anyone ever test sugar content in birch in the northeast?

[FunnyFarm]

Just a thought I had. searched all over the net but not a whole lot of info out there on making birch syrup. Has anyone here ever tested birch sap for sugar content somewhere in the NE US? we get a bit more sun and a heck of alot nicer weather than Alaska. My thoughts were wouldn't this lead to a higher sugar content?

[happy thoughts]

That's an interesting question. My guess is that although the growing season may be shorter in Alaska, the day length is much longer than here during the growing months when the sugars would be produced for next years sap. I know in Alaska they can grow some pretty huge veggies because of the day length there. It may be similar with birches or at best a draw between the two areas as far as producing the sugars in sap.

[DrTimPerkins]

Has anyone here ever tested birch sap for sugar content somewhere in the NE US?

It is typically low. Just below/above 1.0 brix.

[vernon]

I made 2 gallons last year and it took 180 gallons of birch sap to make 1 gallon of syurp.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

I have never seen 1.0 brix tapping black birch. Typically 0.5-0.6 in my experience, with none of the through-season or tree-to-tree variation that I see with maple. What I notice out of this, however, is that the birch-specific flavors are more concentrated potent than the alaskan birch syrup at same finished brix.

One thought I had is that whatever gives it flavor is at the same level, so that when you concentrate a lot more sap to get the sugar content up, you end up with a lot more concentrated flavor.

Alternatively, I have wondered if black birch is just fundamentally different from paper birch. Not sure how paper birch compares in this area for brix - they are uncommon and typically too small to tap.

I haven't seen anything definitive on the various species yet or what compounds exist in the sap to give it flavor - would certainly be interested to know more if anyone has found good studies.

I also noticed the same thing with some syrup Mike Farrell made at Cornell - I think their trees are also well below 1.0, and thus they are going to very extreme levels of concentration to get to syrup, and it has a stronger flavor than the alaskan stuff.

[happy thoughts]

I haven't seen anything definitive on the various species yet or what compounds exist in the sap to give it flavor - would certainly be interested to know more if anyone has found good studies.



Do a web search for something like birch tapping or birch sap at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. http://www.uaf.edu/

There are some studies and other reference articles there mostly on paper birch but it looks like the commercial industry in the US is in it's infancy and the research is as well. It doesn't look like the industry developed much before the late 1980's. A lot of the works I saw referenced within the info I found at uaf were studies done in scandanavia, eastern europe, and japan. In those countries it's not made into syrup but traditionally drunk fresh from the tree as a spring tonic.

[Scribner's Mountain Maple]

I don't know for sure but I intend to find out. I've been looking into birch syrup lately. My only concern is about finding a place to sell it??? Are there any wholesalers who buy birch syrup? I tap around 1300+ Maples in Duxbury, VT on tubing with Vac. This will be an experiment, I want to get into my woods as soon as the maples shut down and pull all my taps. I intend to bring my drill with me. I must have 1-2-3-400 Birch trees within range of my existing lines and taps. I haven't thinned my woods completely so I have Birch trees next to some Maples. So why not? I'm thinking I can get a couple of hundred birches on tubing and vacuum. I have thought about it and it is worth it if I can sell it. It brings about $60-100 per liter. So that is about $220-350 +/- per gallon. I boil off in the range of 130 gph with my arch, so I'll be making a gal of birch syrup + an hour. From what I've seen from the BC and AK birch producers they finish it on low heat and bring it to 60 Brix to be syrup. In terms of sugar content they call the black birches sweet birches. I wonder about the yellows? I am going to mix it up with whatever birch is in range of an existing maple tap. If all goes well I may be adding more than just maple taps next year. There really aren't many producers who use vacuum for birch syrup production. I would think that vacuum would increase the 2-3 gal a day to 3-4? From what I have read, a paper birch gives 2-3 gal of sap per day at .5 sugar. That info is from BC. I doubt our paper birch's are any less or more sweet.

You can make wine with the left over birch sap in your pans when the season is done. I plan to have about 100 gal of concentrated birch sap that someone can get at the end of the season. I don't think I am that ambitious. If anyone in NE wants to come get it, you could make a lot of wine. Trade for a finished case:-|

There are so many producers of maple in NE and CA that could easily tap birch trees using their existing infrastructure. If I only had an RO.

