Grape Juice
One easy job to do at home is canning grape juice. It is the perfect early fall thirst quencher for your family and so much tastier and healthier than anything bought from the store.
Why should you make it?
- You can control the ingredients. There are no unwanted additives or preservatives in home-canned grape juice.
- The flavor is far superior to anything you can get from the store.
- Use it to make grape jelly any time you run out of jelly.
- It’s loaded with vitamins and antioxidants and contains no added sugar.
- Use it as a base for cocktails or mocktails.
Pro tips
- Black or red grapes, especially concord grapes, will stain both your hands and counters. Wipe up any spills immediately to protect counters if they are prone to staining.
- Double-strain your juice to remove as much sediment as possible for the best-tasting, best-textured juice.
- Refrigerate when straining: When waiting for your juice to strain, place it in the refrigerator. It will start to ferment at room temperature.
What you need
Fresh Concord Grapes: Use either purple or white grapes to make your juice.
How to make it
- Wash the grapes well. Remove the individual grapes from the stems.
- Add the washed grapes to a large pot with an inch of water. Heat to boiling. You can use a juicer to extract the seeds and remove the stems if you have one.
- Reduce the heat and place the lid on the pot. Simmer it for about 10 minutes.
- Mash the fruit with a potato masher or similar tool.
- Strain out the seeds and skins with a fine mesh strainer.
- Refrigerate the juice for at least a few hours or overnight. A sediment will form in the bottom of the container.
Step One
Once the juice has cooled overnight, strain it through several layers of cheesecloth-lined mesh sieve.
Step Two
Reheat the juice over high heat to boiling in a large pan.
Step Three
Pour the hot juice into warm jars, leaving a ¼-inch headspace.
Step Four
Wipe the jar rims with a damp paper towel. Center the lid on the jar. Screw on bands finger-tip tight.
Get the canner water hot. Wash the jars and lids. Add the clean jars to the canning pot to heat. Once the jars are filled, add them to the canning pot. Bring the water in the pot to a boil. Once the water is boiling, set the timer.
When the processing time is complete, remove the pot from the heat, carefully open the lid, and partially lift it off the top of the canning pot. Let it rest like that for 5 minutes.
Then, remove the lid and let the jars rest in the canning pot for an additional 5 to 10 minutes.
After resting, remove the jars onto a kitchen towel placed on your counter and let them thoroughly cool for 12-24 hours, undisturbed. You may hear the lids pinging sometime in the next hour. This is music to a canner’s ears. It is due to the reaction of the lids being sealed to the jar.
Check the seals. Press down in the middle of the lid. If it flexes up or down, the jar is not sealed and should be refrigerated and used first.
Then, remove the bands. Gently pick up the jar by the lid to check the seal further. Again, if it is not sealed, use it first.
Label jars with contents and the date. Store in a cool, dark place for at least a year. Avoid areas with large temperature fluctuations.
Do not stack jars on top of each other. This can compromise the seals. If you run out of room on your shelf, use a sheet of cardboard or a thin piece of wood and place that on top of a row of jars. Then you can put jars on top of that. This will distribute the weight evenly.
Before using any canned goods, always inspect the packaging and the food itself. Make sure that it looks and smells as it should. If it doesn’t, it’s best to err on the side of caution and discard it.
More ways to extract the juice
- Use a juicer or a steam juicer. This is the easiest way to make the juice.
- Use a blender or food processor: Process until it’s as smooth as you can get it. At least a couple of minutes.
- A potato masher: Instead of heating the grapes, you can just put them in a large bowl and mash them. The benefit of heating them up is that you will end up with more juice.
- A jelly bag: (We use a mesh produce storage bag.) Mash the grapes, add them to your bag, and squeeze the juice out with your hands.
Storage tips
Storage: Store the juice in jars or a pitcher in the refrigerator for 5 to 7 days.
Freezing: Grape juice can technically be frozen but your homemade juice will lose a lot of flavor. For longer storage, it’s best to can it, as suggested above.
What to do with grape juice?
- Grape Jelly: It’s faster to make grape juice than it is to make grape jelly. After you harvest in the fall, make a batch of jelly and then can the rest of the juice. Then, you can make more jelly from the canned juice later in the year.
- Mocktail: Serve it to the kids as a healthy after-school snack. If you want to get fancy and make them think they are drinking soda, add some plain seltzer water for a nice sparkle.
- Grape Sorbet: Use the juice as a base for a refreshing sorbet.
- Cocktails: Make delicious cocktails with fresh grape juice like this White Grape Cosmo.
