Richard

Recipes 

Is it easier to make wine than beer? I would like to give winemaking a try, but I'd want to keep it simple. Is there a simple way of making a wine with around 13% alcohol that will age well?

EdWort

Recipes 

It depends. A wine kit is easier than a beer extract kit.

When dealing with the raw ingredients, I would say brewing an All Grain batch of beer is easier than starting with a bushel of grapes.

Give my Apfelwein a try. It's dry, crisp & refreshing.

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EdWort

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Haus Pale Ale, Bavarian Hefeweizen, Robust Porter, Oktoberfest Ale, Wounded Knee IPA, Rye IPA, BCB IPA, Kolsch, Apfelwein

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the_bird

Recipes 

... and literally could not be any easier to put together.

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Richard

Recipes 

Is it supposed to age well? I also want to make wine that is at about the strength I am used to.

Richard

Recipes 

I don't think the Apfelwein will work for me as I don't have a kegging system. I was thinking more along the lines of regular red wine.

EdWort

Recipes 

Give a Vintner's Reserve Kit a try. They are very straight forward, easy to do and don't require much more than a bucket and a carboy and patience.

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EdWort

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Haus Pale Ale, Bavarian Hefeweizen, Robust Porter, Oktoberfest Ale, Wounded Knee IPA, Rye IPA, BCB IPA, Kolsch, Apfelwein

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Yooper

Recipes 

I've never made a "regular" red wine so I"m no expert. But I make country wines out of just about anything except grass clippings. If I wanted to do a red wine, I would buy a kit that costs about $75. They are quite good, and have complete instructions and ingredients. They are easy to put together using the equipment you have. They usually make 6 gallons of mid quality wine.

I'd look at any online homebrew website and find one that you like and give it a try. As a rule, wine tends to be easier and less labor intensive. It is more forgiving than beer and unless oxygen or bacteria get into it, it's almost impossible to screw up.

If you want to make country wines, jackkeller.net has some great information.

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Caplan

Recipes 

Go for the better quality wine kits - they have more grape juice, require no sugar to be added and only need to be topped up minimal water. Much better tasting than the cheaper versions. They cost more but are worth it.

rdwj

Recipes 

I just finished a Selections wine kit. They're designed to make 6 gallons - 30 750ml bottles. It turned out REALLY good and couldn't be any easier. I'd try to buy a kit locally - shipping is a tad expensive.

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Jsin

Recipes 

I find the whole line of Wine Experts kits to be very good. Some key elements are patience and understanding. The patience comes in with aging the wine; it will be drinkable at bottling time but really starts getting great about a year later. The under standing comes in with what kit to buy; the 50 to 75 dollar kits are like a 8 to 10 dollar a bottle wine at bottling and a 18 to 30 dollar bottle wine a one year and older. The 100 to 160 Dollar kits are much better some as good as an $80 a bottle wine at the year mark.