Greetings!!

[AndyRVTR]

Hi all... just a quick intro... both the Mrs and I are sick of paying stupid money for a half decent bottle of wine...soooooo, we are venturing into the unknown and are all excited with the prospect of making our own
We have an allotment with variuos fruit trees, Apple, Pear, Cherry and Plum as well as Gooseberry, Blueberry, Elderberries and Rhubarb, so we have quite a few ingredients already available.
I have managed to get a hold of a few demijohns from my local 'Freecycle' site, I also know we will need a hydrometer, but what other things will we need?
Any help would be greatly appreciated... :

 

[Moley]

Welcome to the forum :

Juice wines are pretty quick, you could have your first wines ready to drink within a couple of months. Country wines can be very rewarding, and extremely cheap if you grow your own fruit and veg or go out scavenging, but the timescale is considerably longer.

If you wanted to start out with some juice wines there's a basic equipment guide and a few pictures at the top of this beginner's guide.

If you want to make country wines then you will also need one or more fermenting buckets with close fitting lids for the initial juice extraction stage. I have an assortment of 5 gallon, 3 gallon and 10 litre.

A fine mesh nylon straining bag would be very useful, although you can get by with other fine fabrics to start with, and you should probably already have things like measuring jugs and nylon or stainless flour sieves in your kitchen. You will also need a big funnel and a long handled plastic or stainless steel spoon.

If you've already got the DJs, to get started you really don't need anything complicated or expensive.

 

[evanvine]

Welcome to the Forum Andy. :thumb:
Listen to Moley, you are in good hands there!

 

[AndyRVTR]

Thanks for the welcome and the help guys... I did read Morley's 'a guide to entry level winemaking' and was well impressed....
No doubt I will be asking for help on several occasions, and maybe some questions too, even a sensible one from time to time... for now i'm gonna have a look around the site and see what tips I can pick up :

 

[Moley]

I did read Morley's 'a guide to entry level winemaking' ... (snip)... for now i'm gonna have a look around the site and see what tips I can pick up

I would be obliged if you could pick up on the correct spelling of my name

 

[AndyRVTR]

ooopsss... sorry Moley

 

[evanvine]

I would be obliged if you could pick up on the correct spelling of my name

Ever a stickler for detail!
"Morley" sounds so much more sophisticated. :whistle:

 

[AndyRVTR]

Well my guardian angel is certainly looking after me today, I put an ad on Freecycle last night just before I went to bed, I received an email this morning offering me one or two DJ's, and this is what I collected tonight free of charge.
7 x 1 Gallon DJ's
3 x Airlocks & Bungs
Bag of 50 Corks
Box of 12 empty wine bottles
Hydrometer
oh, and a bottle brush...

What a bargain.....