Wine Making Supplies – Primary Fermentation
Equipment for the First Stage of Making Home Wine Kits
Oct 19, 2009
A home wine making kit contains the necessary ingredients for making wine, but extra equipment is needed for fermenting, finishing, and bottling the home made wine. With the right equipment, proper sanitation, and a little care and attention, the homeowner can have a couple of dozen bottles of good wine for home use or for gifts.
Wine stores that specialize in home production usually sell complete kits as well as separate pieces. Here are the necessaries for the first step of primary fermentation.
Basic Wine Making Supplies: Kit Contents
The kit will contain the basic ingredients for the primary fermentation; the user must add water in the amount specified by the kit.
- Concentrate – A heavy plastic bag contains concentrated grape juice
- Other flavorings – Oak granulars, flavor essences from other fruits or berries
- Yeast – a proper wine yeast, such as saccaromyces bayanus, will convert the sugar in the must into alcohol and byproducts.
- Bentonite – This fine clay assists yeast activity and acts as a flocculant (clarifier) by attracting and holding proteins. In some wine kits, bentonite is added after fermentation is complete.
Basic Wine Making Supplies: Primary Fermentation
The first step of fermentation requires very little in the way of equipment or supplies
- Fermentation vessel – The main piece of equipment is a food grade plastic container with a lid, calibrated to 23L/6US gal/5 Imp Gal. To calibrate, simply measure the correct amount of water into the container, then use a black Sharpie marker to indicate the level on the outside.
- Thermometer – The fermenting juice/water mixture must be kept within a specific temperature range for best yeast activity (too hot or cold and the yeast cells will slow or even die). The thermometer clearly shows the range as a green band.
- Hydrometer – a device used to measure the specific gravity (density relative to water) of the wine to determine the progress of fermentation. It is the specific gravity, rather than the actual number of days elapsed, that determines when the developing wine is ready for the next step.
- Graduated cylinder – This is actually needed only as a good place to measure the s.g. with the hydrometer. Any tall, narrow cylinder will work and it need not be graduated (which means marked with volume measurements along the side)
- Measuring Cup - Needed to dip out samples of wine to pour into the graduated cylinder to measure the wine's progress.
- Wine Thief - A long tube with a valve on the bottom, the wine thief provides an easy way to draw off wine to test with a hydrometer (one dip with the thief as opposed to several dips with the cup, and it's easier to transfer the wine from the thief into the cylinder).
- Stirring Spoon – Some kits require ingredients to be stirred in.
- Heating belt – An optional device used in cool rooms (such as basement utility rooms) to help maintain the wine at the proper temperature.
Once the yeast cells have completed their life cycle, the bentonite has gathered the dead wine cells into a sludge on the bottom of the fermentor. Most of the sugar in the juice has been converted to alcohol, as indicated by a specific gravity reading of less than 1.010 (on most kits). The primary fermentation is complete.
Related Articles:
- Basic Wine Making Supplies: Secondary Fermentation – What is needed for the next step of a wine making kit.
- Basic Wine Making Supplies: Finishing and Bottling – Equipment for the final step of a wine kit, the mise en bouteille.
- Recycling Bottles for Wine Making Kits: Removing Labels – How to get that stubborn stickum off recycled wine bottles.
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