# mulberry wine



## ksvet06 (Jun 18, 2014)

hello i started a batch of mulberry wine the other day and hope it turns out good lol. here's the recipe. 

4 lbs mulberry
2 cans welch's grape juice
3 lbs of sugar
1 tsp pectic enzyme 
1 tsp yeast nutrient 
2 campden tablets (crushed)
1/5 tsp of sodium metabisulphite 
top off with bottled water to the 2 gallon mark with out the crushed 
mulberry's in. 
lavlin kv-1116 yeast 

Starting s.g. was 1.100 which supposedly to about 14.9% abv. 

After 24 hours with the yeast in s.g. dropped to 1.072 
Hopefully this is all good.


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## WVMountaineerJack (Jun 18, 2014)

Was there a reason for adding so much sulfite? Were your berries in bad shape? WVMJ


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## Gwand (Jun 18, 2014)

ksvet06 said:


> hello i started a batch of mulberry wine the other day and hope it turns out good lol. here's the recipe.
> 
> 4 lbs mulberry
> 2 cans welch's grape juice
> ...



I'm curious. What do mulberries taste like? Good luck with your winemaking.


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## ksvet06 (Jun 18, 2014)

*thank you for asking.*



WVMountaineerJack said:


> Was there a reason for adding so much sulfite? Were your berries in bad shape? WVMJ



I'm not sure why so much sulfite. In the instructions it said to sanitize everything with two crushed campden tablets and to then add 1/4 tsp of the sodium metabisulphite to the must to kill any natural yeast


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## WVMountaineerJack (Jun 19, 2014)

You got them in Baltimore, they should be ripening right now, google what they look like and drive around until you see a bunch of berries on the road, stop and pick some off of the tree, thats mulberries. They can be very sweet with lots of flavor, or just plain sweet with little berry flavor, really depends on the kind of mulberry and the individual tree itself. WVMJ



Gwand said:


> I'm curious. What do mulberries taste like? Good luck with your winemaking.


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## WVMountaineerJack (Jun 19, 2014)

You have added enough sulfites for 7 gal of wine, might want to reread the instructions or get better instructions. They may be meaning to sanitize everything with some sulfite, drain that off, and add some to the fruit to knock down the bugs, one thing, your batch aint going to turn to vinegar anytime soon WVMJ

QUOTE=ksvet06;516800]I'm not sure why so much sulfite. In the instructions it said to sanitize everything with two crushed campden tablets and to then add 1/4 tsp of the sodium metabisulphite to the must to kill any natural yeast[/QUOTE]


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## fivebk (Jun 19, 2014)

I would pick some more berries and reserve the juice. I think you are going to need more flavor. Reduce the juice and make an f-pack. My experience with mulberry taught me to use straight juice/no water. I also came to the conclusion that mulberry does not like oak. I used fresh fruit with my first batch and it was just okay. I used steamed juice with the second batch and it came out great!

BOB


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## Turock (Jun 19, 2014)

I agree with no water!!!

Sme mulberries have little flavor---but when made into wine, it is a nice complex flavor, especially if you age it for 1 year.


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## ksvet06 (Jun 19, 2014)

uh oh lol I topped off with water lol hopefully it'll be okay not sure. now on the sulphite will it add a strange flavor to the wine?


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## fivebk (Jun 19, 2014)

It could, but if you splash rack it a couple of times that should help. I would not add any more for awhile though

BOB


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## fivebk (Jun 19, 2014)

I agree with Turok , I did not even bottle mine until it was a year old. At 2years it was even better

BOB


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## sour_grapes (Jun 19, 2014)

ksvet06 said:


> uh oh lol I topped off with water lol hopefully it'll be okay not sure. now on the sulphite will it add a strange flavor to the wine?



At the levels of sulfite that you need to protect the wine, the sulfite will be below the threshold of detection by humans.


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## ksvet06 (Jun 19, 2014)

thank you everyone for the feed back on this subject.


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## ksvet06 (Jun 19, 2014)

day 3 stirring and s.g. is at 1.041 not bad I think lol


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## x_diver (Jun 23, 2014)

I did a mulberry wine with 6lbs of fresh mulberries and 1lb of raisins. Let it sit a year and it came out nice. Mulberry trees are everywhere. Spread out a drop cloth and shake the tree a bit to harvest. Picking them one at a time is impossible.


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making


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## ksvet06 (Jun 23, 2014)

lesson learned on this wine so far is if your gonna put mulberries in the must to ferment too then do it in a nylon straining bag in stead of a cheese cloth. The seeds go right threw the cheese cloth. So now on to straining all the seeds off lol.


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## Jericurl (Jun 23, 2014)

Get a steam juicer.

Seriously, the best money I've spent in a long time.


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## ksvet06 (Jun 24, 2014)

Last night I racked the wine into carboys with a s.g. at .993. So now the waiting game begins lol. Thinking of starting a batch of skeeter pee!


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## cintipam (Jun 24, 2014)

Good job ksvet06! Now to hurry up and wait. Skeeter Pee or Dragons Blood would be great to help you leave that pretty pretty carboy alone. Remember to taste every time you rack, which should be off lees fairly soon, and any time you add kmeta. It helps to know how the flavor matures over time. Helps give you the self control to wait for your wine to become its best.

Pam in cinti


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## ksvet06 (Jun 24, 2014)

what is kmeta?


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## ksvet06 (Jun 24, 2014)

apologize i went to the beginners form and found what kmeta is lol. So if i have it still fermenting in the secondary i don't need to add the kmeta in till i'm where i want to be?


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## cintipam (Jun 24, 2014)

Sorry. Kmeta is shorthand for Potassium Metabisulphite. Sodium Metabisulphite is also available, but most folks use Kmeta since they say NaMeta (Sodium Metabisulphite) can produce some not desired flavors in your wine, but I don't remember which off flavors. You need to add Kmeta to your wine every 3 months during aging to protect against oxidation.

Pam in cinti


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## cintipam (Jun 24, 2014)

We crossposted there. Do NOT add kmeta until you are certain fermentation is finished. Meaning below 1.00 and not dropping for 3 days time. Then add the kmeta, and again every 3 months after that.

Pam in cinti


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## WVMountaineerJack (Jun 24, 2014)

We havent steamed mulberries but we are pickin with a big canvas under the tree and a long stick to get enough to steam. Do you get the standard yeild of a gall of juice 10 pounds of berries? This is the one wine that gives us fits, every year an awful smell even with nutrients, we just add 50% more KM at the start trying to knock whatever is making those terrible smells down, but I like the idea of steaming them, got a steamer, dont know why we didnt think about it, must be a senior winemaker now WVMJ



Jericurl said:


> Get a steam juicer.
> 
> Seriously, the best money I've spent in a long time.


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