Any Wine Makers Here?

I'm interested in this as well. My wife (mainly) and I are currently working on created a supply of empty wine bottles so we can try making wine as well. I've see some kits are very cheap and others, like the one Thunderwagn mentions, are quite expensive. I'd be interested in hearing if they all make good wine or you get what you pay for?
 
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I made the Wineexpert Pinot Grigio several times and it is quite good. The white wine kit is only about $80 and turns out better than store bought wine, and it is very easy to make, compared to beer. I started with a lower cost kit and it works quite well for everyday drinking. I know there are Pinot Grigio kits for twice the price, but I can't imagine they would be twice as good. Depending on your budget and needs, you may try a lower cost one just to see if you like the wine and the process.
 
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I'm interested in this as well. My wife (mainly) and I are currently working on created a supply of empty wine bottles so we can try making wine as well. I've see some kits are very cheap and others, like the one Thunderwagn mentions, are quite expensive. I'd be interested in hearing if they all make good wine or you get what you pay for?
An expensive kit (say $150 US) makes about 25 bottles of wine. That's $6/bottle, not counting gear. Done right, the wine is up to standards of $50 bottles (or more). So you're making great wine for the price of plonk. No brainer, here....

The cheap kits are usually more concentrated than the pricier ones. Otherwise, the rest is mostly the same, you'll likely get oak, if the wine calls for it, finings, a packet of EC-1118 yeast (throw it away or bake bread with it and get a yeast more suited to the grapes - MoreWine has a great reference for finding out what yeast to use), instructions and the juice. Pricier ones may have a reserve pack of juice, if the wine is to be sweet (we generally ferment this and stop the fermentation when the wine is where we want it), grape skins, more oak, elderflowers or other flavoring.

Yes, we've been doing this for a while.
 
Wine making is very easy and successful if you're starting with a kit.
Winexpert, which is the main brand I stock, also guarantees there products. So, success right out of the gate, or it's replaced!
I have been certified and should be able to help and guide you through any questions or concerns you may have.
This isn't the place for self promotion, but if you want more guidance, I'll be happy to help you.
Just reach out to me during normal business hours and ask for me.
Cheers, Brian
 
I make wine! I make more wine than beer in volume, actually. I made wine years and years before starting to brew, and last year I spoke at HomebrewCon about “Wine, mead, and cider making for brewers”.

I don’t enjoy wine as much as I enjoy beer, but my husband loves wine and has it with every dinner (and some lunches).

I’ve made a lot of kits over the last 25 years or so, and a lot more non-kit wine. I currently have about 35 gallons of wine to bottle this spring, from fruit from our yard. I make ‘country’ wines, as well as grape wines and kits.

Cheap kits are easy, and have concentrate and less of it. Expensive kits have more grape juice, and grape skins, etc. I make a combination of cheap kits for everyday and better kits for guests/friends as well as my own country wines. My favorite is oaked blackberry, but I make a very nice crabapple wine that tastes quite a bit like pinot grigio. I have a ton of wine recipes for non-grape wines posted at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forums/wine-recipes.79/. I also make mead and cider.
 
Time to plant some vines eh Thunderwagon...
Heeeeeck no! I have no desire to do anything other than a kit lol. The homebrewer in me really likes what I see in the Winexpert kits. The biggest drawbacks for me right now are bottling and the amount. I would brew one 5 gallon batch and probably have enough wine to last me the rest of my days. And the bottling thing...yuck!
 
You can start doing beer wine hybrids to use up the wine. I've done several and they are really good.
 
Heeeeeck no! I have no desire to do anything other than a kit lol. The homebrewer in me really likes what I see in the Winexpert kits. The biggest drawbacks for me right now are bottling and the amount. I would brew one 5 gallon batch and probably have enough wine to last me the rest of my days. And the bottling thing...yuck!
We're lucky: We can get good wine grapes from Palisade.
 
I have made wine a few times, from grapes grown in my own yard. I have a vine of Cabernet Sauvignon, another of Pinot Noir (totally inappropriate for where I live), and a Zinfandel vine. For the past few years, it has been impossible to harvest a crop big enough to bother, due to uneven ripening, and a family of Orioles (birds that love grapes) that knows where the grapes grow. So far, I would rather buy a bottle than drink the plonk that I have made. But, I am amenable to brewing wine from a kit. Maybe some day.
 
We have a contact in western Colorado with his own patch. He grows Albarino grapes (missing tilde on the "n"). We get those and make wines out of it - makes a wonderful white! Otherwise, it's kits for us. SWAMBO has a bunch of silver medals from the Colorado state fair and a Reserve Grand Champion from the one time Adams County had a home wine competition. We also have contacts in the agricultural center out there - they are doing a lot of experimentals for blending, trying to get to grapes that can survive whatever the Grand Valley throws at them - generally spring freezes - and produce a Vinifera-style wine.
 
