The puzzle of distilling a spirit that appeals to drinkers while featuring local ingredients—be they herbs, grains, fruits, or other produce—is one that continues to intrigue, inspire, and lead to the creation of unique liquors. However, one way to build an entire spirit on the surrounding bounty is still relatively untapped in North America: distilling with tree sap.
“Tree saps are interesting for distillers looking for something that gives a sense of place … or looking to go deeper with seasonal ingredients,” says Susanne Masters, a botanist and writer in England who’s worked with distillers on sourcing unusual ingredients.
Abroad, one of the best-known examples of this is mastiha, a Greek liqueur made from mastic—dried sap from the mastic bush. The resin yields flavors of pine, cedar, and herbs in the finished liqueur.
Masters stresses the importance of custodianship when distillers source tree sap. Whether you’re sourcing the sap directly or working with a supplier, it’s important to consider replanting native species, when possible, and to avoid over-tapping trees. For distillers invested in local, seasonal ingredients and eco-friendly systems, however, tree sap of various types can provide an authentic connection to the surrounding land.
Every tree is different, Master says. The ideal sap is both safe to consume and offers desirable flavors. However, some saps are unsafe, and not all the safe ones make for tasty products. Plus, some saps are essentially ready to distill, while others require some additional steps.
In North America, there are a few different trees that distillers could consider. The best-known is maple, whose sap needs to be altered in some way—usually via evaporation—to have the right sugar content for fermentation. Black walnut trees, meanwhile, create a sap that’s ready to go. Birch trees also have sap that’s been used for wines and spirits.
The puzzle of distilling a spirit that appeals to drinkers while featuring local ingredients—be they herbs, grains, fruits, or other produce—is one that continues to intrigue, inspire, and lead to the creation of unique liquors. However, one way to build an entire spirit on the surrounding bounty is still relatively untapped in North America: distilling with tree sap.
“Tree saps are interesting for distillers looking for something that gives a sense of place … or looking to go deeper with seasonal ingredients,” says Susanne Masters, a botanist and writer in England who’s worked with distillers on sourcing unusual ingredients.
Abroad, one of the best-known examples of this is mastiha, a Greek liqueur made from mastic—dried sap from the mastic bush. The resin yields flavors of pine, cedar, and herbs in the finished liqueur.
Masters stresses the importance of custodianship when distillers source tree sap. Whether you’re sourcing the sap directly or working with a supplier, it’s important to consider replanting native species, when possible, and to avoid over-tapping trees. For distillers invested in local, seasonal ingredients and eco-friendly systems, however, tree sap of various types can provide an authentic connection to the surrounding land.
Every tree is different, Master says. The ideal sap is both safe to consume and offers desirable flavors. However, some saps are unsafe, and not all the safe ones make for tasty products. Plus, some saps are essentially ready to distill, while others require some additional steps.
In North America, there are a few different trees that distillers could consider. The best-known is maple, whose sap needs to be altered in some way—usually via evaporation—to have the right sugar content for fermentation. Black walnut trees, meanwhile, create a sap that’s ready to go. Birch trees also have sap that’s been used for wines and spirits.
[PAYWALL]
Here, we share tips and insights from three North American distillers making three different spirits—each from different types of maple.
Sourcing and Preparing the Sap
Stephen Mann’s curiosity about distilling with maple sap gave rise to what he views as an entirely new category of spirit.
The founder of MannCave Distillery in Weston, West Virginia, sources unrefined sap from local producer Spruce Knob Maple to make MannCave Ambrosia. On its own, the sap doesn’t have a high enough sugar concentration for yeast to convert into alcohol. Boiling into a syrup, meanwhile, leads to caramelization as well as complex sugars that yeast have a tough time cracking. Aiming to preserve its natural character as much as possible, Mann runs the unrefined maple sap through a reverse-osmosis (RO) system. That removes the water and concentrates the sugars without caramelizing them or making them too complex.
Other distillers use sap that’s already been made into syrup. For their Vermont Gold Vodka, the team at Vermont Spirits buys maple syrup from a farm less than 10 miles from their distillery in Quechee. One key advantage of syrup is that it’s more stable. “Sap is extremely perishable,” says apprentice distiller Don Kolp. “It does not hold up for any length of time.”
Maple sap has an average sugar concentration of about 2.2 percent, but that can vary widely—thus the rule of thumb that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup isn’t quite true. Meanwhile, the sugar concentration in maple syrup also can vary somewhat. In Canada, it must be at least 66° Brix. In Vermont, it must be at least 66.9° Brix—i.e., at least 66.9 grams of dissolved sugar per 100 grams of syrup.
Because that is “too high a value for yeast to even contemplate,” Kolp says, they use 280 gallons of syrup for 1,100 gallons of mash, diluting it to a yeast-friendly concentration of about 20 percent sugar.
Based in Mont-Joli, Quebec, Distillerie Mitis is one of a handful in the province producing a type of eau de vie called acerum—from acer, maple’s Latin name. Similar to Vermont Spirits, the team at Mitis uses maple syrup; co-owners Yan Lévesque and David Soucy also say that it’s because of sap’s perishability.
