Wine from Jelly

Friends were gifted with about a dozen jars of grape jelly when their dad developed diabetes...it was his stash for the Apocalypse I guess... and now they are borderline diabetic and don't like grape jelly much anyway. I have a horror of wasting food, and had the bright idea of turning it into wine. Why not? I came across this forum in one of my searches. Has anyone tried this?

Being the impatient sort, I had used a half quart of it in a recipe instead of grape juice, and had this jelly sitting there, so, having no wine making equipment, I simply mostly dissolved the jelly in hot water, added some ancient bread yeast I had in the fridge, and set it in the cabinet with the lid loose. The yeast went to work, and several days later it actually smelled like concord wine. I gave it a couple weeks until it seemed to quit bubbling and poured it off into an empty wine bottle (avoiding most of the sludge and a few lumps of jelly that still remained). Except for being cloudy (which I expect is part yeast and part pectin) and a bit yeasty tasting, it is drinkable at an age of a month or less. A small amount of fermentation is still happening, as my cork "pops" when I check on it, so I'm venting this every day or so, and assuming I don't drink it all in the meantime will decant the remainder when it quits releasing gas,since I'm sure there is sludge on the bottom. Then if it ages a while, I think it will be quite palatable, at least for cooking.
But I really would love to know if anyone has tried to ferment jelly in a more polished way. I made up another batch- splitting it into 2 quart jars- which with fresh yeast is frothing up a storm I'm hoping to be less broke in a month or so, and then I can invest in some real things like an airlock and wine yeast.

I haven't thought of that but I have thought about making a very grapey wine and adding pectin and making wine jelly. I'm not sure how well it will work, but it's worth a try.

I've done a wine made with cranberry sauce- you know, the canned stuff that people use at Thanksgiving. I found a 6 pound tub of it and the Dollar Store, so I couldn't resist.

You can do it, but I wouldn't have used bread yeast in it. Wine yeast is like $.50 cents a package. Bread yeast will taste yeasty, generally speaking, for a long, long time and the lees won't stop.

The gelatin may make it cloudy for longer than you want to wait for it to clarify.

Find a local home brew shop (LHBS) and get a packet of actual wine or a neutral ale yeast and a few fermentation locks and some drilled bungs to fit whatever you are fermenting in. Fermentation happens long after the bubbles stop and the yeast will actually clean up a lot of the esters and phenols created during the active stages. After a month or more cold crash it in the fridge, decant and age until drinkable.

BryanThompson said:

I haven't thought of that but I have thought about making a very grapey wine and adding pectin and making wine jelly. I'm not sure how well it will work, but it's worth a try.

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OT, but I made grape jelly out of Montepulciano grapes last year. I noticed it required more pectin than was recommended.

Had to cook it 3 times to get a decent set.

Good luck tho. This year I may do Merlot jelly. Makes for great Christmas gifts! Very well received.

And BEHOLD.....

He turned jelly into wine.

Wine is SO easy compared to beer.

Do it right next time.

I made a successful jelly wine several years ago but the cost, if you have to buy the jelly, doesn't make sense. There are several online recipes, including one on Jack Keller's website.

I was planning to hit the local shop that has both proper yeast and equipment, as soon as I had some money. The gas to go pick up a bucks worth of yeast wasn't worth it when I could experiment just for giggles for free. Not finding an answer, I looked for my own, having had a couple friends poo-poo the whole concept. Payday I hopefully have enough extra for a fermentation lock, yeast, and a better/bigger container , as well as some spices I need I like to get there.

I don't plan on making jelly wine if I have to buy the jelly. But with several quarts I will never use sitting around, I wanted to find some use for it. The cranberry sauce idea sounds intriguing. It may be what I do with Thanksgiving leftovers, though it would be home made rather than canned, unless I find a 5# tub at the dollar store.

BryanThompson said:

I haven't thought of that but I have thought about making a very grapey wine and adding pectin and making wine jelly. I'm not sure how well it will work, but it's worth a try.

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It has been years, but one summer my dad went on a canning binge when he got gifted a bushel of tomatoes and another of peaches. From there we went to jelly, and there was one recipe that used sherry. A very light tasting jelly that was super simple. It just takes a lot of pectin. You can use apple peels to up pectin content naturally. I'm thinking if you use homemade wine adding a few peels to the jelly process might be good. I'm not sure I'd do a grape, but an apple wine turned to jelly might be fabulous.

Sorry, figured you had some equipment.

Good for you for experimenting!