends or some other application. Initially one can run at temps just over 100 deg C but as the sugars concentrate when you're finishing you have to drop the temp lower or run the risk of burning or scorching it.
You will have to filter out the sugar sand or nitre or it will impact the taste & the excess buildup on the pan can cause bumping. We clean our pans every moring to remove the dark sugar build up on the pan. We finish ours to about 60 deg brix
Any time you can remove water without heating results in a lighter tasting & lighter coloured syrup

[MillbrookMaple]

MillbrookMaple -

I'm across the river from you (near Millbrook) also tapping some birch. How are you keeping the sap cold? Temperatures have been in the 70s this week which is way above normal and I'm very worried about spoilage.

I'm collecting out of buckets every 12 hours. I've been running them through a 1 micron filter and UV lamp into storage; aiming to then get them through RO within 12-24 hours and then into the fridge to cool down. I have been throwing blocks of ice in jugs to try to keep sap cool, but can't really get it below 60. Not sure this is going to work out well until things cool down a bit!

I am actually north west of you in Margaretville, NY in the Catskills. My farm is on Millbrook Rd. It has been too warm but 24 hours seem to be ok for collecting. I dumped a bunch of sap last week that had been multiple days sap since I didn't have enough to do anything with I just let it sit. It gets cloudy and yeast smelling when it spoils so I can tell when I dump the buckets. I collected last night in my truck tank and plan to go back out at 10 this morning and collect again RO and boil. I am hoping that the weather stays a little more reasonable for the rest of the season so we don't have to worry about spoilling so much. Our forcast up here at 2000 feet is for about 20 degrees for Monday night. I checked my sugar maples and they are still looking ok so I'm cleaning lines and tanks and the releaser and hoping to make more maple syrup this year too. This will make things tough for the birch but we have seperate equipment for the birch so at least I don't have to worry about cleaning everything each time. (tanks, evaporator, Ro) It will be more of a process of loosing a buch of sleep :)

[Snowy Pass Maple]

I had one bucket I missed in the AM collection yesterday - and by PM, in 24 hours, yea, it was yeasty and cloudy. Otherwise the sap is really clear when I collect - I think the problem I'm having is chilling it while processing on the RO and getting it down to cold storage fast enough.

I boiled a sample of concentrate down and while it was nicely sweet without as intense a fruity/tart taste that comes later in the run, there is also some other taste that is kind of bitter. I'm guessing either it's the fact that I didn't filter this small sample and it's full of mineral content, or it started to spoil between collection and time getting through RO into the fridge. Will do some more tests today!

[MillbrookMaple]

It's pobably just like maple. Sugar sand in Maple leaves a bitter after taste so it should be worse with Birch. We are working on modifications to cut down our full bank filter press to a 2 plate press. If I didn't I would probably loose all my birch syrup in the press. Hopefully I will have some to try by tonight. I don't know if this would work for you, but what about boiling the concentrate right out of the RO before the cold storage? If it gets boiled it would be pasturized thus not likely to spoil for a few days.(as long as you put it a clean sealed container) You have to let it cool, then put it in the fridge then re-heat, but if you need to have multiple days of sap to boil it might keep better.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

It's pobably just like maple. Sugar sand in Maple leaves a bitter after taste so it should be worse with Birch. We are working on modifications to cut down our full bank filter press to a 2 plate press. If I didn't I would probably loose all my birch syrup in the press. Hopefully I will have some to try by tonight. I don't know if this would work for you, but what about boiling the concentrate right out of the RO before the cold storage? If it gets boiled it would be pasturized thus not likely to spoil for a few days.(as long as you put it a clean sealed container) You have to let it cool, then put it in the fridge then re-heat, but if you need to have multiple days of sap to boil it might keep better.

My problem has been more just keeping up with the collection through the RO - for maple, it worked great but my birch taps are overwhelming me! This is a homebuilt unit so only a few gallons per hour of water removal - I am trying a nanofiltration membrane today and it seems to be doing a lot better so far.

For the batch I'm running now, the sap was just from overnight - 15 hours since last collection. Ran through the UV, and then chilled down to 52 F using ice blocks. About the best I can do in this weather so we'll see how it turns out. I also put in a new filter and checked that my UV tube is clean. I'm hoping that the UV would help - I have it oversized considerably relative to my flowrate through it and the birch sap goes in at such a low concentration that the sugars should be less of a concern than with maple sap.

Collecting sap today, I noticed it's still clear in the buckets, but all has a faint greenish/yellow tint to it. I get a few bubbles when pouring it but none of the foam I saw from a bucket that I forgot for 24 hours. All of the sap has a similar faint smell to it - not cloudy, but a definite smell that seems unique to birch. I could pick this up more in the RO concentrate tank after it concentrates it.

