So my wife likes her wine, and has become quite envious of the copious amounts of beer I produce and have available on the cheap. So this leads me to her interest in having me produce a 6- gal batch of white- Gewurtztraminer , Sauvignon , Pinot Grigio , or Chardonnay .
I see many kits ranging from $49-$139 ish…and suggestions or direction would be appreciated.
I’ve been wanting to give a batch of wine a whirl myself, but i was wondering the same thing about the kits. I don’t drink a whole lot of wine, so I don’t want to be stuck with a bunch of something that will take years to get rid of because I’m not that interested in drinking it.
Another question - if I’m only going to make wine every so often, is it worth it to buy a corker or am I better off with something like Zorks that don’t require a corker?
Eric, if you have a corker you could also cork mead. We cork all of our mead and cellar it.
couple of kits im looking at:
You might be close enough to this place to visit. It’s been a few years since I needed wine supplies, but these folks were good to deal with
funny you mentioned them. i was just there a couple weeks ago. its about 1.5 hours so not somewhere id frequently get to.
I bottle my mead in the 187 mL champagne bottles. They accept a normal crown cap and they’re the right size for meads in the 16%+ range for me.
im planning on using the screw cap - works for the whites with little maturation and quick consumption.
Never made wine but I’ve been to classes at the LHBS with kits. The kits seem pretty easy and foolproof.
i’d agree with that theory on fairly straight forward.
interested if there’s a particular brand some prefer and variety of white that stands out, and any gotcha’s for first time wine maker.
doesn’t appear we have many wine makers here.
i’m going to go with the wine expert gewurtz and see how that goes.
most of my efforts with grapes get made into pyment.
But, although I haven’t made that exact kit I’ve been happy with the company on the 3 others I’ve made. that’s all I got for ya.
good luck–
–Michael
cool. seems people have good reviews for their kits.
Keep us posted on how it turns out!
Will do. Picking it up this weekend and will make it over the holidays.
I have done a few wine kits. They are really straight forward and super easy. The nicer kits have more real juice (the 10L kits use concentrate), the more juice the better the quality. Most kits make 30 bottles/6 gallons and I don’t let mine get over a year old. The average kit is designed to be consumed rather quickly. You will want to pickup a degasser to attach to your drill, doing it with the spoon takes more patience than I have… i have even bottled and capped a white wine batch in 22 oz beer bottles.
yes i picked one up for $10-thanks for the info.
well i made the wine kit yesterday. pretty easy process. it came with red star premier cuvee yeast. says to ferment 72-75F. i looked around for info and seems the yeast works well over a broad temp zone- 45-95F!
I pitched it in 70F juice, and fermenting now at 68F. thinking to keep it in the 60’s (beer yeast logic) although I have no experience with wine yeast and optimal fermentation temps.
very happy with the wine experts kit. nearing final stages of clearing and wine tastes really good already.
LHBS just had 35% off sale on wine kits, so we bought an oaked Chardonnay and a dry Riesling…5 more cases of wine soon to be in process.
bottling this weekend- does anyone know if its best to condition/age in bottle refrigerator cold, or just basement temps? not sure if I should treat it like beer or not.