Mulberry cider

Mulberry tree is in full fruiting.

With this we can make our mulberry cider:

2 quarts of mulberries

2 cups of sugar

4 gallons apple juice

champagne yeast

even careful picking of the fruit will leave the fingers a bit purple.

nothing though that soap can not take care of.

mulberry cider - mulberry fingers

 a quick rinse under running water, then put in a steamer so the mulberries can be brew clean.

i add the 2 cups of additional sugar to the water at the bottom of the steamer. 

when done steaming i will not want to get rid of the mulberry rich water at the bottom.

steaming should be a minimum of 20 minutes.

mulberry cider - steaming the mulberries

 after the steamed mulberries have cooled i will add them to the fermenter.

the order of ingredients to the fermenter:

2 gallons of apple juice, 

 mulberries, 

 mulberry/sugar solution, 

1 gallon of apple juice (to clean the funnel),

yeast,

and the final gallon of apple juice. 

mulberry cider - adding mulberries to the carboy

 i use vodka in the fermenter lock.

mulberry cider - just waiting for fermentation

 bubbling glory as fermentation had been 24 hours active.

mulberry cider - 24 hours of fermentation

in one week we will move to a secondary fermentor.

we will keep 3-4 weeks in the secondary.