Equipment needed?

I think I may try to do a batch of wine. I tried searching first, but could not find my answers so please forgive if this is a repost.

I currently brew beer and have everything needed for a beer set up including several 6.5 gallon glass carboys and a 5 gallon brew bucket.

Out side of the bottles, corks, and corker. What sort of additional equipment will I need to make a box kit such as the ones sold on AHB?

Is there a reliable web site that you could recommend to show me the steps in making one of the box wine kits so that I understand the process better?

Thanks

Jon

You'll need something to de-gas the wine after fermentation, unless you want some carbonation in it.

You might also want to get a 6 gallon carboy for your secondary. Those kits are generally for 6 gallon batches, and you want to avoid head-space in the secondary as much as possible, so using another 6.5 might not be suitable.

Hang on a minute about the instructions... I think I posted a link to a PDF of the instructions for the one wine kit I did several years ago. Let me see if I can find it.

hanging on.... thanks

The link to the specific kit I did is dead, but the manufacturer of the kit was winexpert.com and that have their kit instructions on-line here:

http://www.winexpert.com/kit-instructions

edit: actually... this is the instructions for the one I did: http://www.winexpert.com/pdfs/kit-instructions/estate_eng.pdf

Thanks! Wow, 8 gallon primary, hmmm going to have to find a bigger bucket.

thank you!

disclaimer: I did only do ONE batch of wine, so my experience is VERY limited, but...

I used my 6.5gal glass carboy and had no problems. It didn't foam up and kraeusen like beer, so I didn't need much head-space.

I've got 1 5g carboy, beer brewers leftover after he sold his house and left it behind.
1 5g water bottle. Both have apfelwein in them atm.
6 1g jugs, I experiment in small batches, 5 have experiments going atm
A bunch of 1 and 5 gallon food grade buckets, compliments of the baking section at walmart (free) for primaries
A hygrometer that I rarely use
A bunch of bungs and airlocks
2 fruit bags
Some clear tubing for a siphon
An automotive funnel from walmart
A digital scale leftover from snake breeding
A bunch of wine bottles either emptied by me or donated for free by Olive Garden
Corker and corks

And a bunch of chemicals from my local brew store

That's about it, all told excluding raw ingredients it really doesn't take much. I've only been doing this a few months but I'm pretty sure I have everything I need to go indefinitely and have spent next to nothing. If you've been brewing beer you're probably 99% of the way there. So far I've cranked out some downright tasty bottles and have no clue as to what I'm doing :laugh:

I haven't been at this all too long, but I will offer this tip. To cut down on costs, some grocery stores carry 5 gallon glass watercooler jugs. A local Marvin's IGA sold me one for a $15 deposit. It is identical to the $35 dollar carboy at the local home brew store, and I can return at any time.

I asked the city recycling center, and have permission to look through and take any wine bottles I like for use. It takes a little more effort to delabel and clean, but it saves a lot. So if you have no qualms with using recycled glass, it's perfect.

The thought of pulling random bottles out of the recycler makes me cringe a bit. Glass or not, really no way of knowing what they were used for before they ended up there. From bars and resteraunts, you at least know they had wine in them a few hours ago The bartenders I've talked to have been pretty decent about grabbing empties for me for free. A $5 tip would probably make them even happier :laugh:

JonClayton said:

Thanks! Wow, 8 gallon primary, hmmm going to have to find a bigger bucket.

thank you!

Click to expand...

I have made close to 40 kits over the years and have only needed a primary larger than 7 gallons once and that was for a kit that included a grape skin pack.

If ou have an "Ale Pale" sized primary, most kits will fit just fine in it.

Good luck.

Salute!

I have gotten quite a few from the main city recycling drop off. It is a large roll off bin with a welded metal lid to allow sorting. The good thing about it is that I can get dozens in the same size and shape for free at once.
Most of the bottles still contain a slight bit of alcohol, and if they smell odd I would throw them back in. And if you wash and sanitize properly, it really shouldn't matter at all what was in it before, should it?
I thought about getting bartenders to get some, but few places in town serve enough wine every night to make that worthwhile. Maybe some of the fancier places do, but I'm okay for now with the freebies.