BeerRunner

Recipes 

The fortified type, not just lots of Mulberries.

I got 'em falling over my back yard. May as well use some of nature's bounty.

Pogo

Recipes 

Do you mean that they are already ripe this early in the year?

Pogo

BeerRunner

Recipes 

They look ripe to me. The really dark ones are falling off the tree. They taste pretty sweet. I'm no Mulberry expert, though. (Not being a smart-aleck. This is the first Mulberry tree I've ever had)

summersolstice

Recipes 

I made some mead from mulberries two summers ago. They're sweet to eat but they didn't impart much flavor to the mead. They'll need some acid additions for sure.

BeerRunner

Recipes 

Darn. That kinda sucks.

KingBrianI

Recipes 

I'm guessing you used white mulberries? They are pretty much just sugar and water. The red and black varieties have significant acid and lots of flavor.

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Pogo

Recipes 

Thanks to the opening post of this thread, I began asking around at the coffee shop this afternoon.

Eureka! An acquaintance has a large, 25 feet tall, mulberry tree in his back yard...the type with black berries. I have been told to help myself to all I want!

They're not ripe yet, only about the size of a pea, they said that they usually get as big as one's thumb.

Hmmm...I'm guessing that the best way to pick these things is going to be off of plastic tarps spred out under the tree. At least, this way, when they drop of their own accord, I'm sure that they will be fully vine ripenend.

Has anyone got any better advice to share, regarding harvesting such a crop?

BTW - I'm not sure what you mean by "fortified," unless you mean boosting the SG with sugar.

Pogo

KingBrianI

Recipes 

I just planted an illinois everbearing mulberry tree this spring and already it has many small green mulberries growing. I'm excited to ferment some somehow. I've read one of the better ways to harvest them is like you said, to put a tarp under the tree, then give the tree a good shake, and all the ripe ones will fall down. Do be careful though, as the dark types will stain everything they touch.

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I'm too lazy and have too many beers going to keep updating this!

BeerRunner

Recipes 

Hey, I like your idea of spreading out tarps! I'll try that over the next few days.

By fortified, I mean made like "real" Port wine; high OG fermented to 7% or so, then add Brandy to around 18% to stop fermentation, leaving a sweet dessert wine.

Looking around the internet, I'm thinking around 24 pounds of mulberries, 9lbs sugar (maybe honey), a 46oz can of Alexander's grape concentrate, pectic enzyme and acid blend. That's a 4gal recipe, based on a Jack Keller 1gal Mulberry recipe. I scaled up to 4 rather than 5 because of the size of Alexander concentrate. Jack says use an 11oz can of Welch's concentrate. I want to use a "real" wine grape.

Wine Maker magazine says to use Everclear to fortify. It will dilute the flavor less than a low-ABV (relatively speaking) Brandy.

summersolstice

Recipes 

I'd use sugar for the recipe you plan. It's a lot cheaper than honey, easier to work with, and you won't be able to detect much, if any, honey with this recipe anyway.

Stopping an active fermentation is pretty tricky. You might just end up with a slowed fermentation that will end up fermenting for months and end up dry anyway.

Here's a recipe I posted for a blackberry port-style wine. It's somewhat complex but you can take what you like from it. I step-fed the must to boost the alcohol and then also fortified it with both Everclear and Brandy. It turned out very nice. I too used Alexander's - it'll taste much better than Welch's.