# Mulberry Wine



## fivebk (Jun 16, 2009)

Hi Everyone,

I will be starting a batch of mulberry wine in the near future. I have about 24 lbs. of berries frozen right now and the tree is still producing at a rate of about 10 lbs. every 2 days. I do not have a steam juicer , my question is. Can I cook these berries on the stove just like as if I were going to make jelly, Then strain the juice off the pulp? I am concerned about having too much pulp in the primary bucket and ending up with not near enough end product. If anyone has any other ideas I would like to here them. A steam juicer would solve my problem here but purchasing one right now is not an option . Hopefully sometime down the road I will be able to get one.

BOB


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## gaudet (Jun 16, 2009)

You can juice them like that, but its going to be an awful lot of work Bob. You might be better off freezing them for a couple weeks, thawing them out and putting them directly into the fermenter and hand crushing. You could then pour them out into a strainer bag to ferment on the pulp and start your must like that. You would just have to tie off the strainer bag to retain the pulp and stir and punch it down every day to keep it moist.


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## fivebk (Jun 16, 2009)

Thanks gaudet - I was hoping you would reply to my question. I saw your thread and pics of your mulberry wine and it looks awesome. I have to admit that I am cheating on getting my berries. My youngest daughter has a big tree in her yard and she's doing all the harvesting for me. ISN'T THAT JUST GREAT!!! I bet you can guess who I am making this wine for.


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## gaudet (Jun 16, 2009)

All is fair in wine making except stealing thy neighbors fruit.......






So far its doing just fine. I need to rack it soon and put it to sleep for another two months before bottling. I'm getting much better on this patience thing (not)

I have the back to basics SS juicer and it works great. I am just guessing at it but I estimate that I can steam about 12#'s of fruit at a time. It takes about 2 hours to make a run of juice. 20 minutes to get the gallon of water steaming, another 1.5 hours to juice it. Some even make a second run on the pulp. I think Northern Wino does it that way. Plan on a good 8 hour day to juice 2 - 3 gallons of pure juice. It pretty much does all the work for you. Except for canning and processing, but that's not bad either. 

If she picks the fruit, then you ferment it, then it should be a 50-50 split..... No bones about that. But don't let her fool you. Picking the mulberries is not that hard, spread some king or queen size bed sheets under the tree and shake the branches. The really ripe ones will fall and all you have to do is collect them off the sheets. Or you can do it the lazy way and leave the sheets down and collect them daily. But you have to be careful of the darn birds.......


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## fivebk (Jun 17, 2009)

That's exactly the way she is getting the fruit. Sheets are down and clean up once a day. So far birds are not a big problem. 

BOB


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## fivebk (Jul 19, 2009)

My youngest daughter ( brittney ) and I started our batch of mulberry wine today. After prepping all the mulberries by hand we decided that if we do a batch next year we WILL HAVE A STEAMER JUICER!!!! Brittney has never made any wine so this was her maiden voyage.

Here are some pics.








ABOVE: Preparing the mulberriesAbove: Making simple syrup







ABOVE: Brittney stirring the juiceAbove: Brittney checking the SG







Waiting 12 hours for the pectic enzyme to be added


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## gaudet (Jul 19, 2009)

I was wondering if you had started your batch yet? The steam juicer really makes it easy. But I'm sure you will enjoy this wine as much or more than I will mine since you made it............

If you look closely you can see his purple fingers on the pyrex measuring cup.


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## Wade E (Jul 19, 2009)

Looking good there, I have to go back tomorrow or the next day to see if I can scrounge up some more but its not looking good this year as we lost a butt load to a big wind storm here!


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## Goodfella (Jul 19, 2009)

I see a press in the background.... Did ya let that help you?


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## Wade E (Jul 19, 2009)

Good eye Goodfella!


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## fivebk (Jul 20, 2009)

Goodfella. I was not able to use the press as I wanted to . I found a split in the basket and will have to wait for my son-in-law to fix it before I can use it.

BOB


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## fivebk (Jul 20, 2009)

I pitched the yeast tonight in the mulberry must ( with a little helper ).

Here are a couple pics.









My little helper is my granddaughter ( Caydence ) She has to be everywhere and do everything PaPa does. ( and that's just fine by me )


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## JWMINNESOTA (Jul 21, 2009)

Ain't them helpers a gas! Hope she helps you cut a little birthday cake today!


