plastic bottles, hygiene and coffeewine

Guy and Jonathan

One of the nice things about winemaking as a hobby is that the "tools" required are really pretty minimal. You can make quite nice wine without barrels, pumps, filters, big grape presses, etc. I have no idea what kind of "tools" you have that turned green with inactivity, but if you can get them clean enough to eat off of, you should be OK.

Lots of folks use the plastic bottles for bulk aging, instead of carboys. Some people believe they are not quite as airtight as glass, but I have not read any real horror stories from folks who use them, so I would guess that they should be fine for at least a couple of months. If you wanted to store a batch for a year or more in bulk, I'd recommend glass.

Nearly everyone in this hobby re-uses wine bottles, as they are pretty easy to find, and buying new bottles for every batch would be expensive. Just make sure they are thoroughly cleaned, and use a new cork each time.

About the coffee wine -- search this newsgroup or the forums on Winepress.US, as there have been a number of posts and comments recently on coffee wine recipes. You can also check out Jack Keller's site, the best source on the internet for "country" (non-grape) wine recipes. The URL is:

I would recommend that you start out making wine from a kit once or twice, before you branch out to using fresh grapes, or trying some of the more exotic things like coffee wine. Kits are not expensive, come with nearly everything you need, and have good instructions. After a couple of those, you should be familiar enough with the basic process to start experimenting a bit.

Coming back to the "tools" question briefly, there are some things like plastic tubing (for racking the wine out of one container and into another) that are so cheap (and hard to clean) that you really might as well buy new ones. On the other hand, things like a corker, or press, are more expensive. For those kinds of things, it's worth some time and effort to try to clean up what you have.

Best of luck, and happy fermenting !

Doug

Doug gave good advise. In general used equipment is used a lot. Glassware can generally be cleaned. Plastic or wood that has been discolored is another issue. If stuff is too hard to clean you might want to think twice about whether it is easier to buy new. Everyone begs for used wine bottles and reuses them forever.

I agree with Doug and recommend against using plastic carboys (the big bottles). Get some glass ones.

Also, do spend some time on Jack Keller's site and get some good books. I like any of C.J.J. Berry's Books. They are old but timeless. Lots of good recipes and good ideas and very basic. But it would be a good idea to try a kit wine first. I would recommend a white wine kit in the $85 range to start with. They are reliable, will teach you good practices and are generally ready to drink in about 3 or 4 months which gives you fast feedback on your hobby.

Ray

I would reinforce what Doug and Ray have said. A kit wine is a very good idea with which to start off .

If you are going to dive in the deep end then buy a wine kit - preferably a white wine kit.( I am a red wine man). And buy a kit which is a price higher than you think you want to do. ( I really mean it!). White wine kits always produce a wine that is much nearer to the commercial product than red wine kits do.

Please follow the instructions as given down to the last "T". They are basically foolproof and you want to have a good result for your first efforts.

Do visit Jack Keller's site but do not be overwhelmed by it. It is a place I still dip into frequently but it has a vast amount of collected knowledge and a huge amount of experience as does "Lums" site. But to a beginner it can be just to much to take in.

As an Englishman I still find Berry's book of tremendous value. But a good, very readable, book is Terry Garey's "Joy of Home Winemaking" written for the US beginner (and others) -- it is also a book that you can keep on your bedside table for a last 10 minutes before nodding of into a good nights sleep.

I also recommend that you have a look up and down this NG. Most questions have been asked many times before! Try a "Google" search on any particular topic you can think off and it will produce a wealth of knowledge ( and a lot of garbage too!)

This hobby can be a bit addictive in more than one way!

Welcome!