I'm reducing enough to filter a bit on the stove through a pre-filter and just see if any of this early stuff will be usable or not. I am also looking forward to some cooler temps - although it'll be interesting to see how the trees react - I expect they'll shut down for a couple days, and hopefully they aren't racing to bud. I can't see any yet.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

This heatwave is awful. I'm going to have to pull all the buckets off the drop tubes tomorrow and pressure wash them and may not put them back until Sunday night or Monday AM when we have a run of highs around 50 with near-freezing overnights.

I'm finding some with bio slime in the bottoms and a couple even with green mold spots. Even after only 5 hours since last collection, they are just not smelling good - you can feel the warm moist air when you open them and they smell worse every time I go out.

I just hope that the trees can make some decent sap next week - worried that with this heat, the entire birch season passed by before it started!

[Snowy Pass Maple]

Cleaned all of the buckets - in just 6 days, they all had slime on the bottoms. I put 4 back out today to see how the quality of the sap is before I do any more. It's also much cooler for the next few days with nights close to freezing - about 20 degrees cooler than our first week with the birch running.

I made a pint out of some of the first concentrate that I had refrigerated and it's not as good as last year. There is a somewhat bitter lingering side taste that just shouldn't be there so I am probably going to throw out the rest of my concentrate from last week. What I don't yet know is whether that was because it took me too long to process given the 70-80 degree weather, if the buckets just grew way too much crud too fast, or if this extreme heat is just resulting in poor quality sap right out of the tree.

I'm going to try collecting the sap out of 4 freshly cleaned test buckets this evening, process it down to a half gallon or less on the RO and get them boiled within 12 hours. This is the absolute best case I will be able to do with more taps, so if it still tastes off, I will hold off putting out any more buckets until after the freeze Monday night, and then check again. If it doesn't get any better after the freeze, it may tell us that a week run of temperatures 25 degrees above normal just killed this birch season altogether.

MillbrookMaple - let me know what you're finding at your place - are you on buckets for the birch as well?

[MillbrookMaple]

We ran the RO yesterday and it did lighten the syrup. I took about 150 gallons and concentrated it to about 12 gallons. I think if I had done that the first day I would have had even lighter syrup. I was able to boil it all the way to 58 on the evaporator and then cleaned out the evaporator and took it to 60 and canned it for future syrup. Once I have 5-10 gallons I will take all the batches to around the upper 60s and then filter press all of it and bottle. Our forcast now has us at 11 degrees tomorrow night so I think the birch sap will keep much better and probably stop for most of the week. I didn't collect today since my forcast is for 28 tonight and I would like to RO two days worth if I can. I just checked the buckets and the sap seemed fine so I'm taking a chance. We have about 100 taps and are getting around 100 gallons every 24 hours. I was hoping for a little more sap but I guess I get what I get. Some trees give around 4-5 gallons a day and others just barely a quart. I have about 25 of the taps on 5/16 tubing coming from the mountain which is getting very nice natural vacuum and the rest are buckets. Hopefully I will be boiling birch tomorrow night or Tuesday AM and then maple Wed - Sat. Even if the trees (maple) are just starting to bud we are going to boil and send the syrup to Mrs. Butterworst. If I get board I might add another 50 birch taps so that I have more efficiency with the RO and can run it each day.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

The sap I collected in freshly cleaned test buckets today was much better looking and smelling, so I put the rest of the buckets out. Of course it didn't get past the mid-50s either which was nice. Probably won't get too much more past Monday night, but it's not a particularly deep freeze here - will be interesting to see how fast they restart.

I also found that my earliest test drop tubes, up for two weeks of insane heat, had a good bit of mold so I replaced them.

Will finish some of the new stuff tomorrow and see how it tastes.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

Once I have 5-10 gallons I will take all the batches to around the upper 60s and then filter press all of it and bottle.

One thing to be aware of since you're running quite a few taps - NY does not allow birch syrup to have the same exemptions for processing as maple syrup and honey. This means you have to bottle with an Article 20-C commercial food processing license ($400/2 years) if you're planning to sell any. Would be interesting to know how other states are going to treat birch as I see a lot more people talking about it.

[BC Birch Tapper]

We always filter our sap right out of the tree into our collecting tanks. When the sap is fine it pours through like water, if you have to wait for it to filter out, the sap has changed. Sometimes if you put a clean spile/tube & bucket that will give you a bit longer for that tree.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

We always filter our sap right out of the tree into our collecting tanks. When the sap is fine it pours through like water, if you have to wait for it to filter out, the sap has changed. Sometimes if you put a clean spile/tube & bucket that will give you a bit longer for that tree.

What kind of filter are you using?

I have been collecting in a 55 gal drum, and then transferring/filtering it through a 1 micron polypropylene filter and UV chamber before going into the RO processing tank. For now, it's going to be smell and a visual check of each bucket while I collect to see if I think there is any evidence of degradation. I did replace a couple tubes today, but didn't replace the spiles.

