Transitioning from Beer to Wine: Equipment?

[aiptasia]

In an attempt to further involve my Wife in the hobby, i've decided to pick up an extra glass carboy and a wine kit. She vastly enjoys sweet & semi-sweet wines and i've been known to partake of the odd Cabernet Savignon now and then, so this has potential for both of us.

I have a great deal of beer making equipment, but i'm wondering what's crucial equipment-wise for making a decent kit of wine? What are the essentials that I need? How would you rate the quality of the kits and do you have any suggestions for a vinting newbie?

 

[HBngNOK]

The only thing you might add to your equipment is something to de-gas the wine. Kit quality is directly proportional to kit price. All wine kits make good wine, more expensive kits make better wine.

 

[jflongo]

I personally just used one of my beer buckets to ferment the wine, just make sure it doesn't smell realy beery. Then racked it to a carboy when the instructions said to. By the way, some wine kits want you to rack a 3rd time into another carboy, so you may want to get another glass one, or a PET one, if you don't have 2 already.

I have only done one kit so far, World Vineyard Vinters Researve Pino Grisio(white wine). As soon as I bottled it, I put one in the fridge and tried it a couple of days later, and it was good. It seems to be getting even better now after a few weeks. I paid around $60 for my box, and ended up with about 29 750ml bottles filled.

It's up to you on the price, some boxes come with more juice, some come with grape skins as well, some come with oak chips as well. All of those factor into the price. So if you pay $60, it's about $2 / bottle, if you pay $90, it's about $3 / bottle, either way you are getting a steal of a deal.

And I agree on the de-gasser if you don't have one, these are drill attachments and aren't too expensive. You can even use them to mix your beer and cider if you wanted to.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

In an attempt to further involve my Wife in the hobby, i've decided to pick up an extra glass carboy and a wine kit. She vastly enjoys sweet & semi-sweet wines and i've been known to partake of the odd Cabernet Savignon now and then, so this has potential for both of us.

I have a great deal of beer making equipment, but i'm wondering what's crucial equipment-wise for making a decent kit of wine? What are the essentials that I need? How would you rate the quality of the kits and do you have any suggestions for a vinting newbie?

You will need a 6 gal carboy for kit wines. Not sure what carboys you have. A floor corker will make your life much easier, and using kmeta and star san, as opposed to iodophor is reccomended.

As for kits, I would say start with the lower priced ones both because they age faster (get a quick sense of if she likes this) and many of them are off-dry or semi sweet. Try the regular RJ Spagnols, or Winexpert kits, they produce good wine if handled properly! Good luck!

 

[HBngNOK]

You will need a 6 gal carboy for kit wines. Not sure what carboys you have. A floor corker will make your life much easier, and using kmeta and star san, as opposed to iodophor is reccomended.

As for kits, I would say start with the lower priced ones both because they age faster (get a quick sense of if she likes this) and many of them are off-dry or semi sweet. Try the regular RJ Spagnols, or Winexpert kits, they produce good wine if handled properly! Good luck!

Good points! Your LHBS may rent corkers, so you might not have to make the capital expenditure until you're sure you want to continue with wine-making.

 

[latium]

Check out http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/ -- it strikes me as being something like a vintner's "How to Brew." Note that he has a page with "Extended Instructions for Making Wines from Kits" that starts out with a very familiar-sounding observation: "My biggest complain with wine kits is that they are too rushed. In this era of immediate gratification, the consumer wants (I guess) his or her wine now! Forget the fact that wine takes time to make, to clarify, to degass itself, to age, and to develop bouquet once it is bottled. Having said that, there is a way to extend the process even for kits and make a much better wine than the 28-day regimens the kit manufacturers have devised."

Austin Hombrew has a couple beer-to-wine "conversion kits" for equipment, but they strike me as being expensive for what you get (although I haven't priced the individual pieces). If you've been brewing a while and have some extra equipment, you'd probably only be missing the corker, corks, and maybe the long plastic spoon (which I'd replace with a Mix-Stir anyway). Oh, and there's a copy of Wine Maker guide, but if you've already got Jack Keller's site, that seems a little superfluous.

 

[Yooper]

If you're making wine kits, you definitely need a 6 gallon carboy. You can use a big bucket for primary (I always do) but you need a 6 gallon carboy for the rest of it.

Whatever sized kits you do (some are three gallon, but only "special" ones) you need the correctly sized carboy!

