Budgeting for wine making: Equipment you will need to crush, ferment, press, and tuck the wine into the barrel
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So you’re ready to start making wine. Bravo! Now the question is: What do I need and where do I buy it? There are a lot of online stores. I usually order grapes and larger equipment from www.ginopinto.com in New Jersey and they have a comprehensive PDF catalog here. Previously, when I was with a wine club we ordered from Musto at www.juicegrape.com. They are in Connecticut. The reason is simply this: You can make great wine with great grapes but you can’t make great wine with not so great grapes.
Lanza Vineyards is a California vineyard which does business with Pinto and Musto. Their grapes are top notch. I order the grapes and equipment and I drive a little over an hour to pick it up, but they offer delivery also.
There are many other stores online (some are listed below) that I have used for small items, but for the larger items I found it worthwhile renting a truck and making one or two runs a year to the supplier.
The total equipment investment should be below $3,500.
Other alternatives for equipment investment are:
Find a winemaking club in your area. Sometimes they will rent you equipment. Just remember, if you join a wine club you will follow their ‘recipe’.
Start your own winemaking club. Get enough friends to split the investment of the equipment below, but remember you are the president.
One-time Wine Making Investments
Crusher destemmer: The crusher destemmer crushes the grapes and spits the stems out to a separate container. I use a wheelbarrow which makes it easy to get them to the woods next to my house for disposal. Today, I have the Grifo motorized crusher destemmer.
My first plan, to save money, was to get the manual crusher. My rationale was that I am not making that much wine. But then I started shopping and realized that it was well worth the extra money to be prepared for increasing wine volume over the years to come. The cost range is $800 - $900. You won’t regret this purchase, but if you decide to go with the hand crusher the cost is about $225.
If you are not close to a vendor for winemaking More Wine carries an Italian crusher/destemmer which is a bit more expensive than the Grifo.
Two - 500 L fermentation tubs – The fermentation tub is what you put the crusher destemmer on top of to deposit the crushed grapes and is where they will stay for 2 weeks until fermentation has ended.
You need 1500 Liter if you are only doing a 30-gallon barrel … it seems a waste to me to get all this equipment out and dirty for only one 30 gallon barrel of wine. $118 each.
Cap punch-down tool – This does exactly what you would expect. Once the cap forms on top of the “must” to gently push the grape skins back into the juice. $75 approximately on Amazon.
White board or some means of documenting the progress of the fermentation. See what I mean in this video.
Press - Water Press (Bladder) with aluminum cage and painted metal basin. I was disappointed when I saw this press. The one I used with the wine group was the bladder press with wooden slats. In hindsight, I am really glad I got this press. The metal cylinder (see arrow on picture) was extraordinarily helpful during press when pumping the free run juice. It acted as a filter to keep bits of grape skins from jamming the pump.
Model is Hydro 40 which costs $1,050.
There is also a Hydro 20 which is $850.
Pump with food grade hose – This purchase turned out to be a very controversial subject and I made expensive mistakes. You want to make sure you have a pump that will not bruise the wine. I also would pick tubing that is rigid, clear or white, and food grade, not flexible silicone. Silicone will collapse during the pumping process as grapes skins get stuck at times.
Something else you should decide here – I crush in my garage and pump the wine on press day to my basement. I made sure that I had enough tubing to do that. In the future I will use a 55-gallon food grade drum which I will pump the wine into, and then pump the wine to the barrels in the basement from there.
This 55-gallon drum can also be used to truck wine from press to someone else’s barrel in their basement. This item has been hard for me to find and I refuse to pay over $100 for it. I am going to try one of the local wine clubs.
One or two oak barrels - The 30-gallon Hungarian oak barrels are nice. They are a little rounder in the center so harder for me to handle. I see more 52 – 59-gallon American Oak barrels around than I do the Hungarian oak. One barrel will run from $375 to $500. You should be able to get the barrel from the same place you get your equipment. Ask early though because barrels do run scarce sometimes. Both American Oak and Hungarian Oak give a warm vanilla smell/flavor to your wine that is desirable. Don’t forget the Barrel Stand.
Carboys – If you are lucky you will have extra juice. You will want to store it in 5 or 6-gallon carboys. I also have a number of 5-gallon carboys which are about $26 at ginopinto.com. Also you will want to have a few 1-gallon glass jugs - for wine that won’t fill a 5-gallon carboy. These jugs are about $12 each and come with bungs and airlocks. You will use them!
Bungs and airlocks - For each barrel or carboy, you will need a drilled bung and an airlock that fits into the bung. I personally prefer the twin bubble airlocks. You will also want solid bungs for your barrels, and it may be easier to buy them all at the same time. Measure the hole on the barrel if the bung size is not in the specifications, it amazes me how many different sizes there are even for the same barrel size.
Watch this video to learn how I use the above equipment in the top-off process.
Hydrometer – To measure Brix. Cost expectation is $15.
pH meter – Knowing the pH of your wine will help when making adjustments for taste and mouth feel preferences. $135.
8 inch floating glass thermometer - A good “must” temperature is critical during fermentation. $10.
Scale – wine adjustments such as adding tartaric acid require measurement usually in grams. $22
Of course you will also need bottles. Watch this video to learn how to recycle and prepare your bottles.
Wine Making Consumables that Will Need Replenishment
You will need cleaning equipment
One Step – you will want a bucket of one step in warm water and a few rags for crush day. 5 pound pail is $36
Potassium Metabisulphite – You will want a separate bucket with sulphites,
warm water, and clean rags on hand. Make sure you pay attention to what you are getting. If you search for potassium metabisulphite on Amazon you may be presented with Sodium Metabisulphite which you do not want. 1 lb is $7.49
Push broom and a hose - After crush, your garage floor will be covered in escaped grapes that have been stepped on. It is not a neat process. Ditto for press day. Hopefully you already have these in your garage.
Wheelbarrow (to dump skins after press). Good for wine making, and for the garden!
Sheets of plastic to cover the fermentation tubs - The tubs have lids that you can purchase, and I did purchase them but it is much easier to use plastic which comes in sheets at stores such as home depot. Plastic Sheeting 10' x 25' $19.72
I strongly suggest a WineMaker Magazine subscription. I subscribe to the physical magazine and the online content. The magazine itself is a good quality and collectible. The pictures are beautiful, and the content is easily applied to your wine making.
Grapes: A lug of grapes is typically 36-pounds, but you need to confirm that with your grape dealer – [once again I suggest you get good quality California grapes and you can get them from Lanza Vineyard’s through Gino Pinto or Musto. The standard measurement is 2.25 gallons per 36-pound lug. However, for a 30-gallon barrel you may want to go up to 16 lugs so that you have extra juice to put in your carboys. That comes in handy for topping off. Grapes can be anywhere from $50 a lug to $100 a lug.
Pectic Enzyme 1-pound package. $11.75 (read the label for amounts)
Fermax Yeast Nutrient 1-pound $13 (read the label for amounts)
Yeast Packets are $0.75 each. The directions on the package. But for budgeting let’s say you will need about 7 of them. It is important to know that depending on the grapes [some years the brix are different than other years] you may change your yeast to a different strain. I purchase mine after the grapes are ordered.
Malic Acid $4.95 for 4 ounces (read the label for amounts)
Malolactic yeast nutrients $15.14 for 60 grams (read the label for amounts)
If you’re ready to take the plunge into the wonderful world of wine making, subscribe to our YouTube channel and think about getting a subscription to Wine Maker Magazine. You might want to start with their beginner’s guide available for purchase here.