Drink the Forest! All Birch Healing Myco-Brew

Tapping yellow birch trees for the second year here at SHO—a small 15-bucket collection system—we learned much about how to best leverage the feast and foods of the forest. Approximately 100 gallons of sap yield 1 gallon of 65% sugar birch syrup. Reverse osmosis systems remove water from sap, and greatly lessen the time it takes to evaporate water via boiling. Something we expect to try in coming years.

Given the low sap-to-syrup conversion, we decided to boil the sap only part-way while infusing the sap with the very medicinal polypore fungi that the tree hosts:: chaga, hoof fungus, and birch polypore. Then, we experimented with two brews: 1) by adding the ‘wort’ to a probiotic water kefir base, and 2) by adding mead yeast into the wort to create a light soda, with no-to-very-low alcohol.

Tapping yellow birch. 100 gallons of sap make one gallon of syrup. Sap collection by Alex Lampel

Chaga, birch polypore, and hoof fungus. All grow on birch.

Medicinal properties of three polypores.

Fomes Fomentarius (Hoof Fungus):

Anti-viral, Anti-bacterial, Anti-inflammatory

“Another mushroom recognized for its antiviral activity is Fomes fomentarius, a hoof-shaped wood conk growing on trees, which inhibited the tobacco mosaic virus in a study (M. Aoki et al. 1993). Stamets, Paul. Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

Inonotus obliquus (Chaga):

Antibacterial, Anti-inflammatory, Antitumor, Antiviral, Blood Sugar Moderator, Immune Enhancer, Liver Tonic. Stamets, Paul. Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

Piptoporus betulinus (Birch Polypore)

Antibacterial, Anti-inflammatory, Antiviral, Immune Enhancer. Stamets, Paul. Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

Cheers!