Steam juicer

[Jericurl]

So I went out to our local farm to pick up some more figs. Their you pick grapes are ready for harvesting at $1.50/lb.

I don't have a wine press and I'm not all that interested in stomping them with my feet.
I am interested in freezing them and treating them like berries by running them through my steam juicer.
I'm assuming this will work?

Any idea how many pounds will I need per gallon of wine? Actually I'll probably end up adding some honey and make it a pyment.

 

[dralarms]

Never steam juiced grapes (well I did once to muscadines) but I don't see why you couldn't. I'd think 5 to 7 lbs a gallon would make a nice wine

 

[stickman]

For straight wine, I believe you need around 14lbs per gallon, though it depends to some extent on the type of grapes.

 

[TonyR]

Yes 15 to 20 lbs will give you a gal. Never tried a steam juicer. To me $1.50 per pound seems high. Have you checked for juice buckets? Around here I can get 6 gal juice buckets of Ca. Juice for $55.

 

[cgallamo]

don't have a wine press and I'm not all that interested in stomping them with my feet.
.

Kids love stomping grapes, and their little feet are gentler on the fruit. You have any of those around?

 

[Jericurl]

Kids love stomping grapes, and their little feet are gentler on the fruit. You have any of those around?

Nope. No children running around here.

 

[treesaver]

Jericurl, to address your question, yes you can steam juice grapes, BUT be prepared for wine that will not clear. I'm probably to late in my reply, but I just saw this, and having steam juiced a lot of fruits, I felt I should respond. Any fruit that has pectin in it should not be steam juiced, as it sets the pectin and the wine will not clear. That said, I'm not sure how much pectin grapes have. My mother always steamed concords to make juice and jelly, but she never made wine, and alas, it's too late to ask her anything anymore. If you try it and have cloudy wine, I would like to know, but if that happens, you will know why! Lee

 

[Charlietuna]

I'm with TonyR, $1.50 is pricy. $1.00 / lb is what I paid this year. I guess you're paying for the picking experience.

 

[stormbringer]

Probably too late to be of any benefit with your present batch but take notes as to the pounds of fruit steamed and the yield in juice. That way you will know how many pounds of fruit steamed will produce however many quarts of juice, In other words if you steamed 20 pounds of fruit to produce 5 quarts of juice, and the recipe calls for 10 pounds of fruit, you'll know that's the equivalent of 2 1/2 quarts of juice, etc.

Off the subject: I steam a lot of fruit and can it (and label with the type of fruit and date) in mason jars. It'll last forever if canned properly and is convenient to store the steamed juice for later batches.