Wine Equipment

Wine is enjoyed through out the world. The common denominator that exists among wine lovers is the tastes of new wines. These days a new trend has emerged for wine lovers worldwide. Making wine at home. It’s not difficult and with some trials and errors some people have been known to make superb delicious wines. All that is needed is proper equipment, instructions, patience and time.

Different wine vendors and websites offer winemaking kits. There is a difference in price, quality, including wares, among wine kits. They start from $85.00 to $200 per kit. Some kits will give you the works. They will include the juice, the yeast, even the oak wood chips to add for flavor. However, for the sake of this article we will keep things simple and divide them into two sections:

A Basic kit: This is a great kit for a beginner. It will make smaller batches, and will often time than not supply you with enough grape juice to make a batch. These are available in different sizes depending on your requirement. The kit will give you the basics in “101 of Wine Making” and be on your way to experiment with various recipes. They will include but are not limited to:

A Basic Kit
• Triple scale hydrometer
• Italian double lever corker
• 8-gallon fermenting bucket with lid
• 3-gallon Glass Bottle
• # 10 stopper
• 25 #8 x 1.5" corks
• Bottle brush
• A Recipe Handbook
• Siphon unit (5' tubing, racking cane)
• 3-piece airlock
• Easy Clean No-Rinse Cleanser
• 30 #8 x 1.5" corks

The complete kit is for people who know how to use the equipment, have made wine previously, wear a beret whistling an Aria when making wine hidden somewhere.
1. Air lock: this is used to seal then ferment from any bacteria or foreign material that can spoil the wine.
2. Ferments: these are used in the wine
3. Water: used to clean the equipment
4. Sterilizer: this is used to kill bacteria already present.
5. Hydrometer: this is used to measure the amount of alcohol

Another note to keep in mind it is best to get equipment that is made up of white plastic. Colored plastics have a habit of leaving color and odd flavors in the mixture therefore can spoil the wine. The complete wine kit consists pretty much the same as the Basic Kit they do however provide larger buckets, more corks, grape juice and concentrate, yeast, more stoppers etc.

A Complete Kit:
• Grape Juice and concentrate
• A Recipe Handbook
• Triple scale hydrometer
• 8-gallon fermenting bucket with lid
• 3-gallon Glass Bottle
• Italian double lever corker
• # 10 stopper
• 25 #8 x 1.5" corks
• Bottle brush
• Siphon unit (5' tubing, racking cane)
• 3-piece airlock
• Easy Clean No-Rinse Cleanser
• 25 #8 x 1.5" cork

I am sure there are plenty of wine making kits out there, and someone will even add or switch a couple of the items I listed above. But coming from the old country I can tell you once the hobby becomes a passion you may become the next Julio Gallo of home made wines.