Mulberries

[tangent]

i went to a spring fair thing that was yawnsville today
but i found the ubiquitous old lady selling jams and stuff
she had a mulberry juice. i asked her what was in it and she said some sugar and lemon juice
i was going to tip the whole lot (500mls for $1:40 ) in a Belgian wit in secondary. Maybe the late hops have given it a light green colour instead of a nice bright white, so i figured chuck the lot in.
Had a taste 1st, f*$kn awesome! I want to pour it over hot pancakes. That old lady has balanced the sugar, fruit and lemon perfectly. I should be taking lessons from her. The missus tried it as well so now only about 150mls were added instead of the whole lot. I figure the pinkish tinge will be better than lime green, just.

Has anyone used mulberries before?
Don't they make a wine or something with it in Pommyland?
Is that the one that can take on a cat-piss aroma or is that another berry?

 

[Doogiechap]

I've bumped Tangents original post back up as I've come across a good source of these too and would love to try them in a beer. Has anyone had any experience with these ? I'm looking at doing a couple of AG Wits (using Ross' recipe) over the next few weeks and the second batch may have some mulberry in there if anyone has any thoughts.
Cheers
Doug

 

[Dr Gonzo]

Used to live in a house with a mulberry tree out the back.
Decided one day to try making a mulberry wine.
Picked & pressed mulberries for a whole day & ended up with about 5L juice.
Chucked in a few kilos of sugar & topped up with water to 20L.
Had an old out of date packet of yeast from a cider kit lying around, so chucked that in.
Didn't pasteurise juice or sanitise anything (didn't really know what i was doing at the time).
Left it on a bench in the shed and forgot about it.

6 months went by before a mate suggested we should lift the lid & check it out. I was holding my nose, ready for a real bad smell.
Lo and Behold it smelt awsome and had this huge purple head on top.
The purple head inspired us both so we dry hopped it with 30g of killer hops, sprinkled another kilo of sugar over them & washed it all in with a small bottle of brandy. The lid went back on & it sat there, forgotten about for another 6 months.

So when we finally got around to trying this stuff it had been in the same fermenter for over a year, just sitting in the shed. Once started on, the whole 20L lasted less than 2 days it was that good. Straight into the glass out of the fermenter. It was very clear, like diluted blackcurrant cordial, with a radioactive glow. It's effect was intoxicating to say the least.

I have never tried to recreate this brew, and im not sure if i could. It was just one of those freak occurances where everything went right despite my lack of understanding/caring what was going on.

Anyway, a long story short, mulberry wine rocks and i reckon adding mulberry juice to a beer in the fermenter would be awsome. Or perhaps pasteurising the juice on the stove and adding to the kettle on flame out (just to kill the bugs).