Preserving Maple/Birch Sap?

Hey there! I want to try to put up some sap (yes sap not syrup) and I was wondering if anyone has experimented with trying to keep it for more than a couple weeks without it fermenting.  I'm looking for a less energy intensive way to enjoy this incredible gift other than boiling it down to syrup. I'd especially be interested in some type of pasteurization and bottling. Thanks and happy tappin' :)

Good question...  I've heard of it for sale so it must be preservable.  My hunch is that it's just water with some sugars and other plant juice mixed in so it should be pretty clean straight out of the tap.  I'd guess (that's just a guess) that if you boil it for a couple minutes and then seal it up in a hot, sterile mason jar that it probably would keep for a while.  

Hi I just wanted to follow up on this.  I did some investigating... For the commercial sap drinks, the sap is frozen first and sent to huge facilities where they can process it with a lot of pressure and heat that we can't do at home.


For us, we learned like with most things, if you want to preserve it without fermentation you have to acidify.  We experimented with different things including sumac, hibiscus, pine needles (P. strobus) and lemon juice.  All worked really well except for the pine needles.  Citric acid is of course an avenue as well.  After getting it to the desired PH we pressure canned the sap.  It's quite a bit of energy to go through the whole process but it makes for an incredible drink that we have been enjoying on special occasions.

Cool, what pH did you need to get it to?

We just made sure it was under 4.6. Thanks for your response:)