wildclover
Member
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.
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.