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## fivebk (Jul 21, 2009)

Yeast was pitched about 8 last night and is going like gangbusters this morning

Thanks JW

BOB


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## fivebk (Jul 22, 2009)

Racked the mulberry to secondary today with the SG at 1.015 I used D-47 yeast and it fermented just as fast as it did in the dandelion wine I just started.I tasted just a bit of the wine and BOY!!!!!!! is it gonna have some great flavor

BOB


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## Wade E (Jul 22, 2009)

Due to the windstorm I was only able to reteive about 11 lbs all said and done.


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## grapeman (Jul 22, 2009)

You are just going to have to get some mulberry's planted so you can monitor them better Wade.!


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## Wade E (Jul 22, 2009)

Hack no I dont want that tree in my yard as its the messiest tree out there and my yard is bad enough with my 2 hickory trees dropping nuts and long green streamers and this year its doing something even more and misting tons of sap all over our cars. When the sunlight hits it just right you can actually see a mist coming off the 2 trees and its making our cars all sticky.


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## JWMINNESOTA (Jul 22, 2009)

Wade, if your dissatisfied with the amount for wine, you could always make a cream ale (or other flavor beer)and replace the hops with mulberry's. Hops (humulus lupulus) is from the same family as Mulberry.


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## gaudet (Jul 22, 2009)

wade said:


> Hack no I dont want that tree in my yard as its the messiest tree out there and my yard is bad enough with my 2 hickory trees dropping nuts and long green streamers and this year its doing something even more and misting tons of sap all over our cars. When the sunlight hits it just right you can actually see a mist coming off the 2 trees and its making our cars all sticky.



Mark Wahlberg isn't walking around and the towns people aren't all committing mass suicide are they???


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## Wade E (Jul 22, 2009)

I already have a Cream Ale on tap here. Gaudet, that was a weird movie!


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## gaudet (Jul 22, 2009)

Thats the first thing that came to mind when you described what your hickory trees are doing.......

Yes it was a weird movie


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## fivebk (Jul 27, 2009)

I racked my Mulberry wine today. 


Here are some pics.


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## gaudet (Jul 27, 2009)

You are making me want to open a bottle of my precious mulberry.... 

No Must resist





Looking good Bob


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## fivebk (Aug 27, 2009)

I racked my Mulberry wine about a week ago and added medium toast american oak spirals. I will stir and sample it in about 3 weeks

BOB


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## Brewgrrrl (Aug 27, 2009)

YUM! Your wine looks GREAT! I made a tinsy 1gal batch last year using the recipe from "Making Wild Wines and Meads" and I was blown away by how awesome it was. This is a great type of fruit wine.


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## fivebk (Jun 15, 2010)

My first batch of mulberry is still in a carboy waiting to get bottled. It has aged rather nicely. My daughter has started collecting mulberries for this years batch and came out yesterday with 45 lbs of berries. We cleaned, bagged and froze them. IT ONLY TOOK 7 HRS. Am I crazy or what!!!!! Today I picked, cleaned, bagged and froze 42 lbs of montmorency pie cherries. 

I think I need to see a therapist

BOB


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## Wade E (Jun 15, 2010)

Yes, collecting these berries is lots of fun. Did you two find lots of little green bugs on the berries. I had so many that I had to float the berries twice before freezing them.


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## gaudet (Jun 15, 2010)

We don't need no stinking therapy...............

We need an intervention. Bob, ship those berries and cherries to Gaudet in New Orleans. I'm here to help.....

Don't mind the fact I juiced 36#'s of blackberries two days ago, I went out and picked almost 40#'s of blueberries today. I still have to juice the mulberries I picked earlier this season. Don't have a tally on those pound wise yet.........


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## fivebk (Jun 16, 2010)

Wade, we did not have many bugs on them at all. A few ants and an occasional spider. We did have alot of twigs and leaves though. We put down tarps and collected them that way.

Guadet, I just wouldn't feel right shipping them and I don't think it would be a good idea to deliver them personally because then there might be drinkin and storytellin and who knows what else













BOB


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## xanxer82 (Jun 16, 2010)

Bob and Gaudet inspired me to look up the recipe in my copy of Making Wild Wines and Meades. Last night Me Tristen and Kat spent about 45 minutes collecting mulberries from our single tree in the yard. We ended up with about 2lbs. There are tons more berries still on the tree that just aren't ripe yet. I just tossed them in freezer bags and froze them since we hand picked (purple fingers and all). We hope to get enough to make 3 gallons this year. 
So, Bob, how's your mulberry coming along? Was it hard to get fermenting? I think tomorrow I'll test out my refrectometer on any ripe berries out there.


