When do I tap birch?

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When do I tap birch?
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WhiteWolf

Joined: 17 Sep 2005
Posts: 68
Location: Gloucestershire

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 06 5:59 pm Post subject:

Northern_Lad wrote:

-... .. .-. -.-. ....

- .- .--. .. -. -- .- .-. -.-. ….

gil
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Joined: 08 Jun 2005
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 06 6:18 pm Post subject:

Books I've got re wine making say
when : first 2 weeks of March - but I reckon whenever buds are dark and fat around that time - I do it slightly later up here - 2nd-3rd week of March.
what size : Trunk above the shoulders at ground level to be 9" diameter or greater.
How much to take : a gallon from each tree

How long will that take ? This depends on how fast the sap is rising and what time of day you tap the tree. The books say 24 hrs. But .....

The earlier in the year you tap, the longer it will take to extract a gallon. Sap seems to rise fastest early in the morning. So if you tap in late afternoon, you may easily have a gallon by the following lunchtime. Not always for 24hours is the answer, if you're sticking to the 'only take a gallon' principle. I've tapped a tree for 24 hrs and got 2 gallons, changing an overflowing demijohn in the morning. The tree was fine after, but I wouldn't do that to it again. If you tapped earlier in the year, 24 hrs would not give you a gallon.

I tried tapping a couple of sycamores, but found the yield very disappointing (a couple of pints in 24 hours) - anyone else had a go at this ?

Definitely worth doing - the wine is fantastic. The sap itself has a very odd non-taste and has a bluish cast in the light.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 06 6:24 pm Post subject:

gil wrote:

Definitely worth doing - the wine is fantastic. The sap itself has a very odd non-taste and has a bluish cast in the light.

Has anyone tried boiling the sap down to make syrup?

gil
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Joined: 08 Jun 2005
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 06 6:32 pm Post subject:
Apparently it takes a far larger number of gallons of birch sap to make syrup than it would take of maple sap (already quite a lot needed for that). I think it might be 40 gallons of birch sap for 1 gallon of syrup, or maybe more. I'd rather have the wine, myself ! Given that most of us don't have access to that many tappable trees.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 06 6:45 pm Post subject:
That's a shame. I really fancied making some syrup, but it sounds as though my two trees would barely give enough sap to fill a small bottle.

Treacodactyl
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 06 6:55 pm Post subject:

gil wrote:

I tried tapping a couple of sycamores, but found the yield very disappointing (a couple of pints in 24 hours) - anyone else had a go at this ?

Definitely worth doing - the wine is fantastic. The sap itself has a very odd non-taste and has a bluish cast in the light.

I have a huge sycamore in our garden, about as large as they get I think, so I could try tapping it. Can you make a sycamore sap wine out of it then?

Also, when plugging I saw good old Ray Mears tapping a birch tree and he cut a small fresh branch of the tree, stripped the bark and made a plug which just fitted and he lightly hammered it home and trimmed off the wood still sticking out. Does that sound about right?

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42207
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 06 7:08 pm Post subject:
What did he make the thing from to go over the wound where he'd cut the branch to plug the hole?

gil
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Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 06 7:09 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

gil wrote:

I tried tapping a couple of sycamores, but found the yield very disappointing (a couple of pints in 24 hours) - anyone else had a go at this ?.

gil wrote:

Definitely worth doing - the wine is fantastic. The sap itself has a very odd non-taste and has a bluish cast in the light.

This was supposed to refer to birch sap wine. Original post not clear. Sorry.

Treacodactyl wrote:

Think my first post was a bit misleading - it's birch sap wine that is fantastic and bluish. I never got enough sap out of my sycamores to do anything with it separately.

So yes, you can make sycamore sap wine, and it should be OK - your tree sounds much bigger than any of mine.

Don't know about Ray Mears' method. I stopped the holes with a plain cork demijohn bung, hammered in with my rubber corking mallet. Worked OK. I used cork on the grounds that it was a kind of tree-like substance. A branhc of the actual tree sounds good too. Bit like tissue transplants - get the best match. (?)

gil
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Joined: 08 Jun 2005
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 06 7:20 pm Post subject:
here's a pic

gil
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 06 7:23 pm Post subject:
pls cld someone resize that pic to sensible proportions ? ta.

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
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Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 06 7:27 pm Post subject:

gil wrote:

pls cld someone resize that pic to sensible proportions ? ta.

OK.... Tis done.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 06 10:02 am Post subject:
I have half a dozen sycamores, including two monsters. Considering birch can be thin on the ground over here I'm going to give them a try.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45432
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 06 10:08 am Post subject:
Any acer or walnut relative can be tapped too, thats hickories, pecans etc. From memory the trunk needs to be 14" diameter to start tapping

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45515
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 06 9:04 pm Post subject:
yum

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 06 10:33 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Any acer or walnut relative can be tapped too, thats hickories, pecans etc.

From memory the trunk needs to be 14" diameter to start tapping

What is walnut sap like? Any good?

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