Want to try a Juice bucket

[MN-winer]

Hey all,

I've done 5-10 kits in the past year and a half and a few fruit wines. The kits are OK wines but I keep hearing that if you get real juice you can make better wines, although it sounds like more risk of goofing it up.

If I try a bucket of juice, what more equipment do I need beyond the standard primary, secondary, hydrometer and other chemicals?

Is it better to get multiple buckets of juice and do larger quantity?

PH tester, TA test,

Its not that I'm not happy with my wines but I want to branch out and try a bucket of real juice and experiment.

I live in MN and can get buckets at midwest supplies easily.

 

[ffemt128]

I'm only on my second round with juice. In my experience, the juice comes stabilized and ph adjusted. You won't need a primary as your primary would be the 6 gallon bucket the juice comes in. As far as other equipment, if you have been making kits, you should have most all of what you need.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Fantastic. I've done buckets of juice from the get go and it's so much easier than a kit I believe. All you need is your ingredients such as sulfite, pectic enzyme, yeast and nutrients, sorbate, oak and something to clear your wine.

Process is simple. Open, add pectic, wait 12 hrs. add yeast and nutrients and you're off. You may not need to sulfite first as most (but check) juices are pre sulfited and ph balanced.

When done, rack, degas, sulfite and clear.

When done rack, sulfite a tad, add oak and age.

Start getting carboys. You will need some 1/2 gallons or magnum bottles because you'll get usually 5 1/2 per 6 gallon pail.

 

[Runningwolf]

As Doug said the juice I have been getting is already adjusted for everything. If its not they let you know what it might need. The differance is you can add additionaol stuff or blend several juices before bottling.
Is it easier/harder? It basically the same process except your going to let it age a lot longer.
Is it better? Better then which kit? You get what you pay for. Its hard to beat a big kit or limited edition in my opinion.
Get the amount of buckets that your budget will allow and that you can attend to.

I have gotten a bit of juice this year that I cannot get in a kit and am having fun with them.In almost every case it is a lot cheaper also.

 

[mdambrose]

Hey all,

I've done 5-10 kits in the past year and a half and a few fruit wines. The kits are OK wines but I keep hearing that if you get real juice you can make better wines, although it sounds like more risk of goofing it up.

If I try a bucket of juice, what more equipment do I need beyond the standard primary, secondary, hydrometer and other chemicals?

Is it better to get multiple buckets of juice and do larger quantity?

PH tester, TA test,

Its not that I'm not happy with my wines but I want to branch out and try a bucket of real juice and experiment.

I live in MN and can get buckets at midwest supplies easily.

MN,
If you can pick up at Midwest Supply, I would suggest that you do the jump to their frozen must. They have a great deal on the Cab buckets and 10% off for the next couple of days (see other thread).

So for $90, if you pick it up, you will make a nice carboy of the good Napa stuff. You should also buy just one the $8 additive kit which is a great value. I use a 20 gal Brute pail to ferment both together – but that is optional.

The jump from kits to grapes isn't that hard. I know it can be scary, but you have many online resources to get over the hump. There is a video on the Midwest site that takes you through the process. As for the adjustments of ph, all you need to do is add in 20-25g of tartaric acid (if you do 2 buckets) and you will be fine for these particular buckets.

Make the leap, the time is now.

--Mike