wheat beer w/ mullberries?

[ken11]

Ive been thinking of adding mulberrys to my wheat beer. its just a 5 gallon batch. wondering if anyone could say how much berries in pounds or oz to use and how to sterilize the berries. thanks

 

[Nikkimaija]

I think 1 to 1.5 lb of fruit per gallon is usually good. I freeze the fruit first, which makes it easier to smush and should kill most critters. Or you can heat the fruit with some water to 165 (pasteurization temp) but I prefer not to risk setting the pectins. Or you can mush the fruit at room temp and add some crushed campden tablets (potassium sorbate, I think. Or sulfate. Or something.) but I prefer not risking killing the yeastie beasties.
Then add to secondary. Using a mesh bag is nice so when you're done you can just lift the bag out with all the pulp. This works best with a bucket style fermenter obviously, but I've actually added fruit to a glass carboy which is possible though certainly a PITA to clean. Hint: put fruit in first, then rack on top of it. Then if you run out of space, you can just bottle the remainder or put it in a second carboy or jug, rather than not being able to add as much fruit as you want. Make sure to leave plenty of headspace because I have found that adding the fruit usually kicks off an exuberant fermentation.

 

[MichaelsBrewing]

I was thinking the same thing today! Please keep me posted if you do decide to make a wheat will mulberries.

Best of luck and cheers!

 

[ken11]

did an american wheat variety adding 2 oz of citra hops to regular recipe + 3 lbs of mullberries come out awesome. not overly fruity but not looking for a fruit beer . just a good note of mullberry at the end. Perfect!!!!!! very different than other berries.

 

[tmains]

I recently did a mulberry pale ale. I found a clone of DFH's Aprihop. And after some tweaking with a guy at the local brew store, we came up with a recipe for a Mulberry Pale Ale. It turned out... eh. Not terrible. But mulberries are quite tart. He also suggested using strawberries and raspberries to balance them out, which I think helped. But not enough.

 

[unionrdr]

Idk,I didn't think mulberries we grew in cinci were that tart. Great flavor,though. My wife's mulberry jam tasted like desert wine. But tart fruit in wheat ale/pale ale is the way to go,imo.

 

[MichaelsBrewing]

Thanks for the updates.... =)

 

[blackbear219]

My in-laws have a couple mulberry trees at their house. After reading this, it's terribly tempting to go pick a bunch and do a mulberry wheat.

I just bottled a blueberry wheat for SWMBO tonight and it's pretty darn tasty so I'd probably just follow the same recipe. Hmm.

 

[unionrdr]

That'd work. Just remove the little green stems.

 

[dogfoot]

I have made multiple batches of mulberry wheat ale, and its surprisingly refreshing, with a great head. Inventory: 6 lbs Wheat malt syrup, 1 oz Willamette (60 min), 1 oz Cascade (15 min), and either Safale US-05 Ale Yeast or Wyeast 1010 American Wheat, 4 Qts of mulberry juice at bottling (use a sieve or cheese cloth to crush and juice the berries)

 

[unionrdr]

AT bottling? The juice has sugars that'd ferment. Unless that's what you primed the beer with?

 

[GranolaMang]

BUMP

After reading all of this, I'll probably be brewing a mulberry beer soon (most likely a wheat). My parents have a couple of trees on their property. One is a white mulberries that are slightly sweet but bland otherwise. They also have a larger tree that gives blackish/purple fruit. This fruit is sweeter and fuller flavored. This is the fruit I'd use.