Grape Juice Made Simple

You may remember that a few weeks ago, I picked up a half-bushel box of Concord grapes.  After making a whopping 14 pints of grape jelly, I still had more grapes...so I made 12 quarts of grape juice.  Instead of investing in a steam juicer (which would be nice to have someday, but not now...), I opted for a really simple way to make grape juice.

Into each sterilized quart jar, I placed about a cup of washed and stemmed grapes.  Then I put in two large spoonfuls of sugar--you can use less or more, but I recommend tasting a grape first to decide how sweet you want it.  You could also use honey instead of the sugar, but I decided on sugar since it was there on the counter looking at me.  I added about a tablespoon of lemon juice into each jar as well, and then topped it with boiling water, leaving one inch of headspace.  After putting on a lid and tightening the bands, I processed the quarts in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

After letting the juice jars sit for a couple weeks, this is what I have:

Jars of delicious, refreshing, not-too-sweet grape juice.  It is really really good, as well as being really really easy to make.