Mulberry Wine from Juice

[smit6089]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forum and new to making wine. I've brewed beer before so I have a basic understanding of some of the processes.

Out back I have a wonderfull mulberry tree that's putting down a few gallons of mulberries a day. I have been sorting through the nice ones and freezing them, making jams from the mediocre berries and juicing the less dsireables.

I'm really wanting to try my hand at wine and have ordered a 6.5gal starter kit. I would love to utilize all of the juice I have collected for the wine. I can find recipes all day for using whole mashed mulberries for wine but no luck on just the juice. Honestly I have no idea where to start.

Any recipes, guidance or advice are much appreciated.

Thanks so much,

Smit

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Smit - and welcome.
Recipes are simply protocols that someone claims is good enough.
Measure the gravity of the juice (if you have a refractometer you can simply use that to determine the sugar content). Decide what ABV you are looking for. If the gravity of the juice is about 1.050 then that will result in a wine of about 7%. If that is OK then fine. A pound of sugar will raise the gravity of a gallon of liquid by about 40 points so if the gravity of the juice is 1.050 then adding 1 lb for every gallon you have that will raise the gravity to about 1.090 (or potentially , about 12% ABV). Wine is typically about 12% and at that gravity it is not so difficult to balance flavor, ABV, acidity and mouthfeel.
Whatever ABV you decide you want, I would add K-meta (24 hours before you pitch yeast)and pectic enzyme (about 12 hours before you pitch the yeast) and I would suggest that you look for a yeast like 47D or 71B (dry - and not aggressive). I would aim at a fermenting temperature that s towards the lower end of the yeast's preferred tolerance. In my opinion, that produces less fusels and makes for a cleaner tasting wine.
I generally treat all fruit as benefiting from the addition of nutrients so DAP or Fermaid is something I would add (see the manufacturers advice) - but typically best to add nutrients after lag is over and to divide up the quantity of nutrient you plan on adding so that you add 1/3 when yeast begin to feed, after the yeast has fermented about half the sugar (use your hydrometer - and a third time when there is now about 1/4 of the sugar you began with (so, eg at 1.090, at 1.045, and at 1.020).
Ignore the acidity for the time being but think about whether the TA is appropriate before you bottle (tasting is a good measure). If the berries do not result in an appropriate TA (between .6 and .7%) you may want to add the predominant acid found in mulberries - malic. Many wine makers dump "acid blend" but if malic is the predominant acid why pretend that mulberries are would-be grapes (tartaric) or lemons?
I don't know how much tannin is in mulberries so you may want to do some research to determine whether it might be useful to add some tannin.
I would allow the juice to ferment in a bucket loosely covered with a towel. I would stir the juice a couple of times a day and I would rack to a carboy with bung and airlock when the gravity drops to about 1.005. Air is GOOD for the yeast and so for the wine until then, but after that air is BAD for the wine ( but still good for the yeast).
I would rack every two or three months after that and allow the wine to age for 6- 9 months or longer if you have the patience.
Last point - wine ain't beer and with wine you want to avoid heat. You do not want to set any pectins, or blow off aromatic molecules or destroy flavor.

This is not a recipe but a protocol.

 

[lukebuz]

I am so jealous of you. Mulberries are my absolute favorite berry, and love to make wine with it. The thing is, the juice and mulberries are pretty much the same thing. The only real solids in them are the tiny seeds and the stems. Just juice otherwise.

You can use the rule of berries are 85% water and 10% sugar for your poundage of berries and make wine that way, or as above from the juice at 1.050 (or so).

I'd recommend making it as you would, aging it in Oak (chips are oK) and then sweetening with raw, filtered Honey. Oh, so good!

Now, we just need to work out how you'll get me some of those excess berries...

 

[smit6089]

Great information. Thanks so much. Ill keep doing some research and get a plan together.

 

[smit6089]

Thanks for the advice. Where do you live Lukebuz? Maybe I can find a way to get you some berries. I have plenty of excess.

 

[mrchaos101]

How many lbs of of Mulberries per Gallon do you think?

 

[lukebuz]

Thanks for the advice. Where do you live Lukebuz? Maybe I can find a way to get you some berries. I have plenty of excess.

You have to be down south near me, if you already have ripe berries! I'm in Bowling Green, KY. They are just now turning deep red...and I've sampled a small smattering...going to be a good year.

I used to live in Iowa, and a co-worker had a crazy tree. I used to be able to get 80 lbs of berries in 1 peak season harvest, from 1 tree!
Now, washing 80lbs of berries....sigh. But last years MB wine helped the process!

 

[lukebuz]

How many lbs of of Mulberries per Gallon do you think?

4lbs is weak, 6lbs per gallon is good, 8lbs gallon is great... I've never tried 100% juice, but would like to one day!

 

[mrchaos101]

4lbs is weak, 6lbs per gallon is good, 8lbs gallon is great... I've never tried 100% juice, but would like to one day!

My buddy's house is surrounded with these trees. Said I could come out and take all I wanted. Is why I was asking.

 

[WVMJ]

The more mulberries the better, 100% juice is perfect. One thing about mulberries is they can give a lot of off flavors and odors early, did you steam juice these, if you steamed them then you might not get that problem, you do need to use some sulfites to protect the juice from oxidation. We make a Morat with dark honey and mulberries, its well worth the effort of picking all those berries.

 

[smit6089]

Sorry for not updating at all lately. I work retail and we were going through inventory so it's quite a nasty spell of not doing anything but work and sleep.

I live in Norman Oklahoma so I'm right along the same lines as you. With all of the bad weather we've been having we haven't had a lot of good berries fall. To answer a few of the questions, I am not steam juicing right now. Good old fashioned Heat, food mill, cheese cloth. Probably not the most efficient method but right now I am getting one cup of juice per pound of raw berries.

I also got my wine making kit in and got a specific gravity reading. The juice at 60 degrees F reads 1.056 SG

 

[Evilgrin]

Wash the berries, freeze them for atleast a few days then toss them in a little sugar once thawed and wait a day or two in the fridge. They will juice like crazy. That is how i do blackberries.

 

[smit6089]

Thanks for the advice.

Finally got all the juice I need. Looking foward to getting started.

 

[Michigan_Wolfman]

Mulberries are just starting to pop up on the trees in my yard here in Michigan. I doubt I'll be able to get enough berries to do anything with between all the birds and the damned raccoons around here.

 

[smit6089]

Took a long time but finally got it done. First ever round of truly home made wine.

 

[lukebuz]

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice! 100% juice? What is your ABV? Oak, etc? How'd it turn out?

 

[smit6089]

Yup, 100% juice. Finished at 0.995 and back sweetened to 1.002. Should be about 12.6 abv. Always planed on transferring onto oak after two months in secondary but after month to month taste tests it really started developing a bit of a 'wild berry' flavor that I was afraid of overpowering with oak. Only addition other than the basic kmeta, nutrient, etc was malic acid to get up to around .55% TA. It probably could have benefited from some Tanin but I'm still new to all this and wasn't quite sure what I was doing. If I can find my notes I'll post all the numbers and times. It's still young but has a great sweet tart almost Mulberry jam flavor to it. I'm sure it's no where close to a classic wine but I like it, so all is well.

 

[WVMJ]

We include some red ripe vs totally purple ripe berries in while picking to add some acid. Like the perfectly appropriate matching shrink wraps and labels. WVMJ