Learn how to make homemade concord grape juice from home-grown grapes! Turn your garden concord grapes into juice without high fructose corn syrup
It’s that time of year when we harvest our gardens and enjoy the fruits (and veggies) of the spring and summer labor. Unfortunately, I am not much of a gardener (my gardens have never survived my…*ahem*…neglect…), but my Mom has a great garden and she shares garden goodies with us every year.
In my Mom’s garden there is a nice concord grape vine that has done quite well the last few years, which is unusual considering our unpredictable Wyoming weather! Last week the grapes were harvested and there were enough grapes off one plant for both of us to make plenty of homemade grape juice.
Fruit juice is a treat that we love at our house, especially grape juice. There is a lot of sugar in it so we don’t drink it all the time, but it is a healthy treat to have when you want something sweet! Making your own fruit juice isn’t hard to do (you don’t need a juicer!), and it’s nice knowing that the juice you drink is fresh and made without corn syrup or preservatives.
One of the recipes for concord grape juice I found required cooking the grapes and juice twice, letting it sit over night, etc., so I decided to simplify and make up my recipe/method. This juice is delicious!
You can choose how sweet or tart you want the juice, so don’t be afraid to take lots of taste tests while you make this. I only cooked this juice once (rather than twice), but if you are a raw-food enthusiast, you can try making this juice without cooking it, the taste may be different however.
You can store this juice in several ways:
- Canning: you use the same procedure to can this juice as you would can most anything else
- Freezing: you can place the juice in containers, jars, or bags and freeze it (if you use jars to freeze, make sure you leave a couple inches of headspace to prevent the jar from breaking).
- Fridge: if you anticipate drinking all of this in a short time or using it in recipes, you can store this in your fridge for a bit. I wouldn’t keep this in your fridge for more than a week since it is very fresh, especially if you decide to make this juice raw and un-cooked.
Here are the step-by-step instructions:
- Remove stems and leaves from grapes and wash thoroughly under running water.
- Place 2-3 cups or so of the grapes in a blender with a little bit of water to aid blending (about 1/4 to 1/3 cup) and process briefly (20 seconds or so) until all the grapes are just crushed. If you want a stronger juice, you can skip adding water to the blender – it will process fine without it.
- Filter the crushed grapes through a jelly bag over a large pot to collect the juice. Discard the seeds and skins. You can squeeze out more juice here by squeezing the jelly bag toward the end to get more juice, but keep in mind that this will easily stain your hands and clothes.
- Repeat this process until all of the grapes are cleaned, crushed, and pressed.
- Once you have washed, crushed, and pressed the juice from all of the grapes, gently heat the pot of juice.
- While the juice is heating up, add your sweetener of choice. I used turbinado sugar and agave in my first batch, and honey in my second batch. You can use 1/4 cup sweetener to 1 quart juice, but go with your tastes: add less or more depending on how you like it. You can experiment with different sweeteners (like coconut sugar or Stevia), and don’t be afraid to taste test! Make sure the sweetener is dissolved and mixed thoroughly.
- Bring the juice to a simmer (190º F).
- Remove the juice from the heat and let it cool completely. Store accordingly. Pour into jars, containers, or bags to freeze, or pour into jars and can. If you are freezing the juice, make sure you leave plenty of room in the top of the jar/container/bag to allow for expansion of the liquids during freezing.
Watch my short video to get a quick overview of the steps:
Homemade Concord Grape Juice
Gluten free, paleo
Ingredients
- 4 pounds Concord grapes
- Honey, to taste or maple syrup (for vegan)
Instructions
- Remove stems and leaves from grapes and wash thoroughly under running water.
- Place 2-3 cups or so of the grapes in a blender with a little bit of water to aid blending (about 1/4 to 1/3 cup) and process briefly (20 seconds or so) until all the grapes are just crushed. If you want a stronger juice, you can skip adding water to the blender - it will process fine without it.
