alcoholdrinksfermentation
According to this blog posting, birch sap is very popular in Russia as a drink. Further, I read in wikipedia that it is popular enough to be bottled and sold commercially.
Finally, (and most importantly) I found this article in the Guardian, detailing the steps to take in order to enjoy fermented birch sap (AKA 'birch wine').
Has anyone tried this, and if so would they relate how successful the attempt was?
All distilled spirits have no carbohydrates at all. Vodka, whisky, whatever. Only alcohol, water and aromatic compounds can ascend the spiral in a distillation process.
So a standard alcohol portion (10g ethanol) from a distilled spirit has 0 grams carbohydrate.
Properly made table wine shouldn't conatin carbs either, as all the grape carbs should be fermented. Sometimes substances which aren't recognized in a food are counted towards carbohydrates, that's what a source claims is made with wine.
Then there is sweet dessert wine, there you have 3-4 grams of carbs per 10 grams of ethanol (70-100 ml depending on wine), because it has more sugar. I didn't find information on fortified wine, but as they have more alcohol than sweet dessert wine and probably about as much unfermented sugar, it is about the same or somewhat less.
In beer, expect something like 7-8 g carbohydrates per 200 ml (I am assuming an average ABV of 5%). A big comparison of American beers is given here
I can't help you with liqueurs, they typically are infusions of plants in distilled alcohol, but may have sugar and other stuff added. It depends on recipe.
Yes, those spots are normal, they form as the nattou ages. They are amino acid crystals, and they are perfectly safe. Here's a picture.
They're a bit crunchy, which you may or may not like. If you don't like the dots, get young nattou and consume it before the crystals form. If you do like them, get more mature nattou. With younger nattou, you should be able to store it opened in the fridge for a few days before the crystals start to form. As you have experienced though, once they start, they grow quickly.
Best Answer
I've tried unfermented birch sap before (I got it at a local Russian supermarket). I was expecting it to taste somewhat like Birch Beer. Instead, it was surprisingly tasteless; like maple, I suspect one would have to reduce/concentrate it quite significantly to get a pronounced birch flavor. It had the taste and consistency of a thin/diluted simple syrup with only a faint hint of birch flavor.
I made a cocktail using birch sap and ROOT: a liquor modeled after a pre-temperance liquor called "root tea" that was the predecessor to root beer (which is, ironically, non-alcoholic), one of whose primary flavorings is birch bark. I forget what else (if anything) I put in it, but I seem to recall that it worked quite well.
I asked a Russian friend of mine if he had ever heard of fermented birch sap. He said that, although birch sap ("берёзовый сок", if you ever want to find it in a Russian store) is very popular in Russia, he has never heard of anyone fermenting it. However, he did add that "Russians would ferment anything…"
On a somewhat related note (at the risk of going off topic), there is an extremely popular low-alcohol drink in Russia called kvas (квас) which is made from fermented rye bread. Despite the fact that birch sap is also popular, every Russian for whom I've served root beer or birch beer absolutely hates the stuff. Likewise, I love root/birch beer, however, I hated kvas the first time I tried it (but I have since developed a taste for it, over time). I have developed this theory:
I have surveyed dozens of Eastern Europeans and Americans alike who have tried both, and I have yet to find a single person that invalidates my theory. Is there anyone out there who has tried both?