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Making wine at home will require at least a basic investment in some of the basic wine making equipment. To get started you’ll be looking at an investment of around $100-$200 for the basic equipment. This does not include any of the fresh fruit or the wine juice kit itself.

If you’re just starting out with wine making it is recommended that you start with a wine making kit for at least your first time of making wine. You may find you like just working from the kit instead of anything else. It’s going to give you everything in need to set yourself up for success on this wine making endeavor.

Equipment

Fermenting Bucket

The fermenting bucket is food grade plastic container that will have a spigot and a lid. This is your first step in the fermentation process. You should get a 7.9 gallon bucket which will have a 6 gallon level marked off. The 6 gallon mark is one that is important solely for the fact that this is what most wine kits or recipes are designed for.

The extra space in the fermentation bucket is for the foaming that will occur and to allow you to stir without spilling your wine. The lid of the bucket will be drilled in order to hold an airlock.

Glass Carboy

Glass is the standard when it comes to making wine; however, the big problem is that they are very heavy when they are full and if you drop it will shatter. The newer version is made of a heavy duty plastic made specifically for wine making purposes. You should get a 6 gallon to match your wine production from the fermentation bucket.

You may be tempted to go a cheaper route like the filtered water bottle you could get at the store; however, don’t do this as it will leak chemicals into your wine and will not have a good enough seal to keep oxygen out. Basically it will destroy your wine.

Bung and Airlock

The airlock is something that is filled with liquid halfway. It closes the fermenting bucket and the carboy when you’re making your wine. Through the rubber bung the carboy and the airlock are sealed keeping oxygen out and letting CO2 in.

Hydrometer

They hydrometer is used that will let you take some samples of the wine as well as testing specific gravity. You’ll find that some of the kits you’ll get or the recipes are going to have directions for specific starting and ending gravities.

Miscellaneous Items

You’ll need other miscellaneous items as well. Things like:

• Stirring spoons
• Cleaning supplies
• Ingredients
• Bottles
• Corks

The ingredients listing will be on the recipe you’re using or will be included if you get a wine making kit to use. For the bottles and corks there are a lot of people that will recycle their old wine bottles as they are very convenient and you still get the nice wine look. You can buy corks as well, those you do not want to recycle, only the bottles.