First time making wine

[crazychris66]

Hey there guys
I'm just looking into making wine for the first time. Any good advice on brewing it and makes of wine kits to make?

 

[Inner10]

Keep things sanitized, buy some starsan.

Don't rush things or become impatient.

Buy what ever is on sale.

 

[Yooper]

For wine kits, you really DO get what you pay for. A $60 kit will make a drinkable wine, similar to a "Two Buck Chuck" in quality, while a $150+ kit with more juice (less or no concentrate), grape skins, better grape juice, etc, will make a wonderful bottle of wine similar to about a $25 bottle.

I make a selection of cheap and medium priced kits for our everyday wines, and then once in a while to a ultra-premium kit for special wines for aging.

The nice thing about all kits is they have excellent instructions, and if you follow their instructions exactly you have a guaranteed product. If you don't have a good result, they'll send you a new kit in replacement.

Make sure you have the right sized equipment. For a wine kit, you'll need a primary fermenter (generally a bucket, but can be a carboy) and a 6 gallon carboy for secondary. Siphoning equipment is critical as well.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

A friend of mine once asked me what winemaking was like ... my reply was "wet".
There is washing, washing and washing some more. "Washing & Sanitizing" actually.

Possibly the most important thing to winemaking is sanitation.

To a degree, juice, particularly from grapes, almost makes itself into something recognizable as wine with just a bit of prodding. I sometimes joke that if you fell into a vat of grapes and had a seizure, in a couple weeks you'd have wine.
The difference between a successful batch of fermented juice and one that has completely failed ... gotten a nasty moldy slimy stinky infection growing in it ... is generally sanitation. That is, using a "sanitizing solution" (sanitizer mixed with water) on ALL items ... buckets, spoons, tubes, etc ... that come in contact with the wine as you work on it ... and washing things consistently and repeatedly.

As mentioned above ... StarSan is a great product. It makes so much sanitizer so cheaply that there is never an excuse for why not to wash & sanitize.