[Gary R]

My Black Birch's have always run about 0.5%. I've tapped at least 50 different trees. The flow amount is highly variable like red maple. Some put out 3 gal. a day, others a cup. The acid in the sap really cleaned the pan up after boiling. It would be neat to see what happens on vacuum. I could see trying a sap puller on them. We have very few freezes when they are running.

[DrTimPerkins]

I don't know for sure but I intend to find out. I tap around 1300+ Maples in Duxbury, VT on tubing with Vac....I have Birch trees next to some Maples. So why not?

Scribner....Give Dr. Abby van den Berg at UVM PMRC a call. 802-899-9926.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

I don't know for sure but I intend to find out. I've been looking into birch syrup lately. My only concern is about finding a place to sell it??? Are there any wholesalers who buy birch syrup? I tap around 1300+ Maples in Duxbury, VT on tubing with Vac. This will be an experiment, I want to get into my woods as soon as the maples shut down and pull all my taps. I intend to bring my drill with me. I must have 1-2-3-400 Birch trees within range of my existing lines and taps. I haven't thinned my woods completely so I have Birch trees next to some Maples. So why not? I'm thinking I can get a couple of hundred birches on tubing and vacuum. I have thought about it and it is worth it if I can sell it. It brings about $60-100 per liter. So that is about $220-350 +/- per gallon. I boil off in the range of 130 gph with my arch, so I'll be making a gal of birch syrup + an hour. From what I've seen from the BC and AK birch producers they finish it on low heat and bring it to 60 Brix to be syrup. In terms of sugar content they call the black birches sweet birches. I wonder about the yellows? I am going to mix it up with whatever birch is in range of an existing maple tap. If all goes well I may be adding more than just maple taps next year. There really aren't many producers who use vacuum for birch syrup production. I would think that vacuum would increase the 2-3 gal a day to 3-4? From what I have read, a paper birch gives 2-3 gal of sap per day at .5 sugar. That info is from BC. I doubt our paper birch's are any less or more sweet.

You can make wine with the left over birch sap in your pans when the season is done. I plan to have about 100 gal of concentrated birch sap that someone can get at the end of the season. I don't think I am that ambitious. If anyone in NE wants to come get it, you could make a lot of wine. Trade for a finished case:-|

There are so many producers of maple in NE and CA that could easily tap birch trees using their existing infrastructure. If I only had an RO.

On the surface it makes a lot of sense to re-use the investments you have in maple... a couple things I'd suggest from my experience -

A RO really really helps - I can't fathom boiling that much sap - and birch is very well suited for RO because the sap tends to already be a bit warmer (often too warm, which can be its own problem) so the permeate is faster, and the sugar concentration starts so low that much of the work is easier on the membrane. Even taking sap to 2% does 75% of your work in this case. A hobby sized RO could make sense if you're serious about this since it's a fairly easy application to work at those low sugar levels.

Something to think about using existing tubing at the end of the season... from our experience, any difficulty you might have with bacteria during the maple season is nothing compared to what you have to fight with birch. Temperatures can get much higher and even with new buckets, drops and taps, we found it was necessary to clean multiple times in the season to maintain the sap of acceptable quality, even collecting twice a day. Granted, last year had an exceptional warm spell, but it's something to be aware of. The tubing would have an advantage in less time sitting if you were boiling continuously and not holding in a tank - but don't plan to hold it in a tank any longer than possible and clean that tank constantly. And buildup in the drops/taps was worse than anything I have seen with maple. I know recent work also suggests it's pretty hard to clean tubing in general but maybe try doing what you can there - going right into used tubing at the end of a season of maple may be challenging for sap quality. We are going to try a very dense section of birch with a small gravity tubing setup this year, but will probably use virgin tubing for that. Thinking I may try re-using some drop lines on a few taps and see if I can notice any difference.

