Tree bark shine?

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Sasquash
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Tree bark shine?

Post by Sasquash »

Was watching a movie called Lawless and they were talking bout tree bark shine. Anybody got a recipe?
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Husker
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by Husker »

might have been sassafras, but I would not think you could do shine from it. But you could steep shine in it after the fact, prior to drinking it.

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S-Cackalacky
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by S-Cackalacky »

I think if you ferment wood, you get mostly methanol - correct me if I'm wrong. If you're looking for sassafrass flavor, best to use the roots - harvested in early spring for the best flavor. You can also use the early leaves to dry and grind for File' - sprinkle a little on your Gumbo for File' Gumbo. The roots, ground up, make a good root beer flavored tea.

Just sayin',
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russdnails
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by russdnails »

Perhaps birch? There's a distillery in Iceland that makes a birch liqueur. Never tried it, but I really like birch beer so I imagine it would be good. And birch bark is distilled to get the essential oils that make birch beer.
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by Represto »

This might appeal to your interests.
http://www.artintheage.com/spirits-land ... ngredients

"...the bark is first subjected to a slow destructive distillation process that yields a crude birch tar. This tar is then steam distilled to produce a pure sap that is mixed in with ROOT's cane sugar base."


Here is a page that discusses more on birch tar: http://savoystomp.com/tag/birch-bark/

I can't even imagine how much of a pain in the ass it would be to clean up after distilling tar :crazy:
Last edited by Represto on Thu Sep 05, 2013 4:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by heartcut »

That process was used in the early 19th century to make coal gas (~40% Carbon Monoxide, 60% Hydrogen and a little other stuff). Coke and wood were used later on, based on availability. It was used for motor fuel and lighting, but is lethal to breathe. Apparently it didn't kill anyone particularly important while it was in use.
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by Represto »

Edited. That diagram wasn't relevant.

Here's a site with a bunch of birch bark tar collection methods.
http://www.primitiveways.com/birch_bark_tar.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
S-Cackalacky wrote:...distilling could be a religious experience - the wash, the vapor, and the holy spirit.
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by bluenose »

I watched that movie the other day too... they definitely said you can make whisky out of tree bark
Jack Bondurant: You can make moonshine whiskey from just about anything. Turnips, pumpkins, blackberries, cornmeal, tree bark. Anything.
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by S-Cackalacky »

bluenose wrote:I watched that movie the other day too... they definitely said you can make whisky out of tree bark
Jack Bondurant: You can make moonshine whiskey from just about anything. Turnips, pumpkins, blackberries, cornmeal, tree bark. Anything.
Assuming that tree bark holds the same properties as the rest of the tree, it wouldn't be safe to ferment and distill tree bark. As a matter of fact it might be deadly. Wood is used to make wood alcohol (AKA, methanol). Using it for aging or to macerate is OK, but if you ferment it an distill it, you are making poison.

Just sayin',
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by bluenose »

A movie lied to us!!??
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by Grendal »

I know this is an old thread.

Wanted to chime in. It is possible. I got an old recipe for swamp birch bark shine. What ya do is right as the leaves fall off the swamp birch you take strips of bark off the tree. You must not girdle the tree or you'll kill it. The sap is traveling back down to the roots during the fall supposedly.

Sugar maple, black maple, red maple, silver maple, Norway maple, boxelder, bigleaf maple, canyon maple, rocky mountain maple, and gorosoe also do this. So in the fall you can get sap but it's not as good as in the spring as there is a lower sugar concentration in the fall.

So now you got your strips your not fermenting them. You boil them like your making a tea. Once you got your tea you add your sugar till you get the original gravity you want and ferment this sweetened tea then distill it.

The swamp birch recipe I got uses molasses and honey instead of sugar.

I'm certain a few crazy people have done fermented and distilled tea.
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Yonder
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by Yonder »

S-Cackalacky wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2013 1:55 pm I think if you ferment wood, you get mostly methanol - correct me if I'm wrong. If you're looking for sassafrass flavor, best to use the roots - harvested in early spring for the best flavor. You can also use the early leaves to dry and grind for File' - sprinkle a little on your Gumbo for File' Gumbo. The roots, ground up, make a good root beer flavored tea.

