Making Wine with Beer equiptment

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slater

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I saw a post that was about this but I had a couple of questions. I was given a beer startup kit a little bit ago and have brewed my first batch of beer and I was wondering if I could make wine with this equipment. My girlfriend doesn't like beer so since she gave it to me for my 21st birthday I thought maybe I could make wine for her 21st birthday in September. This is the description of the kit:

Includes 6.5 gallon bucket w/ lid, airlock, bottling bucket with spigot, siphon hose, racking tube, bottle filler, double lever capper, bottle caps, "True Brew" handbook, bottle brush, hydrometer, sanitizer.

I was wondering if a turkey baster would work in place of the wine thief (I already go that to get samples to check gravity for beer). I will be getting a 5 gallon carboy from my father next weekend. Would that work for making wine or should I get extra things?

Thanks for the help.
 
That will work fine. Not sure if your carboy will be 5 US gallons (19 litres) or 5 Imperial gallaons (23 litres). If you plan to make a wine kit, then you should use a 6 US gallon/5 Imperial gallon/23 litre carboy.

You have a capper instead of a corker, but it will be fine to put wine in beer bottles (or champagne bottles) and cap them rather than cork them.

Lots of people use a turkey baster instead of a wine thief. In the future, you could put a Fermtech (brand) Thief on a Christmas or birthday list as an upgrade. (Hey I put a limited edition wine kit on my Christmas list and my wonderful kids got it for me. Of course,they'll probably want to drink some of it.)

Steve
 
That will work fine. Not sure if your carboy will be 5 US gallons (19 litres) or 5 Imperial gallaons (23 litres). If you plan to make a wine kit, then you should use a 6 US gallon/5 Imperial gallon/23 litre carboy.

You have a capper instead of a corker, but it will be fine to put wine in beer bottles (or champagne bottles) and cap them rather than cork them.

Lots of people use a turkey baster instead of a wine thief. In the future, you could put a Fermtech (brand) Thief on a Christmas or birthday list as an upgrade.

Thanks for the reply Steve. I will have to ask my dad which it will be. Once I find out then Hopefully I can get started when I get it (hopefully I wont screw up either). For christmas, well yea. I won't be getting presents anytime soon. Maybe I will look into purchasing a corker as well. Thank you for the help.
 
I make wine and beer, Everything is good other than not having a corker. But one other thing you mentioned, If using your beer bucket for the primary which sound ok, Keep in mind that the hops can absorb into the plastic after using it a few times . Yes you can use it for wine but perhaps look into getting seperate buckets for the two. If the hops would absorb into the bucket using it for wine will not ruin the wine or so called product but could produce off flavors!!
 

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