3Brothers First Question: Initial purchase time!

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3Brothers

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Ok, well the 3Brothers are heading to our local winemakers supplier here in Pittsburgh, Pa to make our very first equipment and supplies purchase in the next few weeks. Our hope is to, at first try, to brew one 6 Gallon batch of Blackberry wine using (2) 96oz. cans of 'Blackberry Fruit Wine Base' from 'Vitners Harvest'. I have included our intended list of supplies and was hoping someone could review it and let me know if there is anything I am missing or anything we dont need. Thank you for any help.

COUNTRY WINES PRICES:

Tools:
Vintner's Best- 99.99
7.9 gallon fermenter with drilled lid, 6 gallon glass carboy, stopper, airlock, double lever corker, corks, sanitizer, hydrometer, siphon hose, racking tube, racking tube clip, baster, bottle filler, bottle brush
*Check Hydrometer for Brix* Hydrometer triple scale- 7.99

Carboy handle- 6.99
Acid test kit- 7.99
PH Test- 4.99
Titrets- 16.99
Titrettor- 6.99
Carboy Brush- 6.99
Jet Washer- 11.99

Subtotal= 170.91

Products:
X2 Blackberry Wine Base 96oz.- 69.98
(Diammonium phosphate)Yeast Nutrient- 1lb- 9.99
Camden tablets (potassium) 50tabs- 1.99
Pectic enzyme 2oz.- 4.00
Potassium Sorbate 2oz- 4.00
Potassium meta-bisulfate 2oz.- 1.99
X2 Red Star "Cote des Blancs" active dry wine yeast- 2.60
Acid Blend 1lb- 7.99
Tannin 1/2oz- 1.99
25lb granulated white sugar- 10.00

Subtotal= 115.52

Additional supplies:
Caps heat shrink- 3.99
Subtotal= 3.99

________________________________________________________________________

TOTAL COST w/ Tax= 310.75

3 Brothers Individual cost= 103.58
 
I wish I started off that well... you may be doing a little bit of over kill here on what you need to get for your first time. Also, how far away is your HBS?
The vinter's best kit seems like a great way to start, with all of the hardware you need.
The most important thing you are missing is a sanitizer. go with something like starsan (pretty much the forum favorite) and use it on EVERYTHING that touches your wine.
im not completely sure, but is the PH test kit and the acid test kit kind of redundant?
Also, if you have a pH kit, im not sure why you would need the equitment for titration, but im once again not the best person who knows about it.
For the ingredients your getting, I would say find a recipe that you are using first and then buy what you need.
good luck
 
John for the blackberry wine you're planning I'd make one substitution:

Instead of Red Star Cote des Blancs wine yeast, I'd use Red Star Pasteur Red instead. It fits the berry profile much better. The Côte des Blancs is used more for whites and blush wines.
 
Ok, as for the sanitizer, I honestly planned on using powdered dishwasher soap mixed 1 cup soap per 1 gallon super hot water. But Ive never done this before so....where can I get Starsan? Im not sure my local guy has that? My dist. is only 20 min. away. Is that what HBS is? The additives I have are for Blackberry and Mulberry wine both,I got those from the recipies. As for the Yeast, thankx for the heads up, Ill try that first.
 
I know this is a beer forum and Star San is the preferred sanitizer for beer but Star San's relatively expensive. For the past several years all I've used is potassium (or sodium) metabitsulfite (k-meta) and citric acid. They're dirt cheap and a killer sanitizer. You'll find that almost everyone in the winemaking community uses this.
 
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