Birch sap recipes

2nd March 2013

When you have collected your birch sap here are a couple of recipes for you to try out.

The first one is Birch Sap Beer by our friend Andy Hamilton from his book “Booze for Free“.

5 litres birch sap
1.25 kg honey
2 litres of birch twigs
Activated Champagne yeast
Sugar for priming

Boil the sap for 10 minutes then stir in the honey. Cut the twigs up to 10cm lengths and add to the pot. Allow to cool to room temperature and then strain into fermentation bin. Pitch the champagne yeast and leave for 4-7 days until fully fermented. Prime 500ml bottles with half teaspoon of sugar and leave for two weeks before drinking.

The second recipe is for Birch Sap wine and is taken from “Wild Food” by Roger Phillips

4.5 liters Birch Sap

200g chopped raisins

1kg sugar

Juice of 2 lemons

General purpose yeast.

Boil the sap soon after collecting, add the sugar and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the raisins to a fermenting bucket and pour on the boiling sap/sugar mixture and lemon juice. Start the yeast in a cup with some sugar and warm water and add to the mixture. Cover the container and leave to ferment for 3 days then strain off into a demijohn and seal with an airlock. Leave in a warm room until the fermentation has stopped. Filter the wine to remove the sediment and bottle into clean, sterilized bottles. Cork and leave for at least a month but six months is even better.

Kev Palmer