Muscadine Moonshine

Last year, I let Andy know I wanted any left over fruit after he made his muscadine wine so I could try my hand at muscadine moonshine. As luck would have it, he had just enough for the wine.

Luckily, 2023 was a stellar year for muscadines! They were larger than ever and had a juicy, sweet taste. We were heading to the river for the weekend and I packed up my pressure cooker, jars and the other assorted ingredients to make this happen. If I was home, I would have added a layer of cheesecloth to my strainer to limit the amount of pulp that passed through.

INGREDIENTS:

A gallon or more of muscadines (reserve some for the jars)

2 cups sugar

4 cups water

1/2 tsp. vanilla per pint (good quality)

Pure Grain Alcohol (PGA)

Around 8 sterilized pint jars, lids and rings

Pressure cooker

Fine mesh strainer

Wide mouth funnel

Clean the fruit and pick out any bruised fruit, stems, leaves, etc.

Save the plumpest ones to add when you fix the jars.

 

Sterilize jars, lids and rings.

Fill the pressure cooker half full of clean muscadines.

Pour two cups of sugar on top. Mix well and add four cups of water.

Lock the lid on the pressure cooker after inspecting the gasket and release valve. Set time to 30 minutes. When cycle is complete, all a natural release of 90 minutes. 

CAREFULLY OPEN THE LID! 

THIS WILL BE EXTREMELY HOT SO BE CAREFUL AS THE STEAM ESCAPES.

Two hours later we have some sweet smelling muscadine juice.
I used my PC "chopper" to break up the fruit.

Strain fruit and juice through a fine mesh strainer into a large container.

Fill pint jars half way way with juice. Add 1/2 teaspoon of good quality vanilla to each jar.
Add several of the reserved muscadines to the jar.

Top the rest of the way with pure grain alcohol. Leave a little head space, and carefully turn jars to mix.

Preferred wait time to use is 40 days.

At a minimum, wait one week to sample. I added a little more PGA after a week.