Chambourcin Juice and Jam?

[VinesnBines]

I want to share the wealth of my Chambourin crop and give some juice to family and friends for jelly and juice. I'm considering crushing the grapes, letting them macerate 24 or 48 hours then pressing. I would like to use the skins in my Chambourcin fermentation so I don't want to heat the pulp to release the pectin.

Has any one tried this? Would I be better off to use the grapes in the old fashion way ala Concords for jelly and juice? I'd like to use the crusher/destemer and the bladder press to make life easier.

Thoughts?

 

[Hazelemere]

taste them. If they are not super acidic make wine out of at least some of them. Check the SG and post your tasting SG and flavour comments here at which point everyone here will try to help you make something decent from your grapes if they are indeed ripe.

 

[VinesnBines]

Thanks. I expect to have roughly 500 lbs for wine making. I'm trying to experiment with using the crusher/destemmer and my bladder press to juice the grapes instead of the old "cook the grapes and hang the pulp in a flour sack to drain" method. I crushed about 35 lbs today and I'm letting the pulp soak for 24 plus hours before pressing. Worst case scenario, I have some juice for Chambourcin rose

 

[winemaker81]

Thanks. I expect to have roughly 500 lbs for wine making. I'm trying to experiment with using the crusher/destemmer and my bladder press to juice the grapes instead of the old "cook the grapes and hang the pulp in a flour sack to drain" method. I crushed about 35 lbs today and I'm letting the pulp soak for 24 plus hours before pressing. Worst case scenario, I have some juice for Chambourcin rose

We got nice color at pressing time, and after 4 hours in transit, the color in the Chambourcin is even richer. Regardless of what you do, things will look good.

 

[VinesnBines]

So I crushed roughly 35 lbs of Chambourcin and let it soak 30 hours pressed and got 9 quarts of juice. The juice was sweet enough to drink with no added sugar. The color for unfermented grapes was amazing. I'll try making jelly with the juice; I think it will be amazing.