Birch beer

Image:Birch beer still.jpg Folk Festival. Sign reads: "Birch oil is distilled from the sap of the Black Birch tree..."]]

Birch beer is a beverage, commonly found as a carbonated soft drink made from herbal extracts and birch bark.{{Cite web |url=https://www.leaf.tv/articles/how-to-make-homemade-birch-beer/ |title=How to Make Homemade Birch Beer | first= David |last=Grimes |website=www.leaf.tv |access-date=2019-05-30}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-birch-beer.htm |title=What Is Birch Beer? (with pictures) |website=wiseGEEK |language=en-US |access-date=2019-05-30}}{{Cite web |url=https://practicalselfreliance.com/birch-beer/ |title=Birch Beer ~ Small Batch Recipe |date=2018-05-31 |website=Practical Self Reliance |language=en-US |access-date=2019-05-30}}{{Cite web |url=https://tastessence.com/how-to-make-birch-beer |title=How to Make Birch Beer |website=Tastessence |date=21 June 2011 |language=en-US |access-date=2019-05-30}} There are dozens of brands of birch beer available.{{cite web |url=http://rootbeerbarrel.com/category/birch-beers/ |title=anthony's root beer barrel – birch beers |access-date=31 May 2016}}

Ingredients

The one ingredient used in all recipes of birch beer is birch sap. Most recipes use some fermentation, but the amount of alcohol in the beverage depends on the brand.{{citationneeded|date=November 2024}} The process of fermenting birch syrup is done using baker's yeast.{{Cite journal |last=Mitchell |first=James K. |date=1995-10-01 |title=Fun Microbiology: Making Root Beer & Other Naturally Carbonated Beverages |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article/57/7/432/15457/Fun-Microbiology-Making-Root-Beer-amp-Other |journal=The American Biology Teacher |language=en |volume=57 |issue=7 |pages=432–435 |doi=10.2307/4450033 |jstor=4450033 |issn=0002-7685|url-access=subscription }} The process of fermentation is done to decompose sugar to alcohol. Other common ingredients include sugar, cinnamon, vanilla beans, and water.{{Cite web |last=Brewing |first=Renegade |date=2021-03-20 |title=What Is Birch Beer? (Definition, History & Recipe) |url=https://renegadebrewing.com/birch-beer/ |access-date=2022-12-07 |publisher=Renegade Brewing |language=en-US}} Homemade recipes of birch beer also include honey and malt.{{Cite web |title=Sap on Tap: Father and Son Duo Use Black Birch Sap as Key Ingredient in Noble Birch Beer |date=3 August 2018 |url=https://massbrewersguild.org/news/2018/6/7/sap-on-tap-father-and-son-duo-use-black-birch-sap-as-key-ingredient-in-noble-birch-beer |access-date=2022-12-07 |publisher=Massachusetts Brewers Guild |language=en-US}}

Birch extract preparation

Various types of birch beer made from birch bark are available as well, distinguished by color. The color depends on the species of birch tree from which the birch oil is extracted (though enhancements by artificial coloring are commonly present). Popular colors include brown, red, blue and clear (often called white birch beer), though others are possible.

After the bark is collected, it is distilled to make birch oil.{{cite web |url=https://www.wideopenspaces.com/make-birch-oil-directly-birch-bark/ |author=Chris Buckner |title=How to Make Birch Oil Directly From Birch Bark |website=Wide Open Spaces|date=6 July 2017 }} The oil is added to the carbonated drink to give it the distinctive flavor, reminiscent of wintergreen and methyl salicylate. Black birch is the most common source of extract in the northeastern region of the United States, where that species is indigenous.{{cite web |url=https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/betula-lenta/ |title=Betula lenta |website=North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox}}

Birch beer varieties

Birch beer is most commonly found in the Northeastern United States and Newfoundland in Canada. "White" birch beer soda (which is usually transparent) is more common in New England; "red" birch beer (which is very dark and opaque) more common in the Mid-Atlantic.

In the dairy country of southeastern and central Pennsylvania, an ice cream soda made with vanilla ice cream and birch beer is called a "birch beer float", while chocolate ice cream and birch beer makes a "black cow".

File:Bottle of Birch beer.jpg

Alcoholic birch beer, in which the birch sap is fermented, has been known from at least the seventeenth century. The following recipe is from 1676:Worlidge, John, Vinetum Britannicum … (London, England: Thomas Dring, 1676), p. 176. See [https://books.google.com/books?id=ck1XAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA176 p. 176 (1678 ed.)].

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To every Gallon whereof, add a pound of refined Sugar, and boil it about a quarter or half an hour; then set it to cool, and add a very little Yeast to it, and it will ferment, and thereby purge itself from that little dross the Liquor and Sugar can yield: then put it in a Barrel, and add thereto a small proportion of Cinnamon and Mace bruised, about half an ounce of both to ten Gallons; then stop it very close, and about a month after bottle it; and in a few days you will have a most delicate brisk Wine of a flavor like unto Rhenish. Its Spirits are so volatile, that they are apt to break the Bottles, unless placed in a Refrigeratory, and when poured out, it gives a white head in the Glass. This Liquor is not of long duration, unless preserved very cool. Ale brewed of this Juice or Sap, is esteem'd very wholesome.

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