Wine Making Novice

[Bex]

I'm considering making wine for the first time, where in your opinion is the best place to get the equipment from. I'm on a tight budget so price will have to be a major consideration.

Thanks

[Alison]

Hiya Bex, we're having a bit of a clear out at the moment and I think we've still got some demi johns in the loft. Can check tonight. If we have and you're interested can always let you have them, we're down Brum way the weekend after next so could probably sort something.

[Birdie Wife]

Your main expense is likely to be a couple of glass demijohns - you can make wine in a plastic fermentation bucket like beer but it's not good practice, as you need to fill your container almost to the top to avoid oxidation. Other essential bits of equipment - rubber bungs, airlocks etc can be bought very cheaply. I managed to get a pile of demijohns from my OH's parents - they used to make a lot of wine but no longer - so ask around a few folks because it's the kind of thing people don't tend to part with even for many years and there's probably a few folk have them up in the attic.

You probably have a shop near you that sells the main bits of equipment - to start off with you could buy a kit (around �20) that has most of what you need, or you could go down the country wine route and gather berries/fruit to make wine with - there are lots of recipes on the internet.

If you start getting into it, CJJ Berry's book on Winemaking for beginners is excellent, and not just for beginners!

Good luck!

PS - bit of crossover with last post - was writing the above while Alison was writing her post - spooky or what!

[Bex]

Thanks Both! Will definately find out where my nearest equipment shop is.

Alison if you could have a look for me, and if you have I can arrange to meet you somewhere, that would be excellent.

Thanks again

[nick the grief]

Car boots may be a good source as well Bex & I can thoroughly reccomend the book that BW said & if you can find a copy, Boots book of homemade wine & beermaking got some suppppper recipes in there

[Alison]

Will brave the wilderness that is our loft tonight and let you know by return - may have a book too but doubt it's the one which everbody is recommending above. Having a good day today, may be clearing the wine stuff and have had freecycle interest in some bike tyres and an old plastic compost heap container. Will have a minimal house one day.........

[Alison]

Good news Bex, our loft has turned up trumps although OH looked very worried about what I was doing when he came in. Have found 3 demi johns, a bag of bungs, a filter kit, soome filter papers, some syphon pipe, a fermentation lock, a thermometer, a hydrometer, some foils, a funnel and a brush. Think it's all OK although good do with a good wash before use. In addition it seems I have got a copy of the CJJ Berry book, it's got some general info at the front and then the recipes are set out in months based on what's in season. If you're interested them PM me and we'll sort something out.

[NEWTO THE PLOT]

Wilkinsons sells homebrew equipment as well and has good prices.
,but i dont think your going to need much more after you meet up with Alison lol

[Brewer-again]

budget brewing

Cheapest demijohns I have found were left next to a glass recycling area. You need to sterilise them anyway. Next cheapest was from the local tip/transfer site. Then the small adds. Check the hole in the neck size as there are two sizes and the bungs are only the large size. Said before, but I used to go to the fruit market as it finished and pick up kilos of lovely fruit. Don't forget that you can brew with mixtures of fruits and mixtures of vegetables or mixtures of both. You need to think about body, available sugar, pectin haze and yeast nutrients.

[Nicos]

Hi brewer- nice to hear from you again!
We used to buy fruit from the market on a saturday as it was closing down- soft fruit such as peaches were dirt cheap!
Really should set to and make more country wines.
What have you been making this year?

[Nicos]

Oh - are you a different brewer???

[dexterdoglancashire]

Havent checked with OH, but think Wilkinsons still do home brew stuff. If you have a Morrisons supermarket near you I saw a few bits and pieces in ours in Preston the other day. Happy brewing! DDL

[Bex]

Thanks for the advice guys! Alison from the vine gave me loads of stuff a couple of weeks ago (which I'm very grateful for). Later in the year I will work out what I still need and then when I've grown some veg/fruit I will be brewing, quite fancy parsnip wine.

[Bex]

Have looked in Wilkinsons recently but my local one seems to have all christmas stuff at the moment and not much else. I'm hoping after christmas they will get their normal stock back.

[Brewer-again]

I've Been Brewing mostly !!

Hi! Nicos, hope you are well, I am the same Brewer but I had to be reborn with less knowledge of distillation. As you can see from the number of moderators posts, it was not appreciated that I theoretically discussed the topic. So my grapevine, which is how I came to this site, has produced about five gallons of red grapes. As this will not make five galls of juice I combined it with about 25 lb of pears, put a lemon in and some pectolaze, cos the pears are high in pectin. Am now drinking 04 grape and apple, I picked the apples from a housing estate verge, no-one else was interested, not even the local children, how times change.