How To Make Grape Juice

While on my knicker-making course the other week (I know, weird) I had a great idea what to do with my ripening black Grapes. One of the other attendees was drinking grape juice and I thought, ‘yes! that’s it, a great way to use up my Grapes.’

Why not just eat them, you say? Well, unfortunately the vine I have was already in my garden when I moved into the house and as it turns out the Grapes are small and very sweet but they have quite large pips in them. Which, if you’ve ever eaten non-seedless Grapes, is a bit of a pain in the booty.

So, here’s how to make your own Grape juice. Firstly, harvest and de-stem the Grapes making sure to pick out any damaged or rotted ones.

Next, give them a good wash to get rid of any nasties.

Then put them into a sturdy pan and mash them with a masher. The idea is to burst as many Grapes as possible. Heat them to a slow simmer for about 10 minutes. Stirring occasionally to ensure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

Lastly, pass the mixture through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. I used a sieve and pushed it through twice just to make sure all the bits were gone. Then bottle, chill and serve. You don’t need to process the jars if you plan on drinking it quickly. And if you have matching nail polish then apply now – the juice tastes so much better :)

Category: Growing Fruit, Recipes     Tagged: ,

10 Comments on “How To Make Grape Juice”

  1. you are right about colour being an important element in food and juice. Not just the taste….. hmmm, matching nail polish!

  2. Thanks for a great tip :-) I’ll be doing just this with our bumper crop of very pippy Rondo grapes.

    BTW have you ever tried making Ver Juice? I heard something about it on Radio 4 once and it sounds intriguing.

    Celia

  3. I tried this last year with green grapes. It was delicious but the colour wasn’t up to much. I wonder whether something equally tasty could be added to make the juice a little more inviting in colour ? Good tip about heating the mixture by the way – that should soften it and make it easier to pass through a sieve.

  4. It looks very delicious!
    I hope i can get some grapes from my vine next year

    By the way, you can try grafting a different type of grapevine into your plant, that way you can have some seedless fruits as well as the ones you have and no need to get a new plant.

  5. ahh, fresh grapes are such an under-used fruit. Wonderful for juice, but especially for grape jelly. Amazing flavour!

  6. please could someone tell me why all grape juice instructions say to heat the juice rather than just mash and strain it. Is it to preserve it better, to pasteurise it to get rid of harmful bacteria, or to improve the flavour?

  7. In answer to Caroline’s question about why to heat the grape juice,instead of just mashing and straining,I made the mistake of doing just that last year.I spent hours washing,mashing ,straining pounds of small,juicy but seedy grapes from my garden and ended up with about half a dozen wine bottles full which I then corked.The next day I put them in the back of the car to take to my sons,but on the way a few of the bottles
    popped their corks because they were still fermenting,and the mess was not pleasant in the car.I’ll make sure I heat them first in future

  8. Can’t wait to have that thing on my taste buds. Already on my way to start making some delicious grape juice. Very helpful Post.

  9. Your pictures look incredible. Already decided to try this on the weekend. Will let you know how it tasted. Good Post.