Home Canned Grape Juice Concentrate – Canning Instructions
There’s nothing quite as satisfying as making your own home canned grape juice concentrate, especially when it’s made with grapes raised on your very own homestead. Grape juice concentrate that has been extracted from organically grown grapes is very healthy because it is high in things like vitamin C. Grape juice makes a delicious accompaniment to almost any meal, especially breakfast. It’s perfect enjoyed over ice or with a little sparkling water for an extra special treat. When you make your own homemade grape juice concentrate, you can also add it to water kefir and it makes a delicious probiotic drink. Canning grape juice concentrate is also an efficient way of storing the juice from your grapes because it takes up less space.
Click here to learn how we grow grapes, and how to prune and trellis them.
How To Extract Juice From Grapes
There are several ways to extract the juice from grapes, but my favorite way is through a steam juicer. It is very simple and makes the best tasting grape juice concentrate. It also comes out of the juicer hot enough that I usually don’t even process my jars in a canner because they seal all on their own. This is a safe practice because grape juice is acidic enough and does not need to be pressure canned. Steam juicing is also a fairly hands-off process, so I can usually do it alongside other canning projects which is very helpful during the busy harvesting and preserving season.
A steam juicer is a great investment if you plan to do a lot of canning. It works great for apples, tomatoes, grapes or any other kind of juicy fruit. It is a juicer that works by creating steam that rises through fruit (or whatever you put in it), which pulls the juice out of the fruit. The reason the juice is so highly concentrated is that it’s extracted by steam heating the fruit, which causes the concentrated juice to drip out of the fruit, rather than water being added to the fruit and it being brought to a boil.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Simple – once you see how easy it is to make grape juice this way, you’ll never want to use another method
- Concentrated – this juice is concentrated making it an efficient way of storing your harvest
- Pulp Free – because this juice is made with steam, it is a clearer juice and pulp free
- Great for jelly – if you have grape juice on your pantry shelf, it’s always easy to make grape jelly providing you have some pectin and sugar.
Ingredients
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here
Tools
How to Make Home-Canned Grape Juice Concentrate
Place grapes (stem and all) in the basket of your steam juicer. It’s perfectly fine to fill the basket all the way full.
Fill the bottom part of the steam juicer with water.
Add the juice collecting tray in the middle and the basket of fruit on the top. Cover with the lid.
Turn your stove on medium-high heat until the water comes to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium-low and the steam from the water will start releasing the juice from the delicious grapes. Be sure to leave the lid on to trap the steam in the grapes.
Every 15 – 20 minutes, drain the hose on the juice collection tray. If the tray gets too full, the juice will run over into the water below. You don’t want to waste any juice.
Canning Instructions
Drain the juice directly from the steam juicer through the hose and into a quart jar. Be sure to hold the jar with a hot pad, as it will get very hot from the steaming hot grape juice.
Want to save this post?
Just enter your email and get it sent to your inbox! Plus you’ll get new recipes and homesteading tips from us every week!
Fill the jar to within 1/2 inch of the top of the jar with the hot juice. Wipe jar rims with a clean cloth and immediately add a lid and a ring and screw bands on tight. The heat from the juice will seal the jar.
If you end up with a partially full jar, that you have to add more juice to a few minutes later, it may not be hot enough to self seal.
Anything that doesn’t seal can be processed in a boiling water bath canner. (See instructions below).
The type of grape you use will depend on the amount of juice you get. Once you feel like you aren’t getting anymore juice from your grapes, you can take off the lid and see what they look like. It can be tempting to squish them, but this will put pulp into your juice, and won’t give you as clear of grape juice.
Grapes can be discarded into the compost pile when all the juice has been extracted.
To process the remaining grapes, add more grapes to the basket of the juicer, and add more hot water to the base. Repeat all other steps.
To Process Jars In A Water Bath Canner
Fill canner about 1/3 full of hot water.
Place on stovetop over medium-high heat.
Add jars to the canner, making sure that the water in the canner comes just below the top of the jar. If it covers the jar it can cause syphoning, which is where some of the contents of the jar can seep out the top during the canning process.
Cover the canner loosely with a lid.
Once the water has reached a boil, set your timer for 10 minutes.
