We moved out to rural Manitoba nearly three years ago, and it was with great pleasure that I noticed a healthy, mature Sugar Maple in our back yard. (They don't often make it through our winters...) Of course, I HAD to tap the maple to make syrup, and while I was at it, I thought I'd conduct a few experiments on some of the other "heavy spring bleeder"--trees in our yard: namely, Manitoba Maple and White Birch.

Making maple syrup is NOT an ecomomical exercise!  Over the course of a spring's flow, I probably manage to make somewhere in the order of 2 litres of syrup from my one tree (I only tap it every second year).. and it takes probably around half an hour of daily work for several weeks in order to make this happen.  On the other hand, it's delicious, and as a novelty when friends come to visit from the city ("Oh, yes... here's some of the syrup I made!")--it's worth it to me.

I only made "Manitoba Maple" syrup the first year--it was OKAY, but I didn't LOVE it enough to justify tapping more Manitoba Maple trees.

That first year, I also tapped a White Birch in my front yard.  It was astonishing to see how much sap flowed from even a modest sized tree... I'm talking about 20 litres a DAY (during peak flow) from a tree no bigger than 30cm in diameter.

Making birch syrup is incredibly difficult.  Unlike maple syrup, you cannot BOIL the sap aggressively, or it ends up tasting scorched... Not only that, but where maple sap yields syrup at around a 40:1 ratio, birch sap yields syrup at 100:1!  And the reduction must be done SLOWLY in something like a double-boiler...

ALSO, birch syrup is NOT something you're going to want on your pancakes!  It is simply too strong a flavour.  I confess that I DO like it, but that first year, I used it primarily as a marinade/glaze for pork chops (yum!)...for the effort involved, I'm not convinced I'll tackle birch syrup again.

HOWEVER!--since I had already honed my tapping & harvesting skills, I wondered what else I could do with this plentiful spring resource (?)  BIRCH BEER!  I have brewed wine and beer for many years, and while it is a process I really enjoy, I have mostly just used "kits" from the beer/wine store--which produce beer which is very good, but hardly "unique."

So.  Last year I used BIRCH SAP instead of water in one of my regular, commercial beer kits.  The result? --WOW!  I'm talking the some of the best beer I've ever TASTED, never mind MADE!  As friends around town were introduced to it, everyone seemed to be a huge fan.

One peculiar feature of making this style of "birch beer" is that it reliably goes through a THIRD FERMENTATION around 5 weeks after being racked!  I made 5 batches this spring, and every one of them exhibited this strange additional fermentation.  I've never had a commercial kit do this, nor do I have an explanation for why it happens.  All I know is a LOT of people around here have taken to asking "when is your next batch of birch beer going to be ready?"

Since the trees are already tapped, I ALSO find myself drinking a lot of raw birch sap in the spring--I take a mason jar of it in my lunch, and find it extremely refreshing.

Apart from a few stainless steel pails I picked up, I didn't have to purchase anything for these projects.  Rather than buying commercial plastic spiles to hammer into the tree, I whittle one from a pruned branch from the same tree I'm tapping (see photo, below)... when the flow slows for the spring, or when I'm finished harvesting what I want, I simply hammer in a piece of the same branch and cut it off flush with a hand saw.

I'd be happy to walk anyone through the process of tapping and syrup/birch beer manufacturing, if there's interest.

-Tim