How much paper birch sap makes a gallon of syrup?

Figure about 110–175 gallons of sap per gallon of syrup. That long boil turns birch sap's glucose and fructose dark and strongly molasses-like, and the syrup burns easily near the finish — Cornell's maple program director wouldn't recommend making it without reverse osmosis to cut the boil.

When do you tap a paper birch?

Birch starts running about when maple season is ending and quits when the leaves come out — typically a two-to-three-week window. Late sap spoils as bacteria and yeast build up.

Betula papyrifera · also White birch, Canoe birch

Can you tap a paper birch?

Short answer

Not recommended

Not really. You can tap it, but it's a different sport — around 100+ gallons of sap per gallon of syrup, after maple season ends. Save it for year two.

Sap sugar: 0.5–1.5%
Sap : syrup: 110–175 : 1

Mature paper birch trunk with chalky white bark, horizontal lenticels, and papery strips curling away — Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0

Yellow birch (not paper birch) in January: shiny bronze-gold bark shredding into thin, curly strips — the easy way to tell the two birches apart — Photo: Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0

Paper birch twigs in spring with alternate oval, double-toothed leaves and hanging catkins — Photo: Cephas, CC BY-SA 4.0

Three white-barked paper birch trunks leaning over a mountain lake in Glacier National Park — Photo: Wing-Chi Poon, CC BY-SA 2.5

Leaf-off ID

Identify it in winter

01Alternate branching — buds and twigs stagger along the stem, never in pairs. (So it's not a maple.)
02Chalky to creamy-white bark peeling in thin, horizontal, papery strips, with orange inner bark; it can turn dark and furrowed near the base.
03Young trees stay golden-brown until about age 10–12 before they whiten.
04Twigs are slender and dull red-brown with pale lenticels — no wintergreen smell when scratched (yellow birch has one).
05Small male catkins are already formed at the twig ends all winter.

In summer

Alternate, oval leaves 3–5 inches long with a pointed tip and doubly toothed edges.
Hanging catkins in spring, then slim cone-like fruits that fall apart in autumn.

Easily confused with

Yellow birch

Shiny bronze-to-golden bark that shreds in thin, curly strips (older trunks go red-brown and scaly), and twigs that smell of wintergreen when broken.

Gray birch

A small, often clumped tree whose chalky white bark generally doesn't peel; leaves are triangular with a long tip.

Quaking aspen

Smooth, creamy to very light green bark that turns dark and furrowed near the base with age (no papery curls); leaves nearly round on flattened stems.

Sap sugar: Roughly 0.5–1.5% (sugar maple runs 2–3%)
Season: Birch starts running about when maple season is ending and quits when the leaves come out — typically a two-to-three-week window. Late sap spoils as bacteria and yeast build up.
Syrup: Figure about 110–175 gallons of sap per gallon of syrup. That long boil turns birch sap's glucose and fructose dark and strongly molasses-like, and the syrup burns easily near the finish — Cornell's maple program director wouldn't recommend making it without reverse osmosis to cut the boil.
Range: Across the northern edge of the continent from Newfoundland and Labrador to Alaska, south into New England, the Great Lakes and the northern Rockies.

Tapping it?

Sources · 9

1.Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera) — Safford, Bjorkbom & Zasada · USDA Forest Service — Silvics of North America (Agriculture Handbook 654, 1990)
2.Backyard Birch Tapping & Syrup Basics · University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service
3.Weighing pros, cons of producing birch syrup (Cornell Corner, M. Farrell) · Cornell Maple Program, via The Maple News
4.Research Update on Birch Sap & Syrup Trials (Cornell Corner, M. Farrell) · Cornell Maple Program, via The Maple News
5.Paper birch (Betula papyrifera) — Virginia Tech Dendrology Fact Sheet · Virginia Tech Dendrology (Dept. of Forest Resources & Environmental Conservation)

Show 4 more

6.Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis) — Erdmann · USDA Forest Service — Silvics of North America (Agriculture Handbook 654, 1990)
7.Yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) — Virginia Tech Dendrology Fact Sheet · Virginia Tech Dendrology (Dept. of Forest Resources & Environmental Conservation)
8.Gray birch (Betula populifolia) — Virginia Tech Dendrology Fact Sheet · Virginia Tech Dendrology (Dept. of Forest Resources & Environmental Conservation)
9.Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) — Virginia Tech Dendrology Fact Sheet · Virginia Tech Dendrology (Dept. of Forest Resources & Environmental Conservation)

FAQ

Paper birch questions

Can you tap a paper birch for syrup?: Not really. You can tap it, but it's a different sport — around 100+ gallons of sap per gallon of syrup, after maple season ends. Save it for year two. Its sap sugar is roughly 0.5–1.5% (sugar maple runs 2–3%).
How much paper birch sap makes a gallon of syrup?: Figure about 110–175 gallons of sap per gallon of syrup. That long boil turns birch sap's glucose and fructose dark and strongly molasses-like, and the syrup burns easily near the finish — Cornell's maple program director wouldn't recommend making it without reverse osmosis to cut the boil.
When do you tap a paper birch?: Birch starts running about when maple season is ending and quits when the leaves come out — typically a two-to-three-week window. Late sap spoils as bacteria and yeast build up.

Tree ID