At the end of 10 minutes, remove the jars from the canner using a jar lifter.
Place on a towel-covered countertop and allow to cool to room temperature.
Check Your Jars For A Seal
The jars will seal as they cool because a vacuum will be created on the lid.
Once the jars are cool, you can check to see if they are sealed by pressing on the flat lid. If it makes a “pop” sound, it is not sealed. If it doesn’t move, and stays indented, it is sealed.
Storage
Store jars in a cool dark place like a pantry or closet. They should keep for several years, although this juice is so good you’ll probably use it up quickly.
To Serve
Add 1 quart of concentrated juice to a pitcher with 2 cups of cold water and 1/2 cup of sugar (if desired, depending on the sweetness of your grapes).
Stir well and serve.
Tips
- There is no need to stem grapes before running them through the steam juicer unless you want to take time to do so.
- Don’t squish the grapes to extract more juice, as this will just put pulp in your juice, making it cloudy and less clear.
- It takes an average of 5 pounds of grapes to make 4 quarts of juice.
FAQ
Home Canned Grape Juice Concentrate – Canning Instructions
Ingredients
- 5 lbs grapes
Instructions
- Place grapes (stem and all) in the basket of your steam juicer. It’s perfectly fine to fill the basket all the way full.
- Fill the bottom part of the steam juicer with water.
- Add the juice collecting tray in the middle and the basket of fruit on the top. Cover with the lid.
- Turn your stove on medium-high heat until the water comes to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium-low and the steam from the water will start releasing the juice from the delicious grapes. Be sure to leave the lid on to trap the steam in the grapes.
- Every 15 – 20 minutes, drain the hose on the juice collection tray. If the tray gets too full, the juice will run over into the water below. You don’t want to waste any juice.
Canning Instructions
- Drain the juice directly from the steam juicer through the hose and into a quart jar. Be sure to hold the jar with a hot pad, as it will get very hot from the steaming hot grape juice.
- Fill the jar to within 1/2 inch of the top of the jar with the hot juice. Wipe jar rims with a clean cloth and immediately add a lid and a ring and screw bands on tight. The heat from the juice will seal the jar.
- If you end up with a partially full jar, that you have to add more juice to a few minutes later, it may not be hot enough to self seal.
- Anything that doesn’t seal can be processed in a boiling water bath canner. (See instructions below).
- The type of grape you use will depend on the amount of juice you get. Once you feel like you aren’t getting anymore juice from your grapes, you can take off the lid and see what they look like. It can be tempting to squish them, but this will put pulp into your juice, and won’t give you as clear of grape juice.
- Grapes can be discarded into the compost pile when all the juice has been extracted.
- To process the remaining grapes, add more grapes to the basket of the juicer, and add more hot water to the base. Repeat all other steps.
To Process Jars In A Water Bath Canner
- Fill canner about 1/3 full of hot water.
- Place on stovetop over medium-high heat.
- Add jars to the canner, making sure that the water in the canner comes just below the top of the jar. If it covers the jar it can cause syphoning, which is where some of the contents of the jar can seep out the top during the canning process.
- Cover the canner loosely with a lid.
- Once the water has reached a boil, set your timer for 10 minutes.
- At the end of 10 minutes, remove the jars from the canner using a jar lifter.
- Place on a towel-covered countertop and allow to cool to room temperature.
Check Your Jars For A Seal
- The jars will seal as they cool because a vacuum will be created on the lid.
- Once the jars are cool, you can check to see if they are sealed by pressing on the flat lid. If it makes a “pop” sound, it is not sealed. If it doesn’t move, and stays indented, it is sealed.
Storage
- Store jars in a cool dark place like a pantry or closet. They should keep for several years, although this juice is so good you’ll probably use it up quickly.
To Serve
- Add 1 quart of concentrated juice to a pitcher with 2 cups of cold water and 1/2 cup of sugar (if desired, depending on the sweetness of your grapes).
- Stir well and serve.
Notes
- There is no need to stem grapes before running them through the steam juicer unless you want to take time to do so.
- Don’t squish the grapes to extract more juice, as this will just put pulp in your juice, making it cloudy and less clear.
- It takes an average of 5 pounds of grapes to make 4 quarts of juice.
