very basic question: fermenting supplies

My plan is to make some plum wine this fall when my plum tree drops lots of plums (anyone local to Vermont is free to harvest some in the fall).
I currently brew cider and mostly use carboys.
What fermenting supplies do I need. I wanted to do gallon batches. Do I need a bucket for a primary or is a gallon jug fine for a primary and secondary?
Thanks,
scott
On a side note, I've heard of plum wine, hence my future attempt. Has anyone tried plum cider???

Here's my process for fruit wine:
Add yeast to jug. Let sit for 6-8 weeks. Bottle.

I just use stoppers and airlocks for the jugs. Don't remember the size off the top of my head, but there are at least two different sized openings for gallon jugs.

Just divide up the yeast between the different 1 gal jugs, keeping in mind pitching rates. The yeast manufacturer has recommendations on that.

There's really no reason to use a secondary fermenter. That's a concept that's carried over from lager fermentation.

If you are doing 1 gal batches, lowes has a 2 gal bucket and lid for about 5 $

I use it on my 1 gal batches with fruit.

Nateo said:

There's really no reason to use a secondary fermenter. That's a concept that's carried over from lager fermentation.

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It's not essential, but stops a lot of unsightly sediment dropping out in the bottles.

I fool around with a lot of gallon batches. My favorite primaries are a large stainless steel mixing bowl that my wife uses in the kitchen and a big stainless cooking pot.

I also have an 8 gallon stainless "lobster pot" I picked up at a garage sale. It's really a high end turkey deep fryer but it's stainless and only cost me a couple of bucks.

I'm a tight a$$, I refuse to spend money on a plastic bucket. Around here, it would end up in the hog barn within a week of being empty anyhow.

Good luck,

Tim

Clann said:

If you are doing 1 gal batches, lowes has a 2 gal bucket and lid for about 5 $

I use it on my 1 gal batches with fruit.

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I'm not sure that these are rated as being food grade.

I've picked up 2-gallon buckets from a local bakery. They get frosting or filling in them.

smyrnaquince said:

I'm not sure that these are rated as being food grade.

I've picked up 2-gallon buckets from a local bakery. They get frosting or filling in them.

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They are #2 HDPE

Clann said:

They are #2 HDPE

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That doesn't mean that they are food grade. Food grade is related to the purity of the plastic as well as what it is made of (HDPE, in this case). I've seen claims that some bucket manufacturers make all their buckets food grade because it is easier than having two production lines, but I'd get the company's name off the bottom of the bucket first and call them to be sure.

Plum wine drops a lot of lees for quite a while. You can start fermentation in a food grade bucket, but after that you need a small one-gallon carboy with a #6 stopper and airlock. You'll need some siphoning tubing, some campden tablets, and I like to use pectic enzyme for fruit wines. Two jugs is ideal, so you can move the wine ("rack") to the other jug when needed.

Glass jugs are pretty cheap, but if you can tolerate Carlo Rossi wine, it comes in 4L bottles that are perfect for carboys! The narrow headspace is necessary after the fermentation slows down, by about day 10. You can't really make good wine without having a carboy with a narrow headspace.