Should have a nice bit more come in until the freeze tomorrow night - then perhaps a couple days break! I just hope there is no more bucket washing until the end of the season - that is a major pain!

[MillbrookMaple]

One thing to be aware of since you're running quite a few taps - NY does not allow birch syrup to have the same exemptions for processing as maple syrup and honey. This means you have to bottle with an Article 20-C commercial food processing license ($400/2 years) if you're planning to sell any. Would be interesting to know how other states are going to treat birch as I see a lot more people talking about it.

We are currently working on getting a board of health approved commercial kitchen setup and opening a shop for selling products we make along with other farm products. We will have a couple of licences for those operations that the birch should fall under at least one, but I'll make sure just in case. As far as the syrup itself we are not sure what we will do with it yet. We will filter and bottle it at the end of the season and decide if it is something we will sell as syrup or if we will use it as an ingredient in something else we create, Sauces, marinades, baked goods, BBQ sauce.... etc

[BC Birch Tapper]

It's a polypropolene pre filter that we use for filtering the syrup not sure of the size 1 micron but sounds about right. You may want to consider tapping different trees as the tap holes may have too much bacteria in them. You could retap the same trees, but we only like to tap the trees 1x/year. Birch trees are short lived compared to maple & more sensitive as well.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

Interesting to hear you tap every year - has that been successful for many years for you now? I have seen mixed feedback on frequency of tapping. We are tapping nothing smaller than 10" diameter, only one tap per tree, and we are also using 5/16" spouts - are you using the same? I notice many of the birch producers using 7/16" but there is SO much sap out of a 5/16" I can't see a compelling reason to go larger. I also used alcohol to sterilize the drill bit on each hole.

I picked up 40 gallons of sap this morning and it looked and smelled really nice - the trees are flowing faster than ever. And finally, a nice crisp 40 degree morning! The only two drop tubes that got mold were the oldest test tree tubes that had been out multiple weeks - I had replaced the tubes on those two and the sap looked and smelled good, but I am going to scrutinize those buckets a little more carefully each day. Hopefully the other tubes all hold up another week or two with cooler temperatures now.

As ridiculous as it sounds, I was even thinking - with short drop tubes, it would not be all that expensive or difficult to just wrap the tubes and spiles in foil or even a slice of reflective insulation wrapped around them to keep them cooler in the sun. Working in warmer temperatures definitely makes you think a lot more about the contamination issues - I have new respect for bacteria after last week :-)

[Snowy Pass Maple]

We are currently working on getting a board of health approved commercial kitchen setup and opening a shop for selling products we make along with other farm products. We will have a couple of licences for those operations that the birch should fall under at least one, but I'll make sure just in case. As far as the syrup itself we are not sure what we will do with it yet. We will filter and bottle it at the end of the season and decide if it is something we will sell as syrup or if we will use it as an ingredient in something else we create, Sauces, marinades, baked goods, BBQ sauce.... etc

Yea, I think as long as you do your bottling in a licensed commercial kitchen, you're OK - but this will certainly be a significant impediment to birch syrup taking off in NY as I think many smaller maple producers do not have this access. I checked with the dept. of ag/mkts and got the predictable bureaucrat response - "the home processing regs say only maple and honey are exempt, so birch is not exempt." The more useful thing the state could do is agree on a standard for birch syrup - I have read everything from 60 Brix (for which BirchTapper seems to have very sound data) up to 70 Brix.

[grimmreaper]

Never tried birch syrup,I'm a maple producer & was wandering if any body sells it close to Rome ny .I would like to purchase a pint.

[BC Birch Tapper]

We started with 15 trees and some flat restaurant pans and a piece of crap wood stove where the doors barely closed in 2005. Then in 2006 we took the plunge, built a sugar shack & got an evaporator from Quebec. Now we tap about 275 trees and enjoy the season. We recommend the 5/16 as opposed to the larger version & min 8" diameter although we met a fellow in Canada's North where the trees never even reach that diameter, and only 1 tap /tree & sterilizing the drill bit as well. Birch is much shorter lived with thinner bark & more sensitive to disturbance. One finds that after logging if the birch are left & there was much machine traffic they may die afterwards.
It's interesting to hear that lots of people are giving birch tapping a try. We've sold over 300 copies on the Birch Syrup production manual & get calls & questions from people in Canada, US & the UK all the time. It's never going to replace maple, but it is a nice product you can make from the forest especially if you already have the equiptment.
Folks are looking at different options to deal with the weather, it's nice to see people thinking in such innovative ways
Some folks put a cork in afterwards to seal the hole, but then you are putting a foreign body into the tree, which may cause other issues. If youv've got a lot of birch trees it's nice to give Some trees a break now & then as well.