I'm thinking about just getting one of these one gallon kits to try out.
https://www.northernbrewer.com/prod...batch-wine-kit-winexpert-classic-1-gallon-kit

That’s a pretty “meh” kit, and the price is outrageous for the volume. I know you want a smaller volume, but I have a thought. Instead of bottling a whole 6 gallon batch, I keg 5 gallons and bottle 6 bottles or so. I put just enough c02 to seal the lid, and then just dispense as needed into a decanter. Or see if someone will split a batch with you. You can get some decent 6 gallon kits for +/- $100, some “meh” ones for $65, and some “barely decent” (but drinkable). That kit is $33 so that’s like $190 for 6 gallons- you could get an excellent kit for that price.
 
I have used five Winexpert kits, two Pinto Grigio, one Cabernet Sauvignon, one Sangiovese and one in the bucket. The Winexpert Grigio is very similar to the Armani store bought, only a little better. The cab is definitely a Chilean grape source and is a very good value. I also made an Old Vine Zinfandel from Williams Brewing. Wine kits are incredibly EASY.
dancing bare.jpg
 
I put just enough c02 to seal the lid, and then just dispense as needed into a decanter.
Thinking of making a keg of Chardonnay for my better half, but she's not looking for sparkling wine. Prefer to not have to bottle it.
Is 2-3 PSI of CO2 enough to dispense without (really) carbonating? LHBS guy said I'd have to pressurize with Nitrogen or Argon, or bottle, that's all there is.

Is an $80 kit going to produce drinkable wine? (Compare it to Trader Joe's 3 buck chuck for example)
 
Thinking of making a keg of Chardonnay for my better half, but she's not looking for sparkling wine. Prefer to not have to bottle it.
Is 2-3 PSI of CO2 enough to dispense without (really) carbonating? LHBS guy said I'd have to pressurize with Nitrogen or Argon, or bottle, that's all there is.

Is an $80 kit going to produce drinkable wine? (Compare it to Trader Joe's 3 buck chuck for example)

Yes, I keep mine in the keg without pressure and then simply only turn the gas on a burst to dispense. I’ve got it down pretty well, but the idea is to give enough gas and turn it off, so that it sort of peters out right about the time you’re done. For me, it’s about 2 seconds of a burst when the keg is more than half full. But I always try it without turning on the gas first, just in case there is some residual c02 in there. Ideally you would use an inert gas, but I have a 20pound C02 tank just sitting there so I use it. I keep reds there, at about 63 degrees and the whites are in the basement.

I”d say you’re about right with the comparison. A $75-80 kit will give you 30 bottles of a barefoot/two buck chuck quality wine. One of those $190 kits makes a wine that will rival a $25 bottle. That’s why I do a mix- some cheap everyday drinkers, some excellent kits (like one a year of those), some medium priced kits and then my own wines from chokecherries, blackberries, currants, etc.
 
Yes, I keep mine in the keg without pressure and then simply only turn the gas on a burst to dispense. I’ve got it down pretty well, but the idea is to give enough gas and turn it off, so that it sort of peters out right about the time you’re done. For me, it’s about 2 seconds of a burst when the keg is more than half full. But I always try it without turning on the gas first, just in case there is some residual c02 in there. Ideally you would use an inert gas, but I have a 20pound C02 tank just sitting there so I use it. I keep reds there, at about 63 degrees and the whites are in the basement.

I”d say you’re about right with the comparison. A $75-80 kit will give you 30 bottles of a barefoot/two buck chuck quality wine. One of those $190 kits makes a wine that will rival a $25 bottle. That’s why I do a mix- some cheap everyday drinkers, some excellent kits (like one a year of those), some medium priced kits and then my own wines from chokecherries, blackberries, currants, etc.
Haha, I'm more opposed to the bottling than the price of the kit. This is the one I've really had my eye one, but man! That's a ton of wine for me. I may just have to suck it up.https://www.midwestsupplies.com/pro...3ODY8HOKYdlAhHIJ7adcCHyN9h6wdbVQaAp2xEALw_wcB
 
Haha, I'm more opposed to the bottling than the price of the kit. This is the one I've really had my eye one, but man! That's a ton of wine for me. I may just have to suck it up.https://www.midwestsupplies.com/pro...3ODY8HOKYdlAhHIJ7adcCHyN9h6wdbVQaAp2xEALw_wcB

Well, that’s a very nice kit! I know morebeer.com has free shipping, but I haven’t ordered any kits from then lately. Shipping has been the killer for me, so I try to pick them up when I’m out in the world and not in my little no-highway area.
 

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