- Grape Sauce: Reduce the grape juice to make a sweet and tangy sauce. This pairs especially well with grilled meats or roasted vegetables.
- Smoothies: Blend the juice with yogurt and apples for a delicious smoothie.
- Popsicles: Just freeze the juice in popsicle molds for a special treat on hot days.
- Grape Syrup: Boil down grape juice with sugar to make a syrup for pancakes, waffles, French toast, or a topping for ice cream.
FAQs
Use a non-reactive pot, like stainless steel. Other metal pots could leave a metallic taste in your juice.
Many varieties of grapes will require no added sugar. Black or red concord are usually sweet enough to not require sugar.
Absolutely. If your grapes are tart, add sugar when you reheat the juice after straining the second time.
Technically, no. You don’t have to refrigerate the juice. It just makes for a nicer product to drink.
Depending on the variety of grapes you use, you’ll need about 3½ pounds of grapes to make one quart of juice.
More homemade juices
Equipment
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This homemade grape juice is easy and delicious. Try a batch next time you have lots of grapes. You’ll be glad you did.
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I hope you enjoyed the recipe today.
Enjoy. And have fun cooking!
How to make Grape Juice
Ingredients
- 3½ Cups grapes White, red or purple grapes will work
- sugar optional
Instructions
- Wash the grapes well. Remove the individual grapes from the stems.3½ Cups grapes
- Add the washed grapes to a large pot with an inch of water. Heat to boiling. You can use a juicer to extract the seeds and remove the stems if you have one.
- Reduce the heat and place the lid on the pot. Simmer it for about 10 minutes.
- Mash the fruit with a potato masher or similar tool.
- Strain out the seeds and skins with a fine mesh strainer.
- Refrigerate the juice for at least a few hours or overnight. A sediment will form in the bottom of the container.
- Once the juice has cooled overnight, strain it through several layers of cheesecloth-lined mesh sieve.
- Reheat the juice over high heat to boiling in a large pan. Add sugar to taste, if you need to.sugar
- Pour the hot juice into warm jars, leaving a ¼-inch headspace.
- Wipe the jar rims with a damp paper towel. Center the lid on the jar. Screw on bands finger-tip tight.
- Get the canner water hot, and add the filled jars. Once the water is boiling, set the timer.
- Once processing time is done, remove the pot from the heat, carefully open the lid, and move it partially off the top of the canning pot. Let it rest like that for 5 minutes.
- Then, remove the lid and allow the jars to rest for another 5 to 10 minutes in the canning pot.
- After resting, remove the jars onto a kitchen towel placed on your counter and let them thoroughly cool for 12-24 hours, undisturbed. You may hear the lids pinging sometime in the next hour. This is music to a canner’s ears. It is due to the reaction of the lids being sealed to the jar.
- Check the seals. Press down in the middle of the lid. If it flexes up or down, the jar is not sealed and should be refrigerated and used first.
- Then, remove the bands. Gently pick the jar up by the lid to further check the seal. Again, if it is not sealed, use it first.
- Label jars with contents and the date. Store in a cool, dark space.
See all of my favorite tools and gift ideas on my New Amazon Store!Check out Binky’s Amazon Store!Notes
- Use a juicer or a steam juicer. This is the easiest way to make the juice.
- Use a blender or food processor: Process until it’s as smooth as you can get it. At least a couple of minutes.
- A potato masher: Instead of heating the grapes, you can just put them in a large bowl and mash them. The benefit of heating them up is that you will end up with more juice.
- A jelly bag: (We use a mesh produce storage bag.) Mash the grapes, add them to your bag, and squeeze the juice out with your hands.
- Grape Jelly: It’s faster to make grape juice than it is to make grape jelly. After you harvest in the fall, make a batch of jelly and then can the rest of the juice. Then, you can make more jelly from the canned juice later in the year.
- Mocktail: Serve it to the kids as a healthy after-school snack. If you want to get fancy and make them think they are drinking soda, add some plain seltzer water for a nice sparkle.
- Grape Sorbet: Use the juice as a base for a refreshing sorbet.
- Cocktails: Make delicious cocktails with fresh grape juice like this White Grape Cosmo.
- Grape Sauce: Reduce the grape juice to make a sweet and tangy sauce. This pairs especially well with grilled meats or roasted vegetables.
- Smoothies: Blend the juice with yogurt and apples for a delicious smoothie.
- Popsicles: Just freeze the juice in popsicle molds for a special treat on hot days.
- Grape Syrup: Boil down grape juice with sugar to make a syrup for pancakes, waffles, French toast, or a topping for ice cream.
Nutrition
Originally published November 22, 2023. Updated August 6, 2024.
