wine kit - can you recommend one

cawdor2001 · « **on:** March 11, 2008, 23:29 »

Going to start some wine etc up this year with allotment produce, can anyone recommend a good kit, currently i have nothing except a dozen demijohns picked up for free.

Thanks

Cawdor

Stripey_cat · « **Reply #1 on:** March 12, 2008, 10:26 »

I picked up my equipment piecemeal, but you'll need:

Airlocks, and bungs that they fit into

Syphon tubing, and a tap and the thing to stop sediment sucking up are well worth the extra pennies

Some sort of fermenting bin - food grade plastic!

Sterilising powder (or Camden tablets, but the powder is cheaper and easier to use)

Bottles. If you go with glass, you'll need corks and a corking machine (the sort you whack with a mallet work best for me); alternatively, you'll need lots of lemonade-type bottles.

Yeast! General purpose stuff from Wilko works OK; I've never got round to doing a controlled trial with the special selections. Beer-making or bread yeasts are a very bad idea - they don't tolerate as much alcohol, and they don't settle out so nicely!

Citric acid and tannin are easy to add as powders, but you can substitute lemon juice and strong tea (although lemons are very expensive at the moment). If you want to do flower wines or mead, you'll get better results with a yeast nutrient mix.

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but...

Scribbler · « **Reply #2 on:** March 13, 2008, 10:06 »

Didn't you mean a kit as in grape concentrate, yeast etc?

After the bl**dy budget I can see a resurgence of interest in homebrew!

Where are you in Oxfordshire BTW SC?

cawdor2001 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 13, 2008, 14:39 »

i meant everything as i am starting from scratch and as a novice do not know what i need.

Thanks

Cawdor

mdueal · « **Reply #4 on:** May 12, 2008, 22:34 »

We used a kit for our first go but weren't impressed - we have since made absolutely gorgeous wine without a kit and just as easy. Try looking here: http://www.yobrew.co.uk/wine.php

They have good list of recipes tha have turned out well for us. The ones made with just supermarket cartons of juice are really easy - just same as kits but fraction of the price.

Have a look in wilkinsons if you have one near you. Ours has most homebrew things that you would need very reasonably priced.

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