Question before i order equipment

davemo · Jun 30, 2013

Hello all this is my first post as a newbie and i am very glad i found this place

Ok i am getting ready to order a winemaking equipment kit and hope to make both wine and mead with it.I called the supply house and talked to the owner who said the equipment kit is geared for making kit wines which are 6 gallon batches.The kit has a 7.9 gallon fermenter with lid and a 6 gallon better bottle plastic carboy. I am wanting to make 5 gallon batches because most recipes are geared toward a 5 gallon batch.He advised me that the 7.9 primary fermenter would work for 5 gallons because of the foaming of the yeast but for secondary and bulk storage i may want to get 5 gallon carboys.He said the less headspace in the secondary and bulk storage the better.I need opinions on this please keep in mind i want 5 gallon batches of both mead and fruit wine which i will probably use both juice and chopped fruit in. Thanks for all your help in advance

rmccask · Jun 30, 2013

I use a 6.5 gallon bucket for my primary but I can't see why a 7.9 gallon would be a problem other than it taking up a tiny bit more space.

mannye · Jun 30, 2013

Any reason you want to start with 5 gallon batches instead of 1 gallon? NOt trying to convince you otherwise,, but if you've never done this before it's much easier to make a JAOM in one gallon than 5.. plus, a lot less honey and cost so if you make a rookie mistake, it's not 15 pounds of expensive honey down the drain...just a thought.

However, ignoring the possible large "mistake" volume, that kit sounds dandy! It will even work for beer...

davemo · Jul 1, 2013

The main reason i chose 5 gallon was the place doesn't
offer a 1 gallon + i know i am going to stick to making wine and mead.I live in an area with many wineries within say a 15 minute drive from me,so

akueck · Jul 1, 2013

More space in primary is never a bad thing. The 7.9 gallon container sounds lovely. You do want a 5 gallon container for aging though, if you have 5 gallons batches. Remember that you will have racking losses, so to end up with 5 gallons you need to start with more, usually at least 5.5 and even more for ones with lots of fruit solids.

BBBF · Jul 2, 2013

6 gallon buckets get the job done, but 7.9 are a great luxury. I use both for 5 gallon batches and if there is a lot of fruit, the smaller bucket is sometimes filled to the top and any extra space for foam will be used.

As for carboys, I agree with you. I prefer to use 5g carboys. I make 5.5 to 6 gallons. This allows me to fill the carboy and then I put another .5g in a small jug or bottles and save them for topping off.

Chevette Girl · Jul 2, 2013

Your primary question about a 6 gal carboy? Unless space or money are truly at a premium, you won't regret owning one as well as your 5-gal carboys even if you do do a lot of 5 gal batches, speaking from experience, sometimes fruit releases a lot more juice than you'd expect. Most of the fruit wine recipes I've dealt with are geared towards one gallon batches so they scale up to 6 gal as easily as 5 gal anyway. I wish I had a 7.9 gal primary, right now if I do a fruit-heavy batch I often have to split the must into two buckets (usually one with the fruit bag and one without) and then combine it when I rack.

Most of the kits I've seen include a hydrometer and test tube, primary bucket with hole in lid, secondary carboy, one drilled stopper with airlock, a carboy brush, a long-handled spoon, some hose and a racking wand, and sometimes enough cleaning and sanitizing chemicals for a couple of batches. Around here I've seen kits with plastic carboys run as low as $50, add $25 to upgrade to a glass carboy.

If you're starting with nothing, other equipment you may want to consider now or in the future would be a fruit bag (extremely handy for melomels and fruit wines), extra stoppers and airlocks (the kits assume you'll not be starting another batch in primary till after you've bottled your secondary), additional carboys so you can start more batches while aging previous batches (but don't fall into the trap I made for myself and buy more carboys than you reasonably have room for), a wine thief for sampling from the carboy, a bottle filler wand or an auto-filler (I hate my auto-filler but your mileage may vary, some folks swear by theirs), an extra hydrometer because they're fragile things, a thermometer for measuring the temperature of your yeast rehydration water (has other uses too but that's what mine mostly gets used for), you may want a few 1-gal jugs as well, either for holding excess must for topping off or for fruit wine batches where your fruit supply is limited, a bottle brush and corker or capper for when the time comes... pH strips or pH meter is also a good investment in case you have a batch that's not doing what you think it should be doing. I also have a bottle blaster and a bottle tree which both get a lot of use and an auto-siphon which doesn't, but those are sort of a personal choice and I wouldn't list them as necessary.

Supplies you'll want soon-ish: cleansing and sanitizing stuff (or a good one-step) and stabilizing chemicals (potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulphite), yeast nutrient (DAP) and yeast energizer (like Fermaid), and some acid blend if you're doing fruit wines (you shouldn't need it with anything involving honey because you might run into problems, but sometimes you do need it with low-acid fruits when you're not using honey).

Supplies you'll probably want eventually: chemicals for adjusting pH (usually our problem is it's too low because of honey's acidity so you need something basic or bring it back up, usually potassium or calcium carbonate), you might also want the good stuff for rehydrating your yeast (Goferm), corks or caps, bottles, some oppositely-charged fining agents like Bentonite and Sparkolloid for that inevitable batch that refuses to clear on its own...

Hope this is more helpful than confusing or intimidating.

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Question before i order equipment

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