Steam Juicer

[gaudet]

NW,


does 140 pounds of carlos muscadines count as a lot of fruit???

 

[grapeman]

That should make you a few batches. You can use them for just about anything under the sun as NW shows all the time.

 

[NorthernWinos]

NW,


does 140 pounds of carlos muscadines count as a lot of fruit???

That's a lot of fruit....especially if you picked it by hand....

How many batches of wine will you get????

So, when you make your wines how about some photos....

 

[gaudet]

NW,


does 140 pounds of carlos muscadines count as a lot of fruit???

That's a lot of fruit....especially if you picked it by hand....

How many batches of wine will you get????

So, when you make your wines how about some photos....

Oh no I didn't hand pick. I think you already saw my slide show.


http://www.finevinewines.com/wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6419&PN=1


According to Waldo, he uses 42#s for his muscadine wine. I don't know If I will use quite that much. I will shoot for 30-35#'s for a 6 gallon batch. I can probably get 4 batches out of this fruit. so say 120 bottles worth.... I better start collecting. I will split it out over the year, cause I want to make a batch of strawberry in the spring. Hmm, strawberry muscadine......... that might be a possibility.........

 

[NorthernWinos]

I did see the slide show....that was great. Think I'd have brought home more tho.

 

[Waldo]

Impressive gaudet...dont know how I missed this post before but I did.

 

[gaudet]

Its not that impressive the diesel did all the hard work. I did the nit picking

 

[gaudet]

I got it in yesterday. It is a pretty nice setup. I can't wait to use it. I think I will try it out on some of those lovely muscadines I picked up two weeks ago. Any tips or pointers?

 

[NorthernWinos]

Fill the water pan....add frozen fruit to the top basket and boil for one hour....Set a timer....always keep the water pan full....I drain into another pot all the time.....Enjoy!!!

 

[gaudet]

Northern,

Do you boil with the lid on or off? Probably a dumb question, but I don't know the answer so I will ask it anyways..............

 

[NorthernWinos]

No...keep the lid on.

This was steaming some raspberries...Throw the frozen packages in and they just melt away and the juice runs out the hose.

Have fun.

 

[gaudet]

I have done 4 one gallon bags so far. I started at 8am Central time. So I am about a little more than 1/2 done. So far I have gotten 2 gallons of juice which I collected in 1 gallon glass jugs I sanitized with K-Meta solution. I expect to get at least 3 more quarts out of this.

I placed the pulp from the first run into a strainer bag and might be able to get one more quart out of that. I will squeeze it when it cools enough for me to handle it.

I noticed that towards the end of the fourth bag that the juice was getting darker. When you put the two jugs side by side one is definely darker than the other. I had been just adding more grapes as I recovered space. I also pressed the pulp down in the steamer basket at times. Should I be concerned about the change in juice color? Am I over cooking the grapes by steam? Am I worrying needlessly?

Probably.

 

[NorthernWinos]

I am also doing grapes today. I am doing fresh ones, not frozen.

I fill the basket and steam them for 1 hour, add more water and steam another ½ hour....Then I dump the pulp into a big bowl. I am on my second basket of grapes now....when they have steamed for 1 ½ hours I will put both batches of pulp together and steam for another hour....then let it drip for awhile.

Yours may be darker because you are mashing them down and squeezing out more color from the skins.

Don't worry so much...this isn't Rocket Science...Just keep steaming and using the pulp in a straining bag will give you even more color.

What kind of grapes are you doing????

Are we having fun yet????

Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[gaudet]

I am juicing Carlos Muscadines..........

And yes I am having fun.

Close to 3 gallons of pure juice as we speak, I just put bag # 7 in the basket. So I have juiced 7 one gallon bags and I will have over 3 gallons of fresh juice. I plan to start my carlos muscadine in the next day or two. I will pour the fresh juice into my primary to cool with crushed campden. I just finished sanitizing the primary. Then I will drain the remaining juice from the pulp into the gallon jug(s) to measure the last of it.

 

[gaudet]

Final tally was 15 quarts of fresh juice from 7 gallon bags of muscadine grapes. I could have probably squeezed out an extra quart from the pulp, but this is plenty for my needs now.

I will can 8 quarts and use the remaining 7 for a 6 gallon batch of wine.

Northern, any tips on the processing for the juice into jars? I have cleaned the jars and I am oven sterilizing them for 30 minutes at 200 degrees. I will then fill the jars to about 1/2 inch from the top and lid them. I will then water bathe them in boiling water for 10-15 minutes. Does that sound right to you?

 

[Waldo]

A couple of tips I use when steaming my Muscadines gaudet is I will add a couple of cups of sugar to each load and also, when the begin juicing, I will take that first quart of hot juice and run it back through by just pouring it over the fruit.

 

[gaudet]

I did pour hot juice back into the pot, I think you had suggested it to me before. I will admit it took a lot longer than I thought it would to do the juicing, but it wasn't that bad. I just watched some football and checked it periodically. I will be cleaning up my mess in a few minutes after I finish processing the last 4 jars of juice.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Sounds like you had a good day.....Your processing sounds righ on too.

I cleaned 21# of Valiant Grapes and got 10 qts of pure juice...will make wine with it.

 

[gaudet]

Sounds like you had a good day.....Your processing sounds righ on too.

I cleaned 21# of Valiant Grapes and got 10 qts of pure juice...will make wine with it.

Thanks,

I have done jalapeno jelly but never canned juice. I usually just boil the jars and lids, then pour the hot jelly in and lid em. Never had a problem with it going bad. But I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing for juice.

I am putting away 8 quarts for future use ( read: more wine)

 

[pelican]

When I juice with the steamer, I make sure I have hot, sterile jars and lids ready and waiting and just drain off the juice from the steamer into the jars, then lid them and let them seal as they cool. I haven't steam bathed them afterwards - only had maybe 1 jar not fully seal and grow gunk over the last year or so.


Maybe I ought to steam process them, but with sterile (steamed) juice, going into sterile jars with sterile lids, all hot -- treating them like jelly and just letting them self seal seems to be enough.


Just my 2 cents, open to having corrective feedback if this is way wrong way to do this!


(Mrs.) Pelican