Re: Steam Juicers
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:11 am
I am surprised folks are using these for wine making.
Grapes are one of those super fruits that come with their own yeast. Meaning, if handled nicely, the you don't need to bring in wine yeast when wine making.
I'd think the steaming process would negatively impact the yeast and require putting store bought strains in your batch. I do this routinely with other fruits, including notably apple. Dosing fruit with foreign strains can be a fine art as well as a bad experiment. Depends on the source fruit usually and people tend to stick to tired "proven" yeast types.
As for jelly, sure, steam would work real well.
It would work for juice storage also. Never can have enough winter storage.
Bet it is very simple to steam juice.
I haven't tried this, but a simple juicer to deal with pulp, seeds, etc. would be a juice press with a cheesecloth or similar fine fabric. Put grapes in the bag and bring the press down. Solids should stay in the bag.
I have a fancy pressure juicer (hydraulic). We use it to juice hard stuff like carrots so grapes should be real simple. Grapes tends to get eaten by my critters on the vine or by kids. So never really had chance to juice them.
There are plans out there for DIY projects involving care bottle jacks and stainless steel plates. Couple that with the cheesecloth or other material and you have a fairly rapid and pulp/seed free end product.
Grapes are one of those super fruits that come with their own yeast. Meaning, if handled nicely, the you don't need to bring in wine yeast when wine making.
I'd think the steaming process would negatively impact the yeast and require putting store bought strains in your batch. I do this routinely with other fruits, including notably apple. Dosing fruit with foreign strains can be a fine art as well as a bad experiment. Depends on the source fruit usually and people tend to stick to tired "proven" yeast types.
As for jelly, sure, steam would work real well.
It would work for juice storage also. Never can have enough winter storage.
Bet it is very simple to steam juice.
I haven't tried this, but a simple juicer to deal with pulp, seeds, etc. would be a juice press with a cheesecloth or similar fine fabric. Put grapes in the bag and bring the press down. Solids should stay in the bag.
I have a fancy pressure juicer (hydraulic). We use it to juice hard stuff like carrots so grapes should be real simple. Grapes tends to get eaten by my critters on the vine or by kids. So never really had chance to juice them.
There are plans out there for DIY projects involving care bottle jacks and stainless steel plates. Couple that with the cheesecloth or other material and you have a fairly rapid and pulp/seed free end product.