D*Bo
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Anybody have a recipe for a homemade birch beer?
Birch Beer
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If you are talking soda, there are extracts on the market that work well.
I did try using a birch beer extract to make an alcoholic version, based it on a Mild recipe. The wort tasted great, but once the sugar fermented out, I couldn't taste the birch at all. There was a slight aroma. I suspect back-sweetening would have helped.
I did try using a birch beer extract to make an alcoholic version, based it on a Mild recipe. The wort tasted great, but once the sugar fermented out, I couldn't taste the birch at all. There was a slight aroma. I suspect back-sweetening would have helped.
D*Bo
Well-Known Member
I know there are some good extracts out there, but I'd prefer to do one from scratch.
Haven't found anything that good on the internet yet.
Haven't found anything that good on the internet yet.
Sweet Birch (Betula lenta) Sweet Birch was used commercially in the past for production of oil of wintergreen to flavor medicines and candy before modern industrial synthesis; the tree's name reflects this scent of the shoots.
That should get you started.
That should get you started.
Measure 4 quarts of finely cut twigs of sweet birch into the bottom of a 5 gallon crock.
In a large kettle, stir 1 gallon of honey into 4 gallons birch sap and boil for 10 minutes, then pour over the chopped twigs. When cool, strain to remove the twigs and return to the crock.
Spread 1 cake of soft yeast on a slice of toasted rye bread and float on top of the beer. Cover with a cloth and let ferment until the cloudiness just starts to settle, about a week but it depends somewhat on the temperature.
Bottle the beer and cap tightly. Store in a dark place and serve it cold after the weather gets hot. It should stand in the bottles for about 3 months before using. If opened too soon, it will foam all over and pop worse than champagne.
THIS IS NOT A DRINK FOR CHILDREN:
SWEET BIRCH (Betula lenta) also called Black birch, Sweet birch or Cherry birch has fragrant bark and twigs that smells of wintergreen. The sap flows about a month later than maple and much faster than maple. You tap the trees the same as maple but must gather about 3 times as often.
The sap also can be boiled the same as maple but the syrup is much stronger, more like molasses.
In a large kettle, stir 1 gallon of honey into 4 gallons birch sap and boil for 10 minutes, then pour over the chopped twigs. When cool, strain to remove the twigs and return to the crock.
Spread 1 cake of soft yeast on a slice of toasted rye bread and float on top of the beer. Cover with a cloth and let ferment until the cloudiness just starts to settle, about a week but it depends somewhat on the temperature.
Bottle the beer and cap tightly. Store in a dark place and serve it cold after the weather gets hot. It should stand in the bottles for about 3 months before using. If opened too soon, it will foam all over and pop worse than champagne.
THIS IS NOT A DRINK FOR CHILDREN:
SWEET BIRCH (Betula lenta) also called Black birch, Sweet birch or Cherry birch has fragrant bark and twigs that smells of wintergreen. The sap flows about a month later than maple and much faster than maple. You tap the trees the same as maple but must gather about 3 times as often.
The sap also can be boiled the same as maple but the syrup is much stronger, more like molasses.
Reverend74
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BIRCH BEER SODA
Boil 6 quarts water
Add 3 lbs honey,
1/2 inch brewers licorice,
1 cinnamon stick,
2 split vanilla bean,
1/4 teaspoon salt,
1 oz. chopped, Black Birch bark,
1 oz. Birch twigs,
1/2 cup molasses,
6 cups sugar,
1/8 tsp nutmeg,
Let boil for 1-1 1/2 hours. Turn off heat.
Add 1 oz. dried wintergreen,
10 quarts cold water (1-2 ratio)
Let cool to room temp. (60-95 degrees)
Sift through seive
Carbonation method 1: Add 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
Bottle into 4, 1 gallon plastic containers
Let stand at room temp for 3-5 days
Refridgerate for 5-7 days
Carbonation method 2: Bottle in 12 oz. glass bottles
Add 7 pieces of dry yeast
Cap and let stand at room temp for 3-5 days
Refridgerate for 5-7 days
Boil 6 quarts water
Add 3 lbs honey,
1/2 inch brewers licorice,
1 cinnamon stick,
2 split vanilla bean,
1/4 teaspoon salt,
1 oz. chopped, Black Birch bark,
1 oz. Birch twigs,
1/2 cup molasses,
6 cups sugar,
1/8 tsp nutmeg,
Let boil for 1-1 1/2 hours. Turn off heat.