The other thing to consider is that you can't go anywhere near 67 brix at a full boil without degrading the syrup badly - for example, don't plan to pull off at 55 brix and finish. See if you can line up some way to run a very slow evaporation rate for a much longer period of time to finish - try to figure out that part early before you get too far into it. Last year, after ~20 brix, I didn't even keep it at a simmer - I kept the heat level to where there is just slow evaporation of water. This gives a very light grade when done for maple, and with birch, it seemed to help keep it from getting excessively dark.

I haven't seen much on vacuum yet since so few people even seem to use tubing for birch - but the sap yields are already so massive that I can't see the need :-) It is pretty amazing how much they put out - in our experience, consistently 2 gal/day/tap all season long!

Definitely interesting stuff to try and a challenge if you find the maple season was just way too easy :lol: And if you do run it on the tubing, let me know how it works out!

[Rich]

I made some Birch syrup last year to give it a try. A lot of people thought that I was trying to mess with there heads when they saw buckets on Birch trees. Made for some interesting conversations. Found myself overwhelmed with the sap flow from my paper birch trees... 3 to 5 gallons a day and they will run all night unless the tree freezes. The paper birches here in central New Hampshire averaged 0.7 brix. I don't recommend mixing the yellow birch sap in with the rest. The yellow birch should be boiled by itself because it has a distinct winter green flavor to it. You will find that some people will like the winter green flavor and others will not. Just a heads up. I have switched to plastic buckets and taps because I found that the sap can take on a off flavor if it sits in a metal bucket for more than 24 hours.

[Scribner's Mountain Maple]

Dr Tim, I called and left her a message today. Thanks.

Snow Pass - I wish an RO was in my near future, but i just don't see it happening. Cash poor, dream big... Maybe if I can produce some extra syrup this year I can afford the investment.
In terms of boiling and when to draw it off, I am not sure how that will work out as everything I can read says that it's a different type of sugar and boils different. I hope to get it as close to 60 brix by just using medium steady heat. My arch hold 80 gal +/- of sap so I can't do it in batches. I will need to be drawing off concentrate every hour. Finishing on low heat in turkey cooker for like a week.? Not sure yet really how I can do it, as I said this is an experiment. If I can't have it rumbling, I sure won't be boiling at a rate of 130 gph. More like 100 or even less.

Still I have thought about it and even if Birch Syrup is worth only $100 a gal it is worth an hour of my time to make it and test the process. It is even worth buying a little extra slab wood this year. I mean with maple, if I burn more wood for a faster fire and make 3 gallons of maple syrup in an hour what is that worth? about the same really.

The more I think about it and the natural sugar craze. Where cane sugar and corn syrup are not advised in quantity if at all and maple syrup is still considered a (relatively) safe alternative, I think demand for Birch syrup would increase if people new it existed and was also a safe alternative. I suspect it has all the same properties of Maple in terms of vitamins and minerals, antioxidants. If it could be produced in more quantity to bring the price down it could be a larger product/industry in the US, I think.

Step one, tap a few and see what happens.


Rich, Thanks for the insight. I was thinking Yellows would have had the highest sugar content and produced a better product. I will aim to keep them separate. Not so sure about that though as that makes this even more complicated. Might mix and match shooting for more paper than yellow. A hint of winter green may be nice. I'm kidding. We will see.

The sap flow shouldn't be a problem with it on vacuum and tubing. No collecting, flip vac switch, start boiling and don't stop til I am over it. The sap shouldn't sit in my tank very long as I will be boiling it at as fast or faster than that which I expect it to come in for 200 -300 taps. Apply 20" of vac and who knows what will happen.

I plan to wash my lines at year end so don't think it will hurt the tubing. I hope not.

What time of year did you tap them? Late April or just weather dependent?

[FunnyFarm]

I've been walking my woods and looks like I can pick up about 100 birch on tubing and another 50-60 on buckets figuring to throw myself at it this year and see what happens...

[BC Birch Tapper]

Birch syrup sells for more like $100 per litre or quart, not gallon.
Sugar densities vary depending upon where you are. It appears to be a function of site productivity, ratios vary from 80 to 1 to 120 to 1 depending upon where you are.
Regarding selling it I'm not sure if you want to leave that to somebody else in all cases. You need to educate the sales folks & the customer that it is a different tree,different sugars and a different end use. Folks typically think of maple automatically but you have to put that idea out of your head. You're tasting a totally different product with a different application.

