looking for winemaking supplies

Madison, WI has a Wine and Hop shop on Monroe st. Only 200 miles out of your way :)

Brian

I wouldn't suggest a hand corker, look at the Portuguese floor corker. It's worth the extra $25. If you really want a hand corker get the Gilda from Ferrari. Joe

Consider going 6gal primary and 5gal secondary. That way you don't have a problem with too much air or having to top up with water after you loose the sludge from the racking.

Mike

Mike

umm thanks, but thats the wrong way! think minneapoilis/st paul area

joe, I am thinking cheap, not quality. I know i'll be asking for headaches and pain by doing it this way, but how often do you see nearly new floor corkers for sale used, which means to me that they are real exspensive or they are only bought by people who are sure they want to do winemaking for life OR they make really great coat racks.

and i really have plenty of coat racks

wasnt sure how they sold in sizes. I'd like to do that, or a 5gal pri and 4 gal secondary and a second 1/2 gal secondary.

on the other hand, for a first time i wont mind doing 5pri-4sec gallon setup and tossing out any extra

or 6-5 for that matter

I know all about cheap, I have kids... The Ferrari Gilda is the way to go for a cheap hand corker that works; it only does real corks though, it's not strong enough to compress a synthetic. I've seen them for $18 to $25. The Portuguese floor model is around $40 -$60.

As to carboy sizes, the most commonly available are (In US gallons) 7,

6.5, 6, 5, 3 and 2.8 gallon stubby's if you can find them anymore. Everyone that stocks suplies usually has the 6, 5 and 3. Gallon, 4 liter or 3 liter containers can be found for free from restaurants that serve jug wines; they are usually more than happy to give them away.

Joe

And get an 8 or 10 gallon white plastic primary instead of that 5 gallon. You are going to need it anyway and there is no need to spend money twice. HTH

Frederick

Tater - Are you looking for suggestions on what to buy? or where?

On the "what" side, I would encourage you to invest in a floor corker, rather than a hand corker. Yes, I know the hand corkers are less money. I've used both -- the floor corker is by far the best investment I've made in terms of winemaking stuff. You don't see a lot of used floor corkers, mainly because the people that buy them keep them. There's no need to "trade up", they don't wear out. I don't think that implies that they are either very expensive or coat- racks. Look at it this way -- if you decide at some point that you really don't want or need a floor corker, there is bound to be someone willing to pay you good money for a used one. :-)

In terms of "where", there is a HBS in Rochester (Von Klopp Brew Shop). I have not bought from them (I live in MPLS) but have heard about them. If you are passing through MPLS/St Paul, either Midwest Supplies (on the MPLS side) or Northern Brewer (on the St Paul side) generally have good inventories of kits, carboys, etc. -- I can recommend either of them.

Happy fermenting --

Doug

ok, I'm back and I got a boatload of stuff!!!!

I didnt get a corker or bottles, I figgure that i'll get them later.

First off, where am I gonna put all this stuff? I got a kit that stores mostly in the 10 gal primary with a 5 gal secondary.

I've heard that you need 70 deg temps to keep the fermentation process going, so running this in the basement wont work. I might consider keeping it in the living room, if I knew the smell wouldnt be too overpowering(how could i test?)

besides the winemaking kit, I also got a wine kit for practice. 5 gal of wine is approx 25 bottles. just what am i gonna do with 25 bottles of "practice" wine.

maybe I sould get a couple more secondaries to use as bulk winebottles? anyone want to comment?

since i got this for doing something with the plums we got, I estimate

10-20 gallons of wine per season. PER SEASON!!! egads, I'll need to build a 1000sq ft exspansion for storage. on my 2200sq ft house.

you know, I really dont drink that much either.

Tater - Kits are designed to work best at what we in North America consider "room temperature" - around 70F. But most yeast will work OK (although slower) at lower temps, down to 55 or 60F. Colder than that, and it gets tricky, but plenty of folks here in the frozen North ferment kit wines in the basement. It will just take a little longer. Personally, I like the smell of fermenting fruit. I suppose some people don't, but I wouldn't consider it "overpowering". And fermentation is mostly finished in a week or 10 days -- not very long, really.

You will no doubt be astonished at how quickly 25 or 30 bottles of "practice" wine disappear. If you are going to be making wine on any sort of regular basis, you will want at least a couple of carboys. Pretty much all the commercial kits are designed to make 23 liters of finished wine (approx. 6 US gallons), so that's a handy size. If you are fermenting fruit, you can make the batch whatever size is convenient. The nice thing about wine (well, one of them anyway) is that, once in a carboy and under airlock, you can really take your time with it -- if you're too busy to rack the wine for a couple of weeks, it will keep. There's no rush. As long as the carboy isn't exposed to direct sunlight, and the airlock doesn't run dry, you can leave wine in it for months (or years) without any ill effects.

One good-sized wine rack should hold 200 bottles or more, and takes up very little floor space. 20 gallons (US) should make about

100 bottles of wine. So one wine rack will hold two seasons of wine (assuming you don't drink any or give any away . . .) If you manage to limit yourself to 20 gallons per year, you've got more self-control than most of us. :-)

Anyway, welcome to an addictive hobby.

Happy fermenting --

Doug