I'll be attending a convention in Rochester, Minnesota next weekend
and am interested in picking up a couple of things for winemaking.

well, I am thinking of getting a 5 gallon primary and 5 one gallon
secondaries, traps, possibly bottles, corks, and a hand corker. anyone
have some suggestions?

traveling from medford wisconsin

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

http://www.wineandhop.com/


Brian


"Tater" > wrote in message
ps.com...
> I'll be attending a convention in Rochester, Minnesota next weekend
> and am interested in picking up a couple of things for winemaking.
>
> well, I am thinking of getting a 5 gallon primary and 5 one gallon
> secondaries, traps, possibly bottles, corks, and a hand corker. anyone
> have some suggestions?
>
> traveling from medford wisconsin
>

> well, I am thinking of getting a 5 gallon primary and 5 one gallon
> secondaries, traps, possibly bottles, corks, and a hand corker. anyone
> have some suggestions?

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

"Tater" > wrote in message
ps.com...
> I'll be attending a convention in Rochester, Minnesota next weekend
> and am interested in picking up a couple of things for winemaking.
>
> well, I am thinking of getting a 5 gallon primary and 5 one gallon
> secondaries, traps, possibly bottles, corks, and a hand corker. anyone
> have some suggestions?
>
> traveling from medford wisconsin
>

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

On Mar 3, 9:02 pm, "Bulletsnbrains" >
wrote:
> Madison, WI has a Wine and Hop shop on Monroe st. Only 200 miles out of
> your way
>
> http://www.wineandhop.com/
>
> Brian
>
> "Tater" > wrote in message
>
> ps.com...
>
>
>
> > I'll be attending a convention in Rochester, Minnesota next weekend
> > and am interested in picking up a couple of things for winemaking.
>
> > well, I am thinking of getting a 5 gallon primary and 5 one gallon
> > secondaries, traps, possibly bottles, corks, and a hand corker. anyone
> > have some suggestions?
>
> > traveling from medford wisconsin- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

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

On Mar 4, 5:18 am, "Joe Sallustio" > wrote:
> > well, I am thinking of getting a 5 gallon primary and 5 one gallon
> > secondaries, traps, possibly bottles, corks, and a hand corker. anyone
> > have some suggestions?
>
> 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

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

On Mar 5, 3:31 am, "M Lawson" > wrote:
> "Tater" > wrote in message
>
> ps.com...
>
> > I'll be attending a convention in Rochester, Minnesota next weekend
> > and am interested in picking up a couple of things for winemaking.
>
> > well, I am thinking of getting a 5 gallon primary and 5 one gallon
> > secondaries, traps, possibly bottles, corks, and a hand corker. anyone
> > have some suggestions?
>
> > traveling from medford wisconsin
>
> 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.
>
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


"Joe Sallustio" > wrote in message
ps.com...
>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
>

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