| Equipment |
| This page was last updated on Aug 18, 2004 |
| The first thing you must purchase is the equipment. Down below is a list of things you need to get started making your own wine. - 1- 6 gallon plastic fermenter (looks like a plastic bucket with a lid) - 1-5 gallon glass carboy (glass bottle like the ones use in an office water dispensor) - 2 Airlocks and rubber stoppers - Sanitizer (for sanitizing equipment) - Straining bag (straining juice from fruit) - Siphon tube clip (holds siphon tube to fermenter when racking) - Siphon tube (used to siphon from fermenter to fermenter) - Racking cane (angled cane goes inside the fermenter then has tube connected, used in racking) - Cleaner (cleans the most nasty stuff off your equipment) - Corker (presses corks into bottles) - #9 corks (duh) - Campden tablets (used to sanitize equipment and also used to sanitize the must.) - Bottle Filler (tube which has a valve on the end that allows wine to be released when depressed in the bottom of the bottle, used to fill bottles) - Bottle Brush (clean the bottles) - Hydrometer with test jar (test the specific gravities which tells sugar content and alcohol potential) - Carboy brush (clean ye' ole carboy) - 750mL bottles (holds your beautiful wine) Here's a little hint about the bottles; You and your friends are going to drink wine anyway so you might as well have people save them for you. When you enjoy the contents of a bottle, make sure you wash it out then, so the last little bit doesn't dry in the bottom. This will save you pain in the long run. I'm sure it is possible to make wine without all this stuff but it makes it a lot easier to have all these modern tools. Also there is a vast number of resources available for your usage. Try my links page to find some good sites for info. |
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