Fermentation
In West Virginia, Mann says he continues to experiment from batch to batch, and that some Ambrosias are better than others. He says he’s developed a special yeast for Ambrosia that works best with the sap, which spends four months in the fermentor at about 70°F (21°C).
“It’s hard to get it going and keep it going,” Mann says. Sap is finicky, “not an easy thing to work with. But the flavor of Ambrosia is amazing and worth it.” While the spirit is not sweet, he says it showcases a “light maple flavor with notes of a breakfast waffle.”
At Vermont Spirits, Kolp says it takes eight to 10 days to ferment their syrup wash when kept at 68°F (20°C). At Mitis in Quebec, the fermentation takes seven to nine days.
Lévesque and Soucy say they’ve also engaged in plenty of experimentation. Mitis opened about five years ago; after spending most of the first two years making rum, they decided to apply that process knowledge to crafting a spirit from a local sugar source.
However, getting their acerum right has been a bigger challenge, in some ways, than working with molasses to make their rum. For example, they’ve tried two different kinds of yeast for the fermentation, and they still watch it closely so that it doesn’t whip into higher temperatures that produce off-flavors. They also add yeast nutrients because maple syrup lacks some nutrients that molasses contains.
Distillation
Besides the use of maple, a common denominator in the spirits from MannCave, Vermont, and Mitis is that they add no other flavors—they are sap or syrup, fermented and distilled.
After his four-month fermentation, Mann runs the wash through his pot still with three refraction columns; it comes off the still at 160 proof, which he brings down to 110.
At Vermont Spirits, Kolp says, they start with a stripping run, then that wash goes into their glass-column still. “We make extremely aggressive cuts … and the glass column shows everything is very clean,” he says. “We have stainless-steel packing in there to make sure the reflux is working correctly.” The distillate comes off the still at 192 proof. Over the next five to eight days, Kolp brings it down to 80.
At Mitis, Lévesque and Soucy do a double distillation—one direct run and one polishing run. Quebec’s Union des Distillateurs de Spiritueux d’Érable—the Union of Maple Spirit Distillers, founded in 2018—has decided that acerum must hit a minimum ABV of 35 percent. The association also describes three types of acerum:
- blanc (white), which is unaged;
- ambré or brun (amber or brown), which is aged for less than a year and/or has spent time on wood;
- vielli (aged), which has been barrel-aged for at least a year, and the label must include an age statement of XX ans corresponding to the youngest thread included in the blend.
For their Acerum Vieilli en Baril, Lévesque and Soucy opted for the last type, aging theirs in oak barrels for different amounts of time depending on which blends they think taste best.
Challenges
Beyond the need to manipulate sap (or syrup) to get it ready for fermentation, there are other hurdles to consider. One of the biggest is sourcing a large enough quantity—especially if you’re working with fresh sap.
“Volume can be a challenge,” Masters says. “Think about making maple syrup, which I’ve done. You start with liters and liters and liters of tree sap—like 60 liters or more—and you get half a liter of syrup. If you’re a distillery and you’re doing commercial levels of production, it can be difficult to source enough sap.”
That could mean limiting yourself to small batches, or it could mean partnering with a good supplier. Masters recommends finding a partner with know-how when it comes to tapping and caring for the trees responsibly.
Besides fermenting and distilling it, there are other ways to think about using sap while still getting some flavor. For example, Masters suggests using it to dilute your distillate. “As fresh sap, it goes pretty fast,” she says, “but if you’ve got your spirit there, you can heat the sap to make sure it’s pasteurized and sterile and use it for dilution instead of tap or still water. The spirit will pick up all of the sap’s flavors and textures.”
Likewise, there are other uses for maple syrup—such as sweetening a liqueur. In Quebec, the Mitis team does just that to produce their Entaille liqueur in collaboration with the local Ma Cabane en Gaspésie shop, which specializes in various maple products.
Once production is done, more challenges await—such as categorization and customer education.
Mann says he is actively advocating for Ambrosia to receive its own spirit category; for now, it’s registered as a specialty liquor. It’s won some accolades, including double gold at the SIP Awards, but that requires Mann to choose a category. Earning some kind of broader recognition for it as a unique type of spirit would be a boost for sales and distribution; for now, it’s available only in West Virginia.
There are also some customer expectations to manage. “A big challenge for us is teaching the customer that, yes, acerum is made with maple syrup, but it’s not sweet,” Lévesque says. “It’s like something between rum and whiskey, with woody notes like whiskey and a subtle sugar impression like rum.” Consumers tend to think of anything made with maple as a maple liqueur, he says, so it takes some tasting and talking to establish a more accurate understanding.
While these spirits often hint at a familiar maple-syrup character, the other flavors produced via fermentation and distillation—possibly in tandem with barrel-aging—can be fascinating. With Vermont Gold, for example, Kolp says he gets no maple flavor at all; instead, there are some vanilla and butterscotch notes with just a hint of sweetness.
Notably, texture plays an important role. The Vermont Gold vodka has a touch more viscosity than traditional vodkas, and the distillers say that working with maple sap and syrup can provide a silkier, more substantial mouthfeel.
Whether you choose to ease into tree sap or drill right in and build an entire spirit around it, working through some of these challenges can lead to a liquor both rich in character and appealingly connected to its place. For now, anyway, it can also be an unusual product in a category where few have trod the woodland path.