- Filter the crushed grapes through a jelly bag over a large pot to collect the juice. Discard the seeds and skins. You can squeeze out more juice here by squeezing the jelly bag toward the end to get more juice, but keep in mind that this will easily stain your hands and clothes.
- Repeat this process until all of the grapes are cleaned, crushed, and pressed.
- Once you have washed, crushed, and pressed the juice from all of the grapes, gently heat the pot of juice.
- While the juice is heating up, add your sweetener of choice. I used turbinado sugar and agave in my first batch, and honey in my second batch. You can use 1/4 cup sweetener to 1 quart juice, but go with your tastes: add less or more depending on how you like it. You can experiment with different sweeteners (like coconut sugar or Stevia), and don't be afraid to taste test! Make sure the sweetener is dissolved and mixed thoroughly.
- Bring the juice to a simmer (190º F).
- Remove the juice from the heat and let it cool completely. Store accordingly. Pour into jars, containers, or bags to freeze, or pour into jars and can. If you are freezing the juice, make sure you leave plenty of room in the top of the jar/container/bag to allow for expansion of the liquids during freezing.
Video
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
MY first time getting concord grapes. Would you recommend juice , pie or jam?
I appreciate you having this site to look over. I’m exciting to try something today.
Thank you
Hi Lori! I’d probably start with something easier to make if this is your first time using concord grapes, like juice or jam/jelly.
I just pop the middle out of the skin, puree..squeeze through a cheesecloth and put in fridge. Not sure why cooking it? Thanks,
I cook it to dissolve the sugar I’ve added and to deepen the flavors. But if your method works for you, you can keep doing that. I just cook mine mostly to dissolve and distribute the sugars and deepen the flavors.
Your concord recipe guide and preserving tips are pretty helpful. I will also replicate exact same process. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Concord grape juice is my favourite drink in my life. You provide the best recipe with full detail instruction. Thank you for sharing such a good recipe.
This is so easy!
Thank you Cyndy!
Hi do you need to cook before freezing??
Thank you
Hi Michelle, yep cook it according to the directions and then let it cool completely before freezing it
Thanks for posting this! Do you add any water to the concentrate after you’ve frozen it? Or is it ready to drink?
I usually didn’t add water to it, we just drank it. But if you like your juice less sweet you can certainly add a bit of water to it to your preference 🙂
Hello!
I still have fresh Sheridan grape juice in my refidgerator from mid October.. Is it still good and if so how ling does it keep?
Hi George! Fresh juices last 1-2 days, and cooked fruit juices can last 7-14 days in the fridge. Juices can still go bad in the fridge so freezing is great if you need it to last a bit longer
I was told I could make grape juice by putting grapes in a large jar, adding hot sugar water until its about two inches over the top. Then mix daily for a week or so and strain.
Have you heard of this method?
I haven’t heard of this method before. It does sound like it would ferment if it was sealed tightly, you may end up with wine. I will have to look it up!
This is how my mother always made it and I have been searching for the recipe. My memory is she put 2 cups washed grapes directly into a quart jar, covered with the sugar/water, sealed and put on pantry shelf.
I have now seen some people doing this online with blueberries and other fruits to make syrup, I’ll have to give this a try sometime now that I’ve seen videos of how it’s done. If you try that with the grapes, let me know how it goes. I do need to revisit this recipe and update it at some point using sugar vs honey.
Oh I do love Concord grapes. A couple of Falls in a row we house sat for friends who have them and they ripened during our stays there. We had to get them picked before the raccoons moved in on them…. didn’t juice them but sure did enjoy them. So sweet and I had never had them before! This looks like a lot of work but I know the final product would be so worth it. Thanks for the tutorial.
Thanks for stopping by Elle! The concord grapes at my mom’s house are tart and have a lot of tannin in the skin so they aren’t very good for snacking, but they make good juice! I bet they would make a good wine too 🙂