Winemaking Kit

You will need to buy a winemaking kit in order to make your first wine. The average kit contains winemaking equipment including a plastic fermenter with an airlock lid, a glass carboy with stopper, an auto-siphoning system, automatic bottle filler, hydrometer, corker, corks and a stirring spoon.

They will also have an instruction manual to make sure you know exactly what you are doing. These are the items you need to make wine. The kits will also come with some cleaning supplies, most likely a bottlebrush and sanitizer. The only thing you will have to add is the fruit of your choice and the long necked bottles that you need to make wine that is sealed by a cork. The average price of one of these kits is around a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars.

This, plus your grapes, berries or other fruit, along with your bottles will get you into the winemaking experience. This is all a person needs for their first batch of wine. But, what if you have been doing this for a while? What if you really enjoy winemaking and are very pleased with your results. The wine came out better than you expected and the taste was great. It was smooth, with just the right mix of sweet and tart, and you want to keep making your own wine. If this is the case perhaps the next step is to be a few more pieces of equipment to make your winemaking easier.  You’ve saved so much by making your own wine why not spend it on making it easier.

Depending on what kind of wine you’re making you may want to consider buying a fruit crusher. These range from a hundred and seventy to nearly fifteen hundred dollars depending on how fancy you want to get. There are manual models and electric models. Ones made for grapes and or for fruit as hard to crush as apples. Some models also remove the stems.

Or maybe the piece of equipment you have always dreamed of is a presser. There are ratchet presses or bladder presses.  The ratchet press lets the juice run out of the basket, with slates all along the basket, into a container underneath. It works with a ratchet movement to press the fruit. The bladder press works by water pressure. Wine experts like this method because they believe it’s a gentler way to press your grapes.  Each device works well, it is merely a personal preference which one you choose to use.

They range in price from two to six hundred dollars for the ratchet presses or from seven to thirteen hundred for the bladder presses. If you are looking for something a little less expensive try a mini press for from ninety to a hundred and fifty dollars. This is suitable for use with soft fruits.  These prices are all based on the size of the press you choose.