Home-canned grape juice...?

Question

Does anybody have any tips/suggestions for home canning grape juice? I have got my juicer steamer rolling right now (nearly mid-night my time - have to pull an all nighter so that the grapes don't mold as I have had them sitting for nearly 48 hours already)... I have never done it but have the basics. Give me your wisdom!! :)

One question in particular I have: I have the grapes loaded and everything is going great - do I wait until the steamer stops producing juice to switch out my grapes or will it get watery looking? What's my indicator? Or does it just condense down so I should keep adding grapes? This domestic diva stuff might be over my head...

Answer 1

I have no experience with grape juice from a steam juicer- only from grapes cooked down and run through a food mill to separate out the skins and seeds. Even that experience is at least 2 decades old. But I will tell you what I do know of the matter. My grandmother used to can everything she could lay her hands on, and she lived near an Italian family that raised grapes to make their own wine. So each year she'd get bushels of the things, and there's only so much grape jelly you can stand.
The biggest worry you have with grape juice is getting all the natural yeasts killed off- or the stuff will ferment in the jars and blow the lids right off. Once we extracted all the juice we could, we'd bring it to a boil and keep it that way. The jars and lids were kept in a boiling water bath until needed. Jars were filled with the boiling juice, then a lid. Then she processed the jars in a pressure cooker, 10 minutes at 5 pounds of pressure. I remember that well, as I made a mistake once and blew the seal out. Not pretty to remember that event. Anyway- the juice stayed pretty well that way. It will form little crystals in the bottom of the jars, if it sits long enough. It's tannic acid, the stuff that makes the wine attack your teeth and tongue- and it's part of the grapes. Some years and some grapes are worse than others. It didn't hurt the juice any, we just had to be careful pouring it out. She said the crystals wouldn't hurt you if you drank them, but they did not taste good.
I think your steamer would take a lot of the initial work out of the preparation, but you want to be sure your bottles or jars are absolutely clean. Aside from the botulism risk, which I think would be low- you can end up with wine as opposed to juice. Or vinegar, if it sours. You can then either drink it or use it to make jelly later. Hers usually did well, but sometimes needed a bit of sugar before drinking if it was really tart. We didn't sweeten it at all before canning as that would have really encouraged any yeasties that managed to get in.
Since I've never used the steamer gadget I can't tell you anything about that. I'd think the booklet would tell you if you had to switch out the grapes or could just keep going. I'd think you could just add more grapes, at least until the skins got too deep inside it. But I'd advise checking the directions that came with it if at all possible.
Sorry- that's all the help I have to offer. No offense to grandma- but I'd rather buy my juice or just eat the grapes. Just keep an eye on the bottles or jars- because if it doesn't stay grape juice you want to catch it fast.

Answer 2

Welch's use like table grapes not wine grapes you could try but it could turn out very sweet and thick. Your best to hit a wine/beer hobby store and buy a wine kit or some even make the wine for you and if you not in a huge rush some will even age it for you like 2-3yrs in oak casks for a fee.