On Fri, 02 Jan 2004 15:37:24 GMT, "Steve Gibson" >
wrote:

>Hello everyone,
>
>I have been interested in making vine now for over a few years now, and this
>year I have decided that I am going to do it, now I have been doing some
>reading on the net and some magazines. There is so much information out
>there about wine making. I am asking you guys (the experts) if you could
>possibly give me a list of equipment I will need to acquire before diving
>into this. I am very excited to get started, and any other hints or tips
>you could give me would be greatly appreciated, thank you very very much and
>happy new year to all, thanks

I did the same thing. studied for a while, and then made a "starter
kit" of my own. I ordered the whole mess from www.midwestsupplies.com
as they had the best prices of the places I found that would send me a
free print catalog.

(3) 1 gallon carboys
(2) airlocks
(2) universal bungs
(1) Hydrometer
(1) 10" plastic test jar (for hydrometer samples)
(1) bag of 30 corks -- #9 standard
(1) bag of 30 pvc sleeves (only cost an extra buck or so, and
thoght they would look nice...)
(1) EZ-economy corker
(3) Lavlin k1v-1116 all pourpose yeast
(1) jar of 100 pH test strips -- wine range (2.8-3.8 I think)
(1) jar of 110 campden tablets

I also then picked up some clear 3/8 (OD) clear tubing from a hardware
store (cost about 70 cents) for racking, and a tukey baster (less than
a buck) for drawing samples of wine (also works for starting the
syphon if I do it right) I then had to start my hunt for bottles..

I crushed and disolved about 50 tablets in a gallon jug of water for a
sulfite solution and it has been working fine...

the whole mess above cost me about $50.00 including shipping. It lets
me make 2 batches at once with a spare carboy to rack into. I have,
however, already upgraded to a better corker (infact I got thier
6-gallon preassembled kit with a double lever corker)

To save money if you aren't sure about if you want to do this or not
(doing is always differant than reading IMHO...) you could go with 2
carboys, one airlock and bung, omit the PVC sleeves (they don't work
on all bottles anyway) and go with one (or two) packets of cheaper
yeast. Also, if you are getting the ECON corker, I would recomend #8
corks instead. the 9's were a real gripe to use. (had to beat the top
of it with a 2 X 6 to get the corks to go in.. my wife was swearing
that WHEN a bottle broke, I was cleaning it up!!! -- none did, but
still a pain) that would all trim about 10.00 off the price. I
suppose you could skip the pH paper if you had too, (save another 3-4
bucks) but that is about it.

The only thing I wish I had gotten differantly (other than the corks)
was I wished I had gotten some acid blend to bring the pH down. (my
first one was 3.5) I didn't get any additives thinking I would deal
with what I had, and I wanted to keep my cost down.

If you don't know if you will like the hobby yet, and you don't wanna
dump alot of money in it before you know, you should be able to make a
gallon of wine for about 30-40 in equipment, and about 5 bucks in
juice from the store. You can always upgrade and buy nicer stuff as
needed. Like I said, I already upgraded the corker, and am getting
ready to order some additives (bentonite, acid blend, etc) and a
couple more hardware things (bottle washer, etc....)

just my $.02




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