Mulberry Mead

It's time again for What is Paul Drinking? Today's notes are from my latest batch of mulberry mead, which I mentioned in my notes about making lattes. I think this is my second batch, with my first having been made in 2022. I found a bottle of 2022 in my cabinet, and if I've made other batches, they are lost to time. 

I put about a quart of mulberries into a saucepan with enough water to cover them. I cooked them a while to soften them, then gently muddled the berries, turning the water into beautiful purple. What I should have done (and what my wife recommended I do) is get as much juice out of the berries as possible then just use that in primary. Instead, I had the idea that I wanted the whole berries in the fermentation. I put all the solids into a mesh bag and dropped it into my usual mix of three pounds of honey and D47 yeast.

Unfortunately, the bubbling action of the fermentation lifted the bag right up and out of the water. In retrospect, that is predictable. I would have needed to use some weights to keep the bag submerged. However, I only wanted to keep the fruit in the fermenter a few days, and if I submerged it, it would have to stay until racking. In short, I had made a problem for myself.

Next time, just smash the juice out the berries and use that. 

In any case, the result is a lovely color. It has a subtle berry flavor, which I understand to come from the fact that the fruit was added in primary. It's quite different from when I infuse a mead with fruit, which picks up the fruit flavor more intensely. It also came out quite dry. Sometimes that is what I want, and sometimes I add just a splash of simple syrup to the glass before drinking. That's much simpler than formal backsweetening with no danger of exploding bottles from restarted fermentation.