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## fivebk (Jun 16, 2010)

Last year was my first attempt at making mulberry wine. I made it from frozen and then thawed berries. This year I have a steam juicer so I decided to steam juice the berries and then I will be able to compare the difference between the two. I also added oak to my first batch ( which I am still not sure was a good idea ) so this batch will probably go unoaked.

BOB


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## xanxer82 (Jun 16, 2010)

Have you opened any with the oak?


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## gaudet (Jun 16, 2010)

Ok Bob, as long as you think you can handle it. Just remember we're here for you_(r) fruit

_I didn't oak mine last season. I plan on a 6 gallon batch if I have enough fruit. I might split it out into 2 three gallon batches and oak one of them this year, but I really enjoyed it without the oak. But I do think it would add a nice dimension to the flavor of that wine. Perhaps a comparative swap is in order Bob.


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## fivebk (Aug 8, 2010)

Gaudet, Sorry for not responding sooner. I just bottled my Mulberry wine earlier this week. It spent 1 year in a 5 gallon carboy before I decided it should be bottled. I now have 3.75 gallons of mulberry juice canned with several gallon bags awaiting the steam juicer.

I would enjoy doing a comparative swap. Mine needs some time to get over bottle shock and I would not send a bottle untill the weather cools down some. We have had a long stretch of hot, humid days. 95 - 100 with heat indexes of 116 degrees. can't ship anything in that kind of weather ( might be boiling by the time it got there )

Let me know what you think and maybe we can work something out later this year.

BOB


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## gaudet (Aug 9, 2010)

How are you liking that steam juicer Bob? 

I agree, we can wait until Oct or Nov and then do a swap. Down here, the heat its almost unbearable.


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## fivebk (Aug 9, 2010)

I love it!!!!!! best investment I have made so far!!

BOB


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## gaudet (Aug 9, 2010)

It's a wonderful thing. Btw I racked and stabilized my mulberry yesterday. Tasted a drop or two and I'm thinking is going to be at least as good as last years batch.


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## fivebk (Aug 9, 2010)

How about some pics????

BOB


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## xanxer82 (Aug 9, 2010)

I have my mulberry in a gallon jug. It's just finishing up fermentation.
Going to stabilize it sometime next week.


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## joeswine (Aug 11, 2010)

I had some mulberrry wine last sunday good tasteing berry's sort of reminded me of some of the northern wines,good flavor I thought.


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## fivebk (Aug 11, 2010)

I was surprised with my first batch at how much the taste profile changes first from juice to wine and then unoaked to oaked. I had to be very patient with my first batch. there were several times when I tasted it that I was about ready to dump it , but slowly it started to develop into a nice wine IMO. The fruit comes first followed by a nice amount of oak. After letting it sit in carboy for a year it has a nice mouthfeel. I really believe that this wine will only get better over the next year. This was the first wine that I have made from scratch that I left completely dry.

If nothing else this wine taught me the value of having patience and not to give up on a wine before it has had a chance to age properly.

I now have 7 gallons of mulberry juice ( steam juiced ) canned in jars awaiting a time to be made into wine.

BOB


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## joeswine (Aug 12, 2010)

yes patience and tasteing to key elements in wine making master those and the rest is easy.............


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## gaudet (Nov 25, 2010)

Whoops. It was time to open it Bob. I poured a nice sampler first and let it breathe. After about 15 minutes I took a sniff and thought ho boy this is gonna be strong. It had a nice fruity, floral aroma. I took my first sip and it was smooth. And as I taste the fruitiness I'm also getting the oak flavors coming in close behind. It's got great legs and a almost chewy mouthfeel. Overall I am enjoying it. I await the second glass.


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## fivebk (Nov 26, 2010)

Good morning Gaudet,
I too opened your mulberry vesterday. I had a house full of family and decided what better time to try it. I got good reviews from all that sampled it. I found it to be very nice !! I thought your's had a better aroma than mine, the color was great and nice fruitiness to it . It sure didn't last long.

Very nice and thanks for the opportunity to swap wines .

BOB


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## gaudet (Dec 3, 2010)

Over all Bob, it was pretty good. I did like the oakiness and it wasn't as strong (alcohol wise) as the nose led me on. I look forward to your cherry chocolate port....


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