If you want to make some country wines, Carlo Rossi wine jugs are perfect for 1 gallon batches!

 

[jflongo]

You will need a 6 gal carboy for kit wines. Not sure what carboys you have. A floor corker will make your life much easier, and using kmeta and star san, as opposed to iodophor is reccomended.

As for kits, I would say start with the lower priced ones both because they age faster (get a quick sense of if she likes this) and many of them are off-dry or semi sweet. Try the regular RJ Spagnols, or Winexpert kits, they produce good wine if handled properly! Good luck!

I used a hand corker for my first batch, it worked fine. If you have the budget, I agree a floor corker would be even better.

Also on YouTube, you can search for craigtube, he has a 4 part series on making wine from a kit, definitely worth watching. I follow him every week and watch his videos, very down to earth guy.

 

[jflongo]

and using kmeta and star san, as opposed to iodophor is reccomended

Where did you hear this from and why? I used iodophor. As with any sanitizer, just make sure you dilute it properly and iodophor is a no-rinse just fine.

 

[Retrofit]

I'm in the same boat and appreciate this thread. Thanks for the various recommendations.

 

[Cyclman]

You can save money on a corker and bottle in Bombers, cap 'em just like a beer.

Good move to get the wife into your hobby, worked for me!

Buy a top-shelf wine kit, you're still down to $6 per bottle, cost wise, and it will get drunk...what your wife doesn't give to friends to show off your "hobby" in my experience. And For $6, i think the wine is equal to at least a $20 commercial wine, not counting the value of pride doing it yourself. I have a Cab bottled and a Sauvingon Blanc in secondary, ready in a month. Super easy compared to brewing, too.

 

[aiptasia]

Well, these are some great tips. I'll be sure to check out the online references especially concerning kit wines. I do indeed have a six gallon carboy in the garage. It's pretty grungy from about three years of dust, bugs and neglect but should clean up fine with a rinse, soak in oxyclean powder and a good bottle brush scrub. I would prefer to use idophor as my sanitizer and unless I hear a valid reason for not using it, i'll use it. I have three 6 gallon brew buckets and one six gallon carboy, so if I need to rack, and then re-rack, I can pretty much do so with ease.

I'm not going to go with a top shelf kit for a first attempt. I'll try a cheaper pinot grigio or other semi before shelling out more money. She likes inexpensive wines, and i've noticed that with the wines I like, I can either pay in the $10 a bottle range for a good table wine or well over $100 a bottle for a fine wine. The wines which are in between those price points, I don't like any better or worse than the $10 wines.

 

[Brewsday]

I've done 2 Vintner Reserve kits...both were very drinkable and about$3/bottle. When I did the Chardonnay I had trouble getting it to bottle...so it sat in secondary almost 2 months...it was ready to drink that day! I agree partially with a previous poster...I always put up some 12 ounces beer bottles for those nights someone just wants a glass or 2. I (she) try to drink them reasonably soon. My biggest mistake...I didn't realize my 6.5 gallon carboy held more than my bottling bucket....until I heard this odd dripping sound while siphoning on bottling day. No biggie, just a warning.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

Where did you hear this from and why? I used iodophor. As with any sanitizer, just make sure you dilute it properly and iodophor is a no-rinse just fine.

I use Star San across the board for all my brewing equipment, no matter what I'm making that day.

I prefer kmeta for sanitizing my bottles for cider and wine due to the added benefit of a little more sulfite for the brew. It gives me piece of mind that not only is my bottle clean, but the kmeta is helping my wine stay stable.

 

[Fly_Rodder]

... what your wife doesn't give to friends to show off your "hobby" in my experience.

It's not just your experience ...

Now, there's a bucket next to the wine racks and she has to "buy" the wine. When there's $100 in the bucket, we buy another kit.

 

[Fly_Rodder]

Really, the only additional needed item is a wine whisk. The wine whisk is pretty inexpensive, fits into a carboy and attaches to a cordless drill. It degasses wine in 30 seconds. I made the investment in the floor corker and it's really helpful, but not absolutely necessary.

I did buy a few extra better bottles and labeled them as wine-only to avoid any off-flavors. But I've used buckets from beer primarys that were scrubbed clean and I haven't noticed any off-flavors in the wine.

We're partial to the Winexpert Selection Originale CabSav. It's tasty and super easy to make. The most labor intensive part of making decent kit wines is sanitizing equipment and then the bottling process.