Moses Cook (1717)Birch Water Mead Recipe

[wildoates]

If you boil a gallon of anything for an hour you're not going to have much left in the pot!

 

[Tannin Boy]

O.K., I get it.

Like this site.

Sounds good to me. They even have an on-line source in the comments.

MM,

Right on target.....

Yesterday I called around and found a local source for the Maple Tree Taps.
Seems the local farm & Pet store had some. The young guy at the counter even had tapping knowledge about the maximum depth to set them! SO know I'm down to finding one of those Birch trees...I lived through the 60's and there was a bad blight in this area and killed many of them off and then came 1991 ICE Storm What a mess and it did many more of those vulnerable type trees in!
Ok, so now I'm off to the gun club canvasing my homeboys to see if anyone has a birch tree? Low and behold a buddy has one in the back forty!!! So I'm off an running to find my old brace and bit and hope to get it tapped this coming weekend...?
Now, that being said I have never done or for that matter even thought of doing what I assume to be a traditional style Mead ( Water & Honey )

Help! I've got Schramms book, but I need some thoughts and suggestions as to how to best proceed with making this come together. Hope you all can offer a method and consensus as to how to proceed?

TB

 

[Chevette Girl]

If you boil a gallon of anything for an hour you're not going to have much left in the pot!

Hehe, my chicken soup begs to differ... don't forget though, typical maple syrup is reduced a LOT, 40 volumes of sap make one volume of syrup...


Tannin Boy,

I'd just try to update the old recipe to today's methods with what you have, boil your gallon of sap for an hour with some lemon zest and a couple cloves, add the honey (a quart's about a litre which is about 25% more than 1 kg, so about 2.75 lb), let it cool, and add ale yeast or if you brew beer or know someone who does, a couple teaspoons of non-pasteurized/stabilized beer or lees or active fermenting beer or something to get it started, let it ferment and clear and tell us if it's any good!

 

[mmclean]

Not sure how many types of birch you have in NY, but make sure the one you tap is Betula papyrifera, also known as Paper Birch, American White Birch and Canoe Birch.

Too bad they don't grow this far south, I'd love to try this.

 

[randrick]

You may have already come across this but evidently tapping birch trees is fairly common in Alaska. http://www.ehow.com/how_5903128_tap-birch-trees-sap.html

I thought the 40:1 reduction for maple syrup was painful. 70:1 for birch syrup, wow. Even if you used reverse osmosis to halve the water content, you would still have a long way to go for syrup.

This sounds like a facinating recipe. I may have to hunt down a birch tree myself.

 

[wayneb]

At that ratio, you'd need a grove of trees before you could get enough sap to contribute any noticeable birch character!

 

[TheAlchemist]

Keep sleuthin', TB.
We're all watching for your results!

 

[1k_wayne]

One of the guys I work with has about 70 Sugar Maples on his property, and promised me a couple gallons of sap. Looking around, one of the first sites I found was this:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request132.asp

I was thinking instead of adding sugar or honey, I wonder if it would be worth it to boil it down until I get a high enough SG. Also, what yeast would be good for this?

 

[TheAlchemist]

I was thinking instead of adding sugar or honey, I wonder if it would be worth it to boil it down until I get a high enough SG. Also, what yeast would be good for this?

I've been thinking about doing something like that, too. Most acerglyn recipes use champagne yeast.

 

[Chevette Girl]

I've always used EC-1118 for my acerglyns. The one batch I tried to do as a JAO-style with bread yeast ended up getting EC-1118 too because it stalled out very early.

 

[1k_wayne]

I picked up 3 1/2 gallons of sap this morning. The SG is a little lower than I hoped, It's 1.014. It's on the stove right now, I'll boil it down to a gallon, but I'm going to have to add some of the maple syrup I got from him last year. I'll be shooting for something in the 1.070-1.090 range.

 

[TheAlchemist]

I picked up 3 1/2 gallons of sap this morning. The SG is a little lower than I hoped, It's 1.014. It's on the stove right now, I'll boil it down to a gallon, but I'm going to have to add some of the maple syrup I got from him last year. I'll be shooting for something in the 1.070-1.090 range.

I'll be watching for your up-dates here, Wayne. I started tapping trees during last month's full moon, not too great of flow yet, my SG for the first galon was 1.006.

I've been boiling it down some, but don't have a clue what the SG is after being boiled.

 

[1k_wayne]

I got the SG up to 1.044 by boiling, the syrup I had brought it to 1.056, I added about a pound of honey and that brought it to 1.092. Pitched EC-1118 last night

 

[Tannin Boy]

I'll be watching for your up-dates here, Wayne. I started tapping trees during last month's full moon, not too great of flow yet, my SG for the first galon was 1.006.

I've been boiling it down some, but don't have a clue what the SG is after being boiled.

We just tapped today, a bit late I know
Thanks for everyone's information and look forward to all the results.

TB
P.S. Hopefully we are not boiling to the syrup point?
Have you added honey before boiling?

 

[TheAlchemist]

... Hopefully we are not boiling to the syrup point? Have you added honey before boiling?

That would take some doin'
The sap:syrup ratio is 40:1
I've been boiling maybe 2 gallons down to maybe 1/2 gallon, about 4:1
Finished syrup has a gravity of something like 1.37
I don't know what my boiled down gravity is, I've been storing it in small samples. When I'm finally ready to add honey and make mead I'll throw it all together and take a gravity reading.

I'll be watching your posts to see how this goes for you.

 

[Tannin Boy]

I thought I would add this article from the NY Times.
Seems this sap water is a tradition around the world!

Interesting..

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/w...l=1&adxnnlx=1300023033-5BvOmjLm1f5YaPK8YnC4SA

TB

 

[TheAlchemist]

They drink 5gal in one day?!
Keep the path to the commode clear!

 

[TheAlchemist]

Sweet!

Have been reading a book by Mors Kochanski ( Bush Craft )
This is a wilderness survival book from our friends to the north
of our border, my family's origin Canada!

Well, of all things I find an ancient mead recipe dating from 1717 8)

To every Gallon of Birch-Water put a quart of honey well stilled together, then boil it almost an hour with a few cloves, and a little lemon-pel,keeping it well scum'd; when it is sufficiently boil'd and become cold, add to it three or four spoonfuls of good ale, to make it work, which it will do like new ale; and when the yeast begins to settle, bottle it up as you do other winery liquors, it will in a competent time become a most brisk and spirituous drink, which is a very powerful opener - Moses Cook (1717), The Manner of Raising, Ordering and Improving Forest-Trees.

I've found a birch I think I can tap! Will put Moses Cook on the Brewlog page if I can work it out!

Any suggestions for what
Good Ale
I might use as a starter?

 

[Tannin Boy]

I've found a birch I think I can tap! Will put Moses Cook on the Brewlog page if I can work it out!

Any suggestions for what
Good Ale
I might use as a starter?

Hoping this will work for you?
It looks like I missed the time line for this regions Sap run?
We have had our tap in for 4 days and no sap to date?
I am curious as well as to suggestions of an Ale/yeast that can do the job?
Good luck on your journey, I shall live vicariously through yours and others
posts here at the Moses Cook Experiment....


TB

 

[1k_wayne]

Sap runs when day temps are above freezing, and night temps below freezing. After checking the weather, it looks like the last week of February and the first week of March are when your trees were flowing this year.