Five Essentials in Home Wine Making Equipment

If you read any wine making book or web site you will find a section on the wine making equipment you will need. In this article I have narrowed it down to what I consider the five essential items in wine making equipment. These are the things that you will definitely need to help you make wine that you are proud to serve to your friends.

All these can be found at high street wine making/brewing merchants or online.

1) A food standard bucket. Any old bucket will not do nowadays, go for the best and it will last a long time. I have a five gallon container with a close fitting lid that does the job for almost anything I want. Beer wine etc. it is just about the right size. Even with a small quantity (a gallon) it will do the job. Just need to make sure it is clean.

2) So, talking about cleaning, this is my second essential. Sterilising any of the equipment (and all) is essential. Bacterial infection or some wild yeasts can ruin a whole batch. I use a chemical sterilizer which when dissolved in water does the job very effectively.

3) A large funnel and some sort of straining material (I use muslin) is the next requirement. I think the larger the better. It means you are less likely to spill, particularly when transferring a large amount of liquid from the bucket into individual demijohns.

4) That of course leads us into demijohns. For most of us making wine at home the gallon glass jar called a demijohn is the final fermenting vessel of choice. They are strong, easily sterilised and will last for years. Use a modern bung which is easy to sterilise and add an airlock to let the carbon dioxide out and keep the bugs out.

Clear glass will do in most cases but for some dark wines such as beetroot you will need tinted glass or the light will change the colour and the taste.

5) At some stage you will have to move the fermenting wine (called must) from one demijohn into another and so we come to my last of the five essentials A siphon.. A simple piece of plastic tubing will do the job but it is better to have something on the end to stop the sediment being sucked up from the bottom. Add a tap so you can turn the flow on or off at will and you are all set to go.

OK so there are my five essentials. With those you can make wine from almost any fruit or vegetables. To finish off you just need bottles and corks to keep your finished product in. Oh and will power. The wine will improve with age so is better left a while.

There are a few other things you can use to refine the process, a hydrometer for example, but this article is five essential items in wine making equipment. To find out some more you can find a totally free Making Wine book at Wine Making for Beginners

In the book there is more equipment advice, techniques, and recipes and the site itself has a blog where you can find out more to help you make wine you will be proud to give to your friends at http://www.wine-making-for-beginners.com