[BC Birch Tapper]

It's interesting how legislation arises from wants, needs & desires. Our federal legislation recognizes tapping of sugar maples only but not birches or any other trees. In BC they also tap big leaf maple which tastes quite like a bolder sugar maple syrup. Quite nice.
Birch is different than maple and from the work we have got done through a lab (BC Institute of Technology) & it appears that 60 deg Brix will make a shelf stable product. It has a lower PH than maple & higher suspended solids ( micronutrients)

[Snowy Pass Maple]

It's interesting how legislation arises from wants, needs & desires. Our federal legislation recognizes tapping of sugar maples only but not birches or any other trees. In BC they also tap big leaf maple which tastes quite like a bolder sugar maple syrup. Quite nice.
Birch is different than maple and from the work we have got done through a lab (BC Institute of Technology) & it appears that 60 deg Brix will make a shelf stable product. It has a lower PH than maple & higher suspended solids ( micronutrients)

You're not kidding about the suspended solids! It's amazing how much precipitates out as you reduce this stuff. I also find that the permeate off birch slows down a lot faster on the RO than maple at similar sugar levels. Still, the RO is finally making it practical for me to manage larger volumes this year - around here the black birch are only 0.5% sugar, so it would be insanity to boil it to make syrup!

[Snowy Pass Maple]

After a rough first week where we suffered excessive souring and fermentation in 70+ degree weather, it's been 9 days of absolutely wonderful birch weather here - lows around freezing; highs around 50 - and this pattern looks to continue for the next few days. We have found a few trees that just aren't yielding much - while others that were slow starters are going really strong now. Our overall average is about 1.6 gallons per 5/16" tap. Some champion trees are doing 3-4 gallons/tap every 24 hours!

Biggest lesson for me thus far is that fanatical cleaning of buckets and chilling of the sap makes a worthwhile difference in sap clarity. I have not let any go more than 5 days without being hit with the powerwasher and am pulling them if I see any evidence of film formation on the bucket bottom. Hard work, but worth it for the quality I think. I'm not sure it is even possible to make quality birch syrup in 70 degree weather based on our experience at the beginning of the run - would require collection every couple of hours and some sort of rapid chilling method. Maple sap and weather conditions seem far more forgiving in terms of dealing with biological concerns.

I may move a few of the slowest buckets that ran better earlier to new trees today to see if I can get the average up to 2 gallons per tap for the next week. I don't see any evidence of buds breaking yet and am hoping this will keep going long enough to make the new taps worth it.

What is the best signal for end of season? A particular stage in the buds? Cloudy sap? Taste? I'm isolating each day's production into separate batches in case it goes south with no obvious visual cue.

[BC Birch Tapper]

As fas as sap yield goes, assuming that you tap during the flow: that there are olympic athlete trees, average trees, & poor performers that never get off of the couch. If a tree is a poor performer it is always a poor performer like your cousin on your mother's side. Maybe if you come back to it in 10 years or something there may be a change, but I'm not sold on that one.
As far as the end of the season goes, it's look for you buckets to turning cloudy & yeasty. One day it's clear, then 1-10 % then 20-25 & then the rest. As we flter our sap when collecting typically when the sap is clear it flows through like water, but when you reach the end the sap takes a long time to go through the filter. That indicates a change in sap & the sugar content drops off as well.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

The trees are still hanging on... each day I think it's going to be the last, but the temperatures have drifted a bit cooler and we had a good freeze last night.

I did get one batch that had a slight smell to it after concentrating to 5% on the RO - I think it was a signal that the RO needed a NaOH wash and it may have been loading up with biofilm that was causing problems. The batch processed after a complete clean last night came off very nice, so I think the sap is still good.

With maple, I only needed to do the NaOH wash as the flowrate declined - with birch, this just continues the theme of constantly replacing filters, cleaning buckets, tanks, and membrane washes as frequently as possible - and way way more than is necessary with maple.

Still running 25 birch taps and making a quart of syrup per day so not ready to shut it all down yet!

[BC Birch Tapper]

We're still in a holding pattern as I tapped 5 test trees yesterday and only 3 were running, & only 1 going well. I'm thinking of tapping Sunday or Monday. It allows a bit of spring clean up before the fun starts.

[BC Birch Tapper]

One more point regarding your end product. YThe first part of the season wil be good for syrup, while the end product from the last part of the season may have better applications in blended products or some other value added product. Let your fingers do the walking with mr google & I'm sure you will get lots of ideas.
At the first part of the season there is some sucrose in the sap but as the season progresses you have more micronutrients & precipitate as you have noted anf the sucrose drops out.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

Pulled the last taps today - temps reaching 60, taps slowing down, and starting to look cloudy. Still a lot of concentrate in the freezer to process through slow heating that will keep me busy for a while!