So I have a nice grove of silver birch trees on a slope that would be perfect to tap....I know it's about 100:1 ratio
.....but how parallel is the process? If I have the time is it worth It?
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So I have a nice grove of silver birch trees on a slope that would be perfect to tap....I know it's about 100:1 ratio
.....but how parallel is the process? If I have the time is it worth It?
I have extremely limited experience with birch. Tried tapping 2 white birch and 1 yellow birch 3 years ago and spent almost nine hours boiling on my kitchen stove only to realize that either I totally missed it or it tastes like yuck. Maybe I was too late in the season
I know the process is much slower than maple.
I don’t think I would do it again
We had about 300 black birch taps on vacuum a couple years ago. You definitely want an RO. We have one and it still took a long time to boil. We never really found a market for the stuff and still have some.
My understanding is we don't want to boil the Birch sap. Apparently the different sugars are likely to burn.
My thought is to convert my maple evaporator into a Birch evaporator when the mapl season is over.
I believe the modifications I will need is to adapt a tray for some firebrick to lay on directly under the pan. Therefore if the fire gets to hot, it will store into the brick and act like a crock pot.
Any thoughts?
I have thought about designing a pan to fit on top of my syrup pan to act as a double boiler when the lower pan is filled with water. Boiling down the raw birch sap about halfway in the rear pans before transferring it to the top pan. I've heard the lower scorching temps don't really happen until it's cooked about halfway. Using hardwood for heat instead of softwood may help keep the sap to more of a simmer than a boil. But that's just my theory, i wonder how efficient it would be. Having an RO and turning your evaporator to a giant double boiler would probably be more safe and efficient.
I had some a friend gave me that he brought back from Alaska. Did not like it at all. Had a bitter finish to it. I guess if you never tried maple syrup you may like it but it wasn't for me.
I had a friend bring some back from Alaska for me to try too. Like you, I thought it was kind of bitter and really didn't like it. He was all excited about it and ready to move to Alaska so he could make it himself.Quote:
Originally Posted by bill m
My wife was up north a few years back,bought a 250 ml bottle,paid $40.00 for it,looked like motor oil that had never been changed,smelled like burnt molasses,I wouldn't even try it,witnessed a few friends spitting it back out though
Our maple season ended early last year and I still had some ambition left, so I tapped 50 birches that are right next to one of my mainlines. I had saved some maple permeate for this purpose and concentrated it 4 times and it was still only 2.5% sugar content. I then spent 2 nights boiling it down on a gas finisher and ended up with a quart out of 50 gallons of sap. My wife hates the stuff, I think it tastes more like teriyaki than syrup. It's good as a glaze for cooking, but I'll never do it again!
I made birch syrup a few years ago, but I did a lot of reading before I did it, so I wasn't as surprised by the results as some seem to be. First, it is not pancake syrup, nor would it be good for sweetening coffee. It's okay for oatmeal or drizzled on vanilla icecream, but it is much like molasses and works in most of the same applications, like baking, BBQ sauces, meat glazes, etc. The uniqueness of birch really shines in making things like pulled pork or beef brisket, but BBQ spareribs are my favorite use for it. RO makes a big difference because you burn less of the fructose, which is the primary sugar in it, but even so, you have to approach the syrup density slowly after boiling most of the water out. But I will tell you how I learned to make it better. Add 1-4 cups of plain white table sugar per 100 gallons of sap. This makes the boil behave much better. Of course, you can't do this if you intend to market it as pure, but it will taste much better and work better in baking.