Just sayin',
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shadylane
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by shadylane »

Except for tree sap, I don't think there's any fermentable sugars in tree bark.
I have heard about making a medical tincture from shine, willow bark and passionflower.
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by JakeB »

Birch bark shine. I don't have a recipe, but they "made" some on Moonshiners. I think it was Mike and Jerry... I put the air quotes because who knows if they are really making anything, or just running distilled water for TV lol... Anyway, look through your on demand catalog of 2019 season of Moonshiners, I'm pretty sure Mike and Jerry did it...same guys that did the birdwatchers episode, could have been 2018...
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by Grendal »

shadylane wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 11:58 pm Except for tree sap, I don't think there's any fermentable sugars in tree bark.
I have heard about making a medical tincture from shine, willow bark and passionflower.
There is a lot of simple sugars in the bark. There was a study krogell at el 2012 that found the inner bark of birch trees contains most of these simple sugars. The bark being 7-12% sugar by dry weight.

Think thats why the "tea" its to extract the simple sugars akin to sparging grain in brewing.
JakeB wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 1:17 pm Birch bark shine. I don't have a recipe, but they "made" some on Moonshiners. I think it was Mike and Jerry... I put the air quotes because who knows if they are really making anything, or just running distilled water for TV lol... Anyway, look through your on demand catalog of 2019 season of Moonshiners, I'm pretty sure Mike and Jerry did it...same guys that did the birdwatchers episode, could have been 2018...
I have one from 1662 by John Evelyn in the book of Sylvia the first book of forestry ever published.

"To every gallon of birch water (either uncooked sap or bark tea not sure which) put a quart of honey, well stirr'd together; then boil it almost an hour with a few cloves and a little lemon-peel, keeping it well scumm'd: when it is sufficiently boil'd, and become cold, add to it 3 or 4 spoonfuls of good ale to make it work and when the yeast begins to settle, bottle it up as you do any other winy liquors. It will in a competent time become a most brisk and spiritous drink."

An old time family friend with a history in moonshine had a copy of the book on his shelf. He used to say it made a fine base for a mash.

He used to say, "The only real difference from say beer and whiskey is the process as an old time used to say. Beer brewers are the germaphobes of the world of alcohol. They are always cleaning everything but we whiskey folk we like the little buggers as the funk makes for a good whiskey."
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Dancing4dan
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by Dancing4dan »

You don’t need the bark. Just tap birch trees or maples in the spring like they do in eastern Canada for the spring sap/ water. That’s where maple sugar comes from. My grand dad used to make maple syrup from tapping Manitoba maple trees. Not as sweet as a sugar maple but he made good syrup. Boiled it down like they do out east. Was pretty good.birch trees make sugar as well and move a lot of water in the spring. He said he could make birch syrup as well. I never had any. He passed. But yeah there are ferment able sugars there.
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Grendal
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Re: Tree bark shine?

Post by Grendal »

Dancing4dan wrote: Thu Oct 28, 2021 5:30 pm You don’t need the bark. Just tap birch trees or maples in the spring like they do in eastern Canada for the spring sap/ water. That’s where maple sugar comes from. My grand dad used to make maple syrup from tapping Manitoba maple trees. Not as sweet as a sugar maple but he made good syrup. Boiled it down like they do out east. Was pretty good.birch trees make sugar as well and move a lot of water in the spring. He said he could make birch syrup as well. I never had any. He passed. But yeah there are ferment able sugars there.
It's not a need. Old timers didnt have much in the line of cash. It used to be necessity. Fruit and grain out of season you'd turn to the land. Some turned to barks to make it through the winter by selling or trading that last batch.

Bark is on its way out and becoming a lost ingredient. Pretty much is a lost ingredient. Same with some others like green walnut honey (maceration with sugar not an actual honey) and black walnut syrup (requires 6 months of aging due the tanins).

Trying to answer the OP best I can by providing what I was gifted. Though most of It I cannot share...like the exact recipe for McSally's butternut brown for example but I can share the techniques behind it though the example doesnt use bark of any kind and I dont wanna hijack the thread.

As for syrups your absolutely right but I would recommend any shiner making syrup for their recipe to use reverse osmosis cuts down on possibly adding a possibly unwanted Smokey note to the syrup depending how you are boiling the syrup.

https://youtu.be/3XIA79PgUWs
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