birch beer anyone?

[fluketamer]

look what i found , 97 percent juice.

im thinking birch beer
hard birch beer ,
birch wine?

for wine i am going to go with 2 liters birch and 1 liter white grape.

for the soda i figure easy just add ale yeast, maybe some roots ( sasparilla, cinnamon, root beer , ginger? etc ) refrigerate after about 1 percent abv to stop fermentation

for the hard version im thinking maybe add a drop root beer flavoring and either straight up or mixed with some added fermentables (maybe brown sugar molasses or other) although this sounds a little hoochy?

any ideas are welcome

anyone else ever make birch beer ?

thanks

 

[Rish]

I've never seen that stuff! What does it taste like? I think fermenting with would be cool but isn't fermenting everything cool? I think I like the ginger idea depending on its flavor.

 

[fluketamer]

so i used to drink birch beer when i was little.. its very sweet sort of like sweet rootbeer. more sweet than root. lol

birch beer has been described as tasting like the freshest water you ever had (think coconut water) with a tiny bit of sweetness.

theres also a hint of pine in there sometimes. i havent tasted this stuff yet but i bet it will make something good.

and yeah i like the idea of a little fresh ginger in there.
wikipedia mentions adding honey and or malt. vanilla bean also sounds like a good idea.

at 4$ a bottle its worth a try

 

[fluketamer]

1676 recipe for alcoholic birch beer

The following recipe is from 1676:[11]

To every Gallon whereof, add a pound of refined Sugar, and boil it about a quarter or half an hour; then set it to cool, and add a very little Yeast 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 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.

 

[mac_1103]

The canteen at the boy scout camp I went to as a kid had bottled birch beer from a small local soda maker that we all thought was the nectar of the gods.

 

[dmtaylor]

Non-alchoholic birch beers are pretty common, they taste like wintergreen soda, not much different from root beer.

I'm sure I would enjoy alcohol versions.