Birch syrup

[Telemark]

In light of the maple syrup thread. Is there anyone who has ,ade or is planning to make birch syrup? I'd like to get out and tap a few trees, but I'm not experienced. I wonder about the diameter of the trees I should tap and the timing of the tapping.

I figure whatever syrup I don't consume, I can eventually blend it out with water and make birch beer, which I like.

 

[Peeps]

I don’t have much experience with birch trees but we did tap a few a couple years ago to try it out. Size for tapping should be similar to maples. Their sugar content is much lower. If I remember right the stuff I found said usually around 80/1. The birches we tapped didn’t flow much during our maple sap run and then really opened up after we were done cooking for the season so I never boiled any of their sap as I was worn out by that time.

 

[PatinPA]

Hmm. I have some good sized birch. How big do they need to be to tap?

 

[Teeder]

I have yellow birch. Would that work?

 

[rocksnstumps]

Yellow birch will work but man those suckers are slow growing. I seem to remember about 100:1 for birch but probably depends on what kind and time of year. Think later in season sugar content goes down/more watered down

 

[Teeder]

That's the only birch I have. Probably only make a pint or 2.
Bet it would be good aged in a bourbon barrel!

 

[b116757]

We tapped all our hard maple and a couple soft maple trees on the property never tried any of the large yellow birch but it’s been many many years since we ran the property near max production probably some time in the 80’s and we ran 600 taps then.