Mulberry Mead: The Dramatic Adventure

This June, I picked several pounds of mulberries with the purpose of making a batch of mulberry mead. After I cleaned the berries, I placed them in my freezer, with the intention of waiting a couple weeks until I get home from vacation to start the batch. That was the intention. Let's look at what has happened to thwart my efforts.

Memorial Day Weekend: My wife and I leave town for a funeral. We are gone almost the entire week. When we get back, we find that our AC has stopped working.

No AC, week 2: While doing laundry, I notice black splotches on parts of my basement wall. LOTS of black splotches. Humid air condensed on the walls, allowing nifty mold to grow!

June, week 3: Berry pickin' time! After I get all the berries picked and cleaned, I've got about 6 cups of berries. I put them in the deep freeze for safe keeping.

End of June: A month and 1200 dollars later, we get our AC back.

End of July: We leave on vacation.

August, week 1: My loving mother takes it upon herself to bring an inspector into our house WITHOUT OUR KNOWLEDGE. The verdict? Penicillin mold. A fairly harmless mold, unless you happen to be allergic. Guess what. My sister points out that this is why Mom doesn't have a key to her house.

August, week 2: Home again. I start removing everything from the basement. Can't start the mead because I don't want it to get contaminated with mold.

September 14: The remains of Hurricane Ike decimates the power grid of Ohio. 2 million people are without power. My mulberries are still in the freezer.

September 20: After waiting nearly a WEEK for power to be restored, I open my deep freeze. Temperature is well above freezing. I pull the berries out and take them upstairs. After checking to make sure they aren't fuzzy or rancid, I toss them in my pot, add some campden, pectin enzyme, and a couple cups of hot tap water. I take the pot upstairs, far, FAR away from my moldy basement. I also buy 5 lbs of honey from the local vendor.

September 21: Throw in 1116 yeast and about 1 lb of honey, wait.

I am happy to report that the yeast is bubbling away happily. I get to move the juice into a carboy Saturday. Still don't have power yet, apparently I'm one of the lucky people stuck in an "individual pocket."

Keep us posted on that mead. I've made Mulberry wine twice and was thinking about a mead with them. I have sour cherry and blueberry melomels (2 meads) in primary right now.

And one more bit of drama.
Racking from primary to secondary came and went without a hitch. I bottled Saturday. Half way through, my month old daughter started fussing. So I clamped the hose and went to attend her. I came back 10 minutes later to a great big puddle all over my kitchen. Damn thing wasn't tight enough, and it just slowed down, instead of stopping. Swearing under my breath all the while I moved the fridge and stove to clean it all up.

From the gallon I started with, final output is 2.5 liters. Of some of the best &^&*% mead I've put together so far.

At least mulberry season is less than two months away. The trees are already growing little green berries.

The little mulberry tree I planted this spring has already ripened a few berries but nothing near the amount to ferment something. There are lots of little green ones growing though. Hopefully next year I can give mulberry mead and wine a try too. By the way, what type is your mulberry? Mine is an Illinois Everbearing.

Wild. I know a few places where I can get them. Public golf course, friend's yards, places like that. Far as I know, they weren't planted intentionally.

Are the Mulberries in your area covered in tiny little yellow bugs? They are in the tree in my back yard (Near Austin TX). I've been putting them in a pan and running cold water over them for 15-20 minutes. I get about a half pound every other day. Saving them up for 4 gallons of Mulberry Port wine.

No, I don't think so. But I'm much farther north than you (Ohio). The berries are still small and green.

Is the water bath to knock the bugs off?

FWIW, a saltwater bath will remove almost all bugs from the surface of fresh-picked fruit, and if you quickly follow that bath with a thorough rinse in fresh water, the fruit absorbs almost none of the salt.

Yes, the water bath is to knock the bugs off. The berries have been in season for a month or so, I guess. I looked at the purple splotches on my patio a couple of weeks ago and figured I may as well get something out of this.

I'll try the salt water bath. Thanks for the tip.