what do you actually need to make wine?

[tmd]

What I mean is, what equipment is actually necessary to make a decent, drinkable wine (peapod or otherwise) out of the veggie-and-fruit bits I have access to?

Periodically I scan the Ebay listings for winemaking kits, and am inevitably offended at the $80-plus-shipping for what appears to be a couple of pickle buckets and some bits of glass tubing. On the other hand, my husband still bears the childhood scars of his parents' winemaking experiments using cider jars and balloons, and turns funny colors when I bring it up. I bring the question to you lot because I assume that you are less hobbyists than drinkers and therefore want a practical, drinkable, self-sufficient-y product that doesn't require running to the hobby shop every ten minutes.

Thoughts? Thanks.

[Muddypause]

Hello TMD, and welcome.

I've never made wine myself (largely because these days alcohol and me don't get along as well as we used to), but I've always thought it was a fascinating process. Wine making goes back thousands of years, and like bread making it seems to have been developed in some form by nearly every culture. So it can be a little disappointing to see that modern methods seem to imply that you need all sorts of equipment and chemicals that have only recently become available.

This is an entertaining site you may like to look at:
http://www.thewinepages.org.uk

Or there are some easy wine recipies on the main SS-ish site:
http://www.selfsufficientish.com/wine.htm
http://www.selfsufficientish.com/marrowine.htm
http://www.selfsufficientish.com/grapewine.htm

[2steps]

I started some elderberry wine recently and the only thing I bought was an airlock, camden tablets and some wine yeast. I used a plastic bucket we already had and we've had a demi john hanging around for years was once used to collect pennies in.

I've been told you can use bread yeast but it may not come out well and also that any container can be used as long as it can be covered to stop anything getting in but allow gases out. Though anything thats plastic would be more likely to explode.

This is the first wine I've ever made

[Shirley]

I made some elderberry wine once... what a gorgeous colour.... made brilliant woodstain... better than paintstripper I suppose

I'll go and have a look at some of the links that muddypause has posted as we would really like to make some ourselves... it's GOT to be cheaper than buying it - surely!

Any other hints and tips would be gratefully appreciated - the wine we would want to make would generally be of the red colour :D (where is the red wine emote lol)

[Driftwood]

not tried wine, but have been making beer and cider using a recipe I found on a living history web site. Basically you bung everything in a pot and let nature do it's own thing (Its based on beer from around 400 AD) . I'll try and find the recipe again if you are interested.

"It's beer Jim but not as you know it"

Tone

[Shirley]

not tried wine, but have been making beer and cider using a recipe I found on a living history web site. Basically you bung everything in a pot and let nature do it's own thing (Its based on beer from around 400 AD) . I'll try and find the recipe again if you are interested.

"It's beer Jim but not as you know it"

Tone

Oooh yes please Tone

My other half was planning to do some beer and I like the sound of the bung it in and leave it recipe

[Driftwood]

ok, i'll dig out the recipe over x-mas and let you have it.

[alcina]

Basically you bung everything in a pot and let nature do it's own thing (Its based on beer from around 400 AD) . I'll try and find the recipe again if you are interested.

Please, purty please! I like the idea of "bung eveything in a pot"...the last time I looked at beer/cider it all seemed to require muchos pressured barrels and all!

Alcina

[ina]

Maybe it's no coincidence that around 400 AD they had a lot more food poisoning that we do nowadays... And we don't have any more of those handy slaves that risked their lives as food tasters for the rich on a daily basis. Of course, it can work, but chances are quite high that it might not, and I would regret the waste of good ingredients if it doesn't.

Ina

[Shirley]

Maybe it's no coincidence that around 400 AD they had a lot more food poisoning that we do nowadays... And we don't have any more of those handy slaves that risked their lives as food tasters for the rich on a daily basis. Of course, it can work, but chances are quite high that it might not, and I would regret the waste of good ingredients if it doesn't.

Ina

lol... that was a conversation killer wasn't it!!!

Valid points though, and ones that I hadn't considered myself. Still... if it's kept in the right sort of conditions it should be ok ?? shouldn't it??

I'd still be very interested to see the recipe Tone...

[metricben]

hi

it is in fact alot easier to make wine than people think...
you do not need lots of expensive equipment, and very few ingredients at first.

i used to make cider by just hitting apples with a rolling pien until they let out juice. then i put it in a jar with a tablespoon of sugar, put cotton wool in the top and left it a week.

im not sure how hygenic that was though...
alot of fruits have bloom (natrual yeasts) on them(apples, sloes, grapes) so you don't need to buy yeast.

all the equipment you need: get a large bottle 1/2 gall. or bigger

of course, yeast, nutrient, airlocks, pectin enzyme, tannin, citric acid, and a syphoning tube help.

a full set to make 7 gallons of wine at one time cost me 20 pounds

DO NOT PAY 80 POUNDS!!!

[Wombat]

G'Day Metricben,

Thanks for the info and welcome to the site!

Nev

[ina]

Valid points though, and ones that I hadn't considered myself. Still... if it's kept in the right sort of conditions it should be ok ?? shouldn't it??

I'd still be very interested to see the recipe Tone...

So would I. Actually, unless you have an impaired sense of taste or smell, you'd probably notice if there was anything seriously wrong with it!

Ina

[Chickenlady]

Back to the cost of the equipment, I must give Freecycle another plug. Someone on my local site was giving a load of demijohns, etc away recently. Winemaking stuff is exactly the type of thing likely to be gathering dust at the back of someone's shed, so if you stick a wanted request with your local group you might well get a positive response. (And if you offer something too, you will get good karma)

www.freecycle.org

[Shirley]

Thanks AGAIN -

I will do that and let you know how we get on...

PLENTY of stuff to offer too - just getting round to fishing it out after our move.

Shirlz xx

edited to add that I've changed to barbara good... my hero... I am happy lol