# Using a juicer



## OldCanalBrewing (Oct 11, 2011)

My friend recently received lots of Concord grapes from Michigan. He was wondering, as am I, if we could not crush the grapes, but rather run them through a juicer. The juice that does get extracted does come out really purple from the skins. We are thinking that the pulp, skin and seeds would be dumped and just use the juice. 

Would it work? Or do we need the skins?

Thanks!!


----------



## Tom (Oct 11, 2011)

DO NOT USE A JUICER FOR GRAPES.

Yes you need the skins

Use pectic enzyme 

You must destem Do not ferment with the stems


----------



## Boyd (Oct 13, 2011)

I would have to disagree with destemming the grapes.

Although I do not drink very much of my wines I have been making wine from wild grapes for about 5 years.

I crush them on the stems with a 2x4 with a piece 3 1/2" piece of 1x4 nailed on it after freezing , peptic enzime and K-meta for a day and then ferment for 2 days and press. 

Can you imagine picking those little suckers of the stemsby hand?

People that drink the stuff tell me it is very good.

I picked the last of my marquettes, about 30-40 persent raisens a few of days ago and am going to do the same with those. Thawing today, crush tommorrow. 

Racked a 3 gallon batch from the primary today. Same program.

Never was good at following rules. Like to try other things and see what happens.


----------



## jeepingchick (Oct 14, 2011)

OK, I KNOW you dont juice grapes or apples.... but WHY?? Such a PITA when I have such a nice juicer and it sits there looking sad on my counter.


----------



## dannyb (Oct 28, 2011)

The skins contain natural yeast, so if no cultured yeast is added, you'll be missing an important ingrediant to start fermentation.


----------



## BobF (Oct 28, 2011)

Boyd said:


> ...
> Can you imagine picking those little suckers of the stemsby hand?
> ...


 
You should have go at 50# or so of elderberries!


----------



## buddy (Oct 28, 2011)

jeepingchick said:


> OK, I KNOW you dont juice grapes or apples.... but WHY?? Such a PITA when I have such a nice juicer and it sits there looking sad on my counter.



When you use a juicer some of the seeds will be chopped up and their contents will be added to the juice. 
The seeds of grapes as well as a lot of other fruit contain hydrogen cyanide which is not a good thing to be introducing to your wine.
Their is another thread that was recently started about hydrogen cyanide.


----------



## Runningwolf (Oct 28, 2011)

You do not want to chance crushing any seeds. As far as stems in the ferment that is not a good idea either as you will get some off tastes from them if left fermenting very long. With that said even when you destem/crush you still end up with some stems in your juice and even seeds. The rule is, avoid them as much as reasonably possible.

If you are doing something that worked for you in the past then keep doing it. We could go on and on with what we should/could do, just like adding yeast vs wild yeast.


----------



## BobF (Oct 28, 2011)

buddy said:


> When you use a juicer some of the seeds will be chopped up and their contents will be added to the juice.
> The seeds of grapes as well as a lot of other fruit contain hydrogen cyanide which is not a good thing to be introducing to your wine.
> Their is another thread that was recently started about hydrogen cyanide.


 

What about steam juicing?


----------

