Learn How to Make Grape Juice at home without any special equipment with this simple stovetop boiling method.
A quick and easy method for making homemade fresh, pulpy green grape juice.
Make grape juice at home
There are many ways to make fresh grape juice from grapes at home. You can make grape juice with a steam juice or a regular juicer. You can make grape juice with a blender. Or use this simple method to make grape juice by boiling on the stovetop without a juicer or any special equipment.
There are all sorts of things to make with grape juice. You can make grape juice to drink right away or can it to enjoy later. You can turn grape juice into fresh grape juice cocktails or even grape jelly without pectin. You can even learn how to make homemade wine with grape juice and yeast.
Ingredients
- Grapes – seeded or seedless green grapes, red grapes or even wild muscadine grapes. You can make homemade grape juice with any variety or quantity of grapes.
- Sugar – optional, as needed to sweeten the grape juice. You can make grape juice without sugar depending on how ripe and sweet your grapes are. You can also substitute honey or your favorite alternative sweetener.
Step by step instructions
- Gather the ingredients by picking fresh grapes off the vine or purchasing grapes from store.
- Wash grapes and remove stems.
- Add all the washed grapes to a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and place over medium heat.
- Mash grapes with a potato masher while bringing to a boil.
- Reduce mixture to a simmer and continue mashing while simmering to encourage grapes to release as much juice as possible, about 10-15 minutes.
- Remove from heat and allow grapes to cool slightly.
- Then carefully strain grapes through a sieve, nut milk bag or several layers of cheesecloth, pushing or squeezing the grapes to extract as much just as possible.
- Refrigerate juice to chill. Then sweeten to taste if desired, by reheating juice and adding sugar to taste. Then refrigerate again.
- Enjoy!
How to make pulpy grape juice at home?
This homemade grape juice recipe makes a nice bright green fresh juice. To make a less pulpy grape juice at home you can clarify it. To clarify either return strained juice to stovetop and simmer while skimming the solids off the top. Or refrigerate juice to chill and separate and carefully pour the top of the juice off without disturbing the sediment on the bottom. You can also filter a few more times through a coffee filter to get the clearest juice possible.
Yield
On average about 3 ½ pounds of grapes will yield around 1 quart of juice, or about 4 8 ounce servings. It will take about 14 pounds of grapes to make a gallon of grape juice, enough for roughly 16 glasses of grape juice.
Shelf life
Store homemade grape juice refrigerated for 3-5 days. To store grape juice for longer you can freeze homemade grape juice. Or you can heat process the juice and can the juice to store jarred at room temperature for up to a year.
How to can
To can homemade grape juice simply pour into sterilized jars after heating and hot water bath process the juice as directed by the National Center for Home Food Preservation, about 5-15 minutes depending on jar size and elevation.
Ingredients
- 3 ½ pounds grapes green grapes, red grapes, wild grapes, etc.
- sugar to taste, optional
Instructions
- Thoroughly wash grapes and remove stems then add to a large heavy bottomed stockpot.
- Place over medium heat and bring to a boil, mashing grapes with a potato masher to encourage them to release their juices.
- Once boiling, reduce to a simmer. And continue mashing while simmering, about 10-15 minutes.
- Once skins are empty and grapes have released most of their juices remove from heat and cool slightly.
- Carefully strain cooled grape juice mixture through a sieve, nut milk bag or several layers of cheesecloth, pushing or squeezing the grapes to extract as much juice as possible.
- To clarify the juice either return to stovetop and simmer while skimming the solids off the top. Or refrigerate juice to chill and separate and carefully pour the top of the juice off without disturbing the sediment on the bottom.
- To sweeten juice, add sugar to warm grape juice and stir until dissolved then refrigerate to chill.
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