Add 1 oz. dried wintergreen,
10 quarts cold water (1-2 ratio)
Let cool to room temp. (60-95 degrees)
Sift through seive
Carbonation method 1: Add 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
Bottle into 4, 1 gallon plastic containers
Let stand at room temp for 3-5 days
Refridgerate for 5-7 days
Carbonation method 2: Bottle in 12 oz. glass bottles
Add 7 pieces of dry yeast
Cap and let stand at room temp for 3-5 days
Refridgerate for 5-7 days
Thank you to those who posted these recipes, I've been wondering about Birch Beer. When I went to Canada as a youngster, it was available as a soft drink, but my Methodist-Prohibitionist step-parents wouldn't let us kids buy it because it said 'beer' on the label (same with root-beer) and they were tee-totalers.....
The only other recipe I could find was on Wikipedia -
"Alcoholic birch beer, in which the birch sap is fermented rather than reduced to an oil, has been known from at least the seventeenth century. The following recipe is from 1676:
To every Gallon whereof, add a pound of refined Sugar, and boyl it about a quarter or half an hour; then set it to cool, and add a very little Yest to it, and it will ferment, and thereby purge itself from that little dross the Liquor and Sugar can yield: then put it in a Barrel, and add thereto a small proportion of of Cinnamon and Mace bruised, about half an ounce of both to ten Gallons; then stop it very close, and about a month after bottle it; and in a few days you will have a most delicate brisk Wine of a flavor like unto Rhenish. Its Spirits are so volatile, that they are apt to break the Bottles, unless placed in a Refrigeratory, and when poured out, it gives a white head in the Glass. This Liquor is not of long duration, unless preserved very cool. Ale brewed of this Juice or Sap, is esteem'd very wholesome." -
Now all I gotta do is find some birch trees, and teach myself to tap them for the sap and boil it down and have some 'original' Birch Beer.
The only other recipe I could find was on Wikipedia -
"Alcoholic birch beer, in which the birch sap is fermented rather than reduced to an oil, has been known from at least the seventeenth century. The following recipe is from 1676:
To every Gallon whereof, add a pound of refined Sugar, and boyl it about a quarter or half an hour; then set it to cool, and add a very little Yest to it, and it will ferment, and thereby purge itself from that little dross the Liquor and Sugar can yield: then put it in a Barrel, and add thereto a small proportion of of Cinnamon and Mace bruised, about half an ounce of both to ten Gallons; then stop it very close, and about a month after bottle it; and in a few days you will have a most delicate brisk Wine of a flavor like unto Rhenish. Its Spirits are so volatile, that they are apt to break the Bottles, unless placed in a Refrigeratory, and when poured out, it gives a white head in the Glass. This Liquor is not of long duration, unless preserved very cool. Ale brewed of this Juice or Sap, is esteem'd very wholesome." -
Now all I gotta do is find some birch trees, and teach myself to tap them for the sap and boil it down and have some 'original' Birch Beer.
I am in the process of trying to make something for family members. I do not know much about mead, would this be like a mead do to the fact that most of the fermentables are honey? I have birch sap as my boil water. Could I use mead yeast to do this? I punched in the numbers into a brew program and comes out to almost 8.5% ABV. Any thoughts or help are greatly appreciated.
Since I have no idea where a person would be able to find birch sap (No Birch trees around here that I know of; do you harvest it like they get maple sap from a maple tree?), I can't help, but I'll give you a bump to see if anyone can give any more info!
Thanks for the bump....My family and I have made Birch syrup before and harvest it like maple syrup (make that too) I made some changes to the recipe but attempted it for the most part. I used 9lbs of honey and threw in .5 of brown sugar (for giggles). 4.5 gallons of Birch sap (white) with 15min boil. steeped about 1 gallon of black birch branches (dripping like crazy when I snipped them) for 50 minutes. I used, because I have no clue, Wyeast sweet mead yeast. As it ferments, I definitely smell the wintergreen odor from the branches. This is a total science project. If I can stomach the taste and it has the ability to intoxicate.....and I don't die, I guess I can call it a success. Brew day was 2 days ago.
Singletrack
Because it's judgement that defeats us.
Have to assume it killed you. R.I.P. brave birch beer maker.
No, I did not die ��. It was tasty. I bottled it before it was done fermenting so it was not dry. It bubbles like crazy. I lost only two bottles. If I do again, I'll let it ferment more and maybe use a different yeast. Very sweet with wintergreen flavor.
