hi there katie. i got the kit from the local brew shop. ran about $40. some of the other wine styles were a little more though. up to about 60 tops i saw. includes most all the ingredients you need too. i was impressed at how complete it is. comes with a big bunch of some seriously concentrated grape juice. im sure that is the bulk of the cost there. the directions are really nice and well written. way better than any beer instructions, these were totally idiot proof.
first time i have went for a batch of wine too so that works out pretty well. im just kind of doing it by the numbers and feeling good that it will turn out well. the wine expert brand comes highly recommended around here.
i have brewed a good several batches of beer, so all i did was get that brand new big carboy so i didnt have to chance sharing a beer one with wine.
still trying to hunt down some bottles. i didnt think too much about it before i began, but 30 or so wine bottles might not be so easy to come across. i put out a want ad in craigslist and someone says they have 40+ bottles i can have, and another person says they know a guy that runs a greek restaurant and can help me arange for a nights worth of bottles to be saved for me to come pick up. sweet deal. i figure i caould use as many as i can get my hands on, maybe 100 or so for starters. brew plenty of wine and have it all aging and ready for fishing in the summer
**update**
ok i havent actually seen the wine myself since those photos were taken. im a trucker, so i have to pretty much go on the word of my roommate. anyway, here is the report.
as of a few nights ago, the wine was bubbling to the tune of 1 bubble per second. the wine looks sort of like 'milky lemonade'. seems all is well.
the wine seemed to take a little longer to 'rev up' in frementation, as i was told to expect. once it gets going though man it is going. next to no foam on top of it, which is just as well since it is a 6 gal. batch in a 6.8 gal. carboy.
so, so far so good. in a few days i will be back in town and maybe it will be time to switch it over to secondary at that point. going to use the same carboy for secondary too. going to transfre the wine into a brewing bucket, which has never been used for fermenting anything so it is clean. then clean the carboy out and put it back in there.
