hist-brewing: Birch sap wine recipe

[Brokk]

I finally remembered to bring the recipe with me.

Birch sap wine:

9 liters of birch sap
juice of six lemons
0.5 kg raisins
3 g yeast nutrient
2.5 kg sugar
wine yeast

The sap is taken during early spring from large birches when the buds are
starting to split and look like mouse ears.
Drill a hole 16 inches above the ground and insert a plastic hose of
sufficient diameter.  No more than 5 liters may be drained from a single
tree.  Remember to plug the hole when done.
Chop the raisins and boil them in 3 liters of sap for 5 minutes.  Stir in
sugar and the rest of the sap.  Let cool, add lemon juice and yeast (I
prefer to make a start culture).
Strain out raisins after 1 week and allow to ferment until done.
An easily made drink is to add 5 dl of sugar to 4 or 5 liters of sap and
ferment with beer yeast.  According to the recipe it will yield a drink with
4-5% abv.  

Birch sap has very little taste on its own so this spring I'm planning to
collect some and store in a freezer until I can get my hands on some black
currants or raspberries.
I'll probably substitute the sugar for honey as well.   Good luck.

Angus MacIomhair

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send email to majordomo at pbm.com containing
the words "unsubscribe hist-brewing" (or unsubscribe hist-brewing-digest, if
you get the digest.) To contact a human about problems, send mail to
owner-hist-brewing at pbm.com