First wine from grapes, what equipment is needed?

[hobbyiswine]

I am hoping to get my hands on some fresh grapes in a week or two. 5 to 10 gallons of fresh must. Maybe viognier, chenin, or chardonnay. Depends what is ripe. That sounds great and all but I am perhaps jumping the gun a bit as I don't have all the cool toys and gadgets I would prefer to have in order to make the process both easier and secondly produce the best wine I can.

I should be able to get base brix, pH, and TA for the must after the crush but I don't have a pH meter, acid tester, etc once I get all the goodies home.

I have what I would consider a basic winemaking setup in terms of my equipment. Enough for kit wines, Skeeter pee, wines from juice, etc but what else do I REALLY need (the bare necessities) to get this fresh grape must to turn out?

 

[Minnesotamaker]

For small batches, you really don't need a lot that you probably don't already have. You'll need something to break the skins of the grapes and you'll need something to remove some of the stems. Grapes can be broken the old fashioned way (stomping), so if you have feet, or know someone who does, you're set. You can remove the majority of the stems by reaching in with your hand shaped like a bear claw. You fingers will catch the stems and the grapes will pass between your fingers.

Bigger toys like crushers and destemmers can make short work of larger batches. For small batches, it might take you longer to set up, sanitize, and clean up the equipment than it would to just do the work by hand.

An acid test kit is pretty inexpensive and might be useful.

 

[hobbyiswine]

thanks for the info. I hope to get must that has been ran through the destemmer and crusher so that makes it easier. I don't have a press but think I could find one if I needed to. the acid test kit is a good idea. I should get one anyways so maybe this is the time to do it.

 

[ibglowin]

Whites have to be crushed and pressed at the same time so you need to have a press lined up before hand. Also I hand destemmed 200lbs of grapes once. ONCE! Never again.

You really should pick up and pH meter. Takes the guess work out of things for sure. You can also use it for TA testing as well.

I would grab both the White Wine and Red Wine manuals from More Wine. Very well written and free!

 

[Wade E]

I agree with IB, a decent ph meter will do wonders.