Mulberry Mead (Morat)
Source: John (The Coyote) Wyllie
Ingredients:
- 6 lb fresh picked mulberries
- 5 lb snowberry honey
- 3 lb corn sugar
- 2 cups raisins- chopped
- 2 tsp sodium-bisulfate
- Pris-de-Mouse yeast
Directions:
- Pick through berries, remove leaves, grubs...etc.
- Process berries.
- Add hot water to honey to dissolve.
- Add sugar and processed raisins.
- Mix processed berries and sugar mix.
- Add sodium-bisulfate (campden), mix well and leave overnight.
- Next day, add water to bring up to 5 gallons.
- Pitch yeast (7/1/93).
- Racked a couple of times.
- Bottled on 9/2/93 with ¾ cup corn and demererra sugar (mixed).
Notes:
My girlfriend has a tree outside her house. Birds eat the fallen berries, become intoxicated and get hit in the road. So I thought I should remove some of the berries, save a couple birds. They were deep purple to red. The mead tasted good at bottling. It slowly became sparkling, and now is like a light sparkling burgundy. Quite fruity, but has a wine-like quality. It is fairly dry, but does have a berry-sweetness I find very enjoyable. It cleared beautifully, and has a deep red color, but easy to see through. The thing that surprised me was how good it was young. I rarely have meads taste good young (see grapefruit recipe!), but this one did!
Specifics:
- OG: 1.070
- FG: 0.990