[Scribner's Mountain Maple]

BC Birch Tapper, is there anywhere in the US or Canada that buys Birch Syrup on a Whole sale level? I hear the largest producer in the world is in AK, Do they buy Birch Syrup? I ask because I see educating people in the East being tough at first. To convince people to spend $75-100 a liter on a product that is (to some) less tasty than a liter of maple syrup which they can get for $15-20, will be hard. I know it is different and in limited supply, thus the cost (like caviar). However I think it will be a hard sell for the time being. We have a tremendous resource of birch trees in the east, I suspect greater than most regions of the world. I speak of only my sugar bush, with about 1/5 maple, 1/5 yellow, 1/5 white, 2/5 ash, beech and other. I am feeling ambitious and plan to try to make as much as I can. What I hope for is to find a place to sell it to all at once. Thanks for any help.

[BC Birch Tapper]

There was somebody I believe from Ney York that wanted to purchase a large quantity last year, but I can't recall who it was. There may be a tread still on here that talks about it. Selling something new is always a challenge, but every producer we talk to sells out every year. To sell anything on a large wholesale basis as you know involves a lower price for the producer as others want their cut. For us marketing takes a wide variety of avenues and one has to work at it as there are few large purchasers. We go to our local farmer's market, use social media & our website as only a few components of a marketing strategy. First you need to make a good, stable consistent product, then you need to educate your customer on your product. Provide samples, provide items for local fundraisers, get it in the hands of some local chefs & see what they can do. Just a few thoughts.....good luck

[Scribner's Mountain Maple]

Thanks BC, I think you are right in saying that I need to establish a stable consistent product before I worry about selling it. That will be step 1. From everything I can read it is similar in property to very dark maple syrup in terms of the type of sugar. I suspect it boils similar to dark syrup and have to be very careful when getting close to 60-65 brix. My cousin is coming in a few weeks from AK and I have instructed him to bring me a sample so I know what it is supposed to taste like. I'll send you a sample for critique if I successfully produce a product I think is worthy.

[MillbrookMaple]

We tried making birch last year and learned a few things. Also, my business partner went to a presentation at Verona given by someone that did it up near Lake Placid last year. I will try to get him to make me a list of things they went over and I can post to you or even better get the information of the person that gave the presentation. A few things off the bat that I remember he said was, there were bacteria problems using birch after the maple season using the same tubing. Vacuum didn't really increase flow like it does in maple. Lastly they said that plugging the tap holes was not necessary as stated by the AK tappers. I don't know what there scientific credentials are so I don't know if that is valid, but that is what was talked about. What we found at home last year was our sugar content was between .5 and .7, White birch gives the most sap and Black the least, Sap spoils really fast so you need to get it boiling soon and collect often, and lastly it as an ingredient makes really good chocolate chip cookies.
BTW. We were in the 70s the week we did it, which is rare for late March so it wasn't the most normal conditions to test a new process out with.

[Scribner's Mountain Maple]

Millbrook, I do love Chocolate Chip cookies!! I think the presenter in Verona was who I spoke with. That is exactly what he told me, that vac didn't make a difference, and that it was a mistake to use the same tubing as maple (***without cleaning first after maple production was complete***). Otherwise he said it worked great. He told me he used the same laterals as maple tubing and cut in new drops for birch. I can't imagine that Vac makes no difference. I think they are doing research on that at Proctor this year. He added he took it to 67 brix on his arch with no problems. He also told me that he sold it for an exxxxtra ordinary amount per gal. I think if you can make 20+ gal, it is a good supplement to maple income.

[BC Birch Tapper]

We've had some testing done at a lab that indicates that you don't have to finish birch to 66 deg brix as in maple. Tests have indicated that it only needs to go to 60 deg, which is good as it gets very easy to burn the higher brix reading is obtained. It is a function of PH, water activitiy & sugar content Birch is more acidic which lends itself to a lower sugar content. As it is colleced later in spring daily collection of sap & lots of cleaning/rinsing is required.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

Thanks BC, I think you are right in saying that I need to establish a stable consistent product before I worry about selling it. That will be step 1. From everything I can read it is similar in property to very dark maple syrup in terms of the type of sugar. I suspect it boils similar to dark syrup and have to be very careful when getting close to 60-65 brix. My cousin is coming in a few weeks from AK and I have instructed him to bring me a sample so I know what it is supposed to taste like. I'll send you a sample for critique if I successfully produce a product I think is worthy.

