Birch beer

Birch beer is a beverage, commonly found as a carbonated soft drink made from herbal extracts and birch bark. There are dozens of brands of birch beer available.

Ingredients

The one ingredient used in all recipes of birch beer is birch sap. Most recipes use fermented birch syrup, which is done using baker's yeast. The process of fermentation is done to decompose sugar to alcohol. Other common ingredients include sugar, cinnamon, vanilla beans, and water. Homemade recipes of birch beer also include honey and malt.

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. Popular colors include brown, red, blue and clear, though others are possible.
After the bark is collected, it is distilled to make birch oil. 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.

Birch beer varieties

Birch beer is most commonly found in the Northeastern United States and Newfoundland in Canada. "White" birch beer soda is more common in New England; "red" birch beer 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".
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: