Published December 2, 2019 By Gigi Mitts Leave a Comment
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Mead made using fresh mulberries is known as Morat. Morat is usually made in summer or late summer when you have gorgeous, full-flavored, and juicy black mulberries.
The color and flavor of morat is delicious, you have to try it! It has sweet berry notes and subtle honey wine flavor that is reminiscent of summers.
Mulberry mead is best to drink young; so if you are impatient and do not want to wait for months for your mead to get ready; then morat is what you should make. Start with the basic mead recipe I have given here and then progress to making mulberry mead as below.
Tools and equipment
- Funnel – This is to ensure that the liquids we pour into the carboy go straight into it and do not end up on your working surface. As a precaution, cover up your surface with clean, washed towels. These will also come in handy for you to wipe your equipment.
- Glass carboy – Select a 1 or 3 gallon carboy like this one. I love the fact that it comes with a stopper as well as an airlock as we need these items for the mead making. We are going to stir and shake the carboy once it is filled with juice and honey. That is why, it is important to have some room on top (known as headspace) after it has been filled with the honey and juice.
- Stainless steel food mill – We will be using this to crush the berries.
- Brewer’s hydrometer. Normally, I’d have said that this is optional. However, while making delicate meads like fruit melomels, it is important to measure the sugar content of the must. This will decide how much honey to add. And after adding honey, we will again measure the sugar level since that would decide how dry or sweet your mead is. If you are finicky about the taste of your mead, and plan to brew regularly, then I recommend you buy Brewer’s hydrometer kit like this one.
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- D47 yeast.
Mulberry Mead Recipe
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- Author: Gigi Mitts
- Total Time: 30 minutes
Description
Here is a Mulberry Mead or Morat recipe.
Ingredients
Scale
- Frozen mulberries – 5 to 7 lb. You can also use fresh mulberries but the frozen ones just allow for better juicing. If you are picking your own mulberries, pick a combination of ripe and unripe ones. This will give a sweet-tart taste to the mead. You can also buy your berries from the local farmer’s market. To make about one gallon of mulberry mead, you need about 20 lbs of mulberries. Since we are making a smaller batch, take approximately 5 to 10 lb.
- Raw, unfiltered, organic honey – You can buy any local variety. Avoid the citrusy ones as they tend to impact the flavor of the mead. Wildflower or orange blossom honeys add great flavor to mead.
- 4–5 ounces of warm water infused with dried mulberry leaves. This is completely optional. I added it because it adds a ton of flavor and the warm tea also helps in yeast activation.
- D 47 yeast – 1 packet. We will only be using about half the packet, since we are making a smaller batch.
Instructions
- Sanitize all the tools and equipment.
- Defrost the mulberries for a few hours.
- Take a little bit of juice from the mulberries in a cup. Add half a packet of D47 yeast to this juice. This quantity is enough for about one gallon batch of mead. You’d need more if you plan to use 10 to 20 lbs of mulberries. Shake the juice and yeast. The sugars in the juice will help activate the yeast. Set the mixture aside.
- Now use the food mill to crush all the mulberries. It will take about 5 minutes to crush about 5 to 7 lbs. It is perfectly alright if you get a bit of skin, leaves, and mulberry fruit bits in the juice as these will add to the flavor of the mead.
- Check the sugar content of the juice using a hydrometer. If it is over 10.00 then it is almost as sugary as commercial juices. So you should not need more than 3 and quarter pounds of honey.
- Now use the funnel to pour the collected juice into the carboy. Add the honey and close the carboy with the stopper. Now stir and shake the carboy to dissolve the honey into the juice. Do not skip this part: shake for at least five minutes so the juice and honey are well-incorporated. This is the main reason why we are using a smaller carboy. A 5 gallon carboy would be rather difficult to shake.
- Now strain the mulberry tea to remove the leaves and add the still-warm tea to the carboy. Shake well. This will bring the temperature of the must to room temperature. This is when you add the yeast-juice mixture to the carboy.
- Shake the mixture and add about a cup of water to the mixture. Again shake well. Take a reading of your must with the hydrometer. This way you will know if the fermentation will stick. Look for a reading of 1.114-1.116. You can add honey if needed at this point.
- Seal the carboy with the stopper (dry the stopper thoroughly before use) and place the airlock. Airlock has a passage or valve to allow the bad gases to go out.
- You will see bubbling in about 3 days. Keep watching the airlock. Make sure you do not lose the seal and that the stopper is not pushed out by the bubbles.
- Ideally, you need not do anything for about a month. But if you feel something has gone awry, check the reading with the hydrometer.
- Your mead should be ready in 3-4 weeks. After this, rack the mead and store in glass bottles.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
For a detailed video on how to make mulberry mead or morat, click here. The video explains all the steps above in detail. To learn how to rack the mead, watch this video.
Conclusion
Mulberry mead or morat is delicious and easy to make once you have the right tools and know-how. I hope this brief guide helps you. Drop a comment if you tried this recipe and let me know how it went!
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How to Make Mead
Author
Gigi Mitts
Hi! I’m Gigi. A fermentation nerd passionate about healthy food and great diet. I believe that our wellbeing and beauty starts in our gut and that each of us has a responsibility to get informed, take action, and look after their body. I’m here to spread that message, bring back the benefits of ancient nutrition to modern life, and show you all the latest cool ways to ferment and preserve food at home.