One of the most important differences is that birch is fructose - so actually a completely different sugar, which is why it burns so easily. To me, it has a fruity taste - sort of like a raisin liqueur if you could imagine such a thing. A lot of people use things like double boilers well before reaching 60 brix just to avoid burning it. It has a really cool red color when it's thin but it can get really dark and molasses like if heated too much.

I think the black birch makes a more intense flavor than the paper birch syrup from Alaska, and that has been the reaction from just about anyone who has compared ours to the Alaskan syrup - if you like the taste, the black birch is just more intense. I suspect this is because you end up concentrating a lot more sap, intensifying other flavor compounds to get to the necessary brix. Just my guess though... haven't seen any scientific analysis of this yet.

One of the biggest obstacles in NY at the moment is that you can't package and sell birch syrup under the exemptions that apply to honey/maple unless you either rent a commercial kitchen or have your own with the $400 license fee on top of it. You may want to check VT on this as well. With no standard for birch syrup, many states may be difficult about this for a while.

It's also really easy to make bad birch syrup. Both burnt or spoiled - the time of year makes it a lot harder. We went on a schedule of washing buckets every 3 days with a powerwasher after we lost hundreds of gallons of sap/concentrate to spoilage. (the same warm weather last year MillbrookMaple refers to...) That led to great results after that point.

A chef we know really likes it and has used it in some pretty interesting stuff - smoked mussels with ramps and birch syrup at last year's ramp festival; also in a dish with sweetbreads.

Anyway, enough about birch - it's still maple season after all :-)

[KenWP]

I have 4 different kinds of birch on my place and have tapped them all. Never seen better then .5% sugar so far. Usually takes about 200 gallons to get a gallon or so of dark syrup my wife makes cookies and such out of. It stores well also. Found I can't store it more then a day at most and that it is best to at least get it hot and started in the evaporator before shutting down for the day.
I made birch maple syrup the one year and it did really well. Takes more to get a gallon but the maple protects the birch from burning and gives me a nice dark syrup.

[BC Birch Tapper]

Birch contians fructose & glucose along with some other micronutrinets. At the 1st of the season it actually contains a small bit of sucrose. ( maple is primarily sucrose) fructose has a lower boiling temp than sucrose which explains why Ken had a good experience with the birch maple blend. Maple is more forgiving. Fructose will scorch at temps > 100 deg C & the longer you heat it the darker & more carmelized it becomes. As the sugars concentrate you need to reduce the heat to avoid scorching. You're not a true syup maker until you burned a batch or 2, & I'm a syrup maker. As long as it is not burnt too much you can still use it in marinades etc, but I wouldn't sell it.
As there are no standards there are people selling all sorts of things. We find it best to be open with your customers & have full disclosure. Is it pure or a blend & what sugar concentration is it finished to. If you're going to make a blend make it the same way every time. Some folks add fructose or organic cane sugar to make a finished product. We find anything < 60 deg brix is not likley shelf stable. You might be able to go a bit lower but that would involve more lab work.

[Mean_Oscar]

Realize your post was 12 years ago. In NE TN, we have made black birch syrup a couple of years. Brix ranging from .5 to 1.0. Second year with RO assist, I simmered at or below 200F and you could actually see through a 4 oz jar finished to 66 Brix. New quest is beech. on 2-15, got 1.2 Brix from a 12" tree where birches are. On 2-19 a 30" dia ran 1.4 Brix. All excited, on 2-25, went to a beech grove in SW VA and got 0.3: huge shock and disappointment! With -23" Hg capable 36W vac pump, I got 1 gallon an hour from 3 taps on same tree. Who knows what beech sap schedule is? I got 1.9 Brix without vacuum from a maple 20 feet away for a benchmark.
Any info on sweetgums appreciated too. Same day as 30" dia beech, got 0.3 Brix from one.