Articles
Topic: Equipment-and-Gear
Game-Changing Innovations
A number of innovative products well-suited for the home and small-scale winemaker have come to market in recent years. Explore these options that can help in your winemaking hobby — from ingredients, wood products, and yeasts, to analytical tools and other winemaking equipment.
DIY Netting Applicator
Vineyard netting is often critical to protect your grapes from birds and other predators; however, applying and removing it can be a real pain. Here is a solution for home winemakers with a utility vehicle that allows netting to mostly be installed by just one person without the net ever touching the ground.
Inert Gases for Winemaking
There are four gases often used in winemaking, each with its own unique advantages. Learn what sets carbon dioxide, argon, nitrogen, and beer gas apart, and which is best for each chore where gas can be of assistance in the home winery.
Understanding the Basics of pH Meters
pH meters are a crucial piece of testing equipment for winemakers looking to take their hobby to the next level. Learn some basics of why, how, and when.
Finding the Right Closure
After dedicating as much time as we do making a batch of wine, the final step of putting a closure on the bottle can’t be overlooked. There are many options from natural, agglomerated, colmated, and synthetic corks, to screw caps, to name a few. Learn the pros of each option to ensure you find the right closure to fit your next batch of bottles.
Go Big at Home
Firstly let me define what I mean by “big batch” for this discussion. Let’s say a big batch is anything larger than a 6-gallon (23-L) carboy of wine. Many home winemakers begin
Home Glycol Cooling Systems
Small-scale glycol cooling systems have become popular in recent years thanks to the homebrewing community. However, their benefits translate seamlessly for home winemakers. Learn more about when and how a glycol system can help in your home winery.
At Home in the Wine Lab
Whether it is just the basics (Brix, pH, etc.) or more advanced (free SO2, yeast assimilable nitrogen, etc.) all home winemakers should perform some tests to monitor their wines.
Build a Temperature-Controlled Wine Storage Box
A home winemaker from California’s Sierra Foothills shares his design for an air-conditioned wine storage room he built for his garage.
Build Your Own Basket Press
Build this basket press using HDPE plastic.
One Wall Winery: One World. One Winery. One Wall.
If you have a free wall in your garage, you can have your entire winery organized there. See the plans by Steve Hughes.
Lab Equipment: Storage Cabinet
Over the years I have accumulated lots of pieces of fairly delicate labware to perform a number of winemaking tests. After recently remodeling my garage winery with some cast off kitchen cabinets
Fermentation Temperature Control
This cooling setup keeps wine must within just a few degrees of target temperatures.
Proper Equipment Storage
When done using your winemaking equipment, make sure it is properly cleaned and stored so it will be ready to use next harvest season.
Introduction to Winemaking
Welcome winemakers! Although you’ve entered a part of the website labeled our “Beginner’s Guide,” we purposely designed it to incorporate the essential skills and knowledge that successful winemakers of all levels must
Choosing Your First Fermenter
Explore the options for your first fermentation vessel.
Build Your Own Destemmer-Crusher
Don’t want to fork over the money it costs to buy a destemmer-crusher? Good with your hands? Try building this!
2016 Best New Gear
Hot new winemaking products hitting the market in 2016.
Moving Wine with Pumps
Wine is frequently transferred or “racked” into another vessel to leave the byproducts of the process (known as lees) behind. If you make larger batches of wine at home, using a pump can make this process easier.
The Retirement Plan
All good things must come to an end . . . and that includes your winemaking equipment. Let’s run through the signs of when it’s time to replace equipment, when it can be restored, and how to best preserve it for a few more seasons.
Choosing A Wine Press
There are two common options to choose between when it comes time for home winemakers to press their grapes. Take time to weigh the benefits of a basket press and bladder press before the fall harvest and determine which one best suits your winemaking needs.
Starter Winemaking Equipment
Here’s the equipment you’ll need to get started at making wine.
Making Wine In A Limited Space
For many home winemakers, space — or the lack of it — is the final frontier, the one thing holding their winemaking aspirations back. See how some home winemakers have dealt with this problem.
Choosing the Right Fermenter
When setting out to make wine from grapes, one of the first major decisions is what you will use as a fermentation container. For most winemaking, you will need a primary fermenter
Oak Alternatives
A song to the oak, the brave old oak, Who hath ruled in the greenwood long; Here’s health and renown to his broad green crown, And his fifty arms so strong. There’s