Equipment You’ll Probably Need To Buy
Plastic Fermenting Bucket with Lid
A fermenting bin is used for the initial stages of fermentation of the wine. You can either buy a fermenting bin from a home brew shop or use a food grade bucket of some sort. The size is up to you of course, technically the larger the bucket the more wine you can make if you have enough fruit, or whatever ingredient you are making your wine with. I use a 15 litre fermenting bin and usually only make 2 gallon batches (roughly 10 litres)
Straining BagMost of your ingredients will need to be infused in water for a period then separated out. A straining bag will remove so much more than a sieve and is far easier. You can buy purpose made straining bags or use something you’ve put together yourself like a nylon net curtain. Remember though your straining bag is going to need to be strong enough to take the weight of all the water laden fruit pulp.
Wine needs to be aged for a while and the best way to do this is in demijohns. After the initial burst of fermentation (primary fermentation) the wine is racked off the old yeast and other debris into a demijohn where the secondary fermentation continues and the wine can mature and clear.
Usual sizes for demijohns/carboys are 1 gallon or 5 gallons I use multiple gallon demijohns as they are easier to store and move around if necessary. I have also never bought a new one, you will almost always be able to find them at car boot sales and jumble sales. If you don’t want glass like the one pictured then you can certainly use gallon water bottles that are readily available in the supermarket. They will do the exact same job but you may need a different size bung for the opening.
It’s not a good idea to pour your wine from one vessel to another. A syphon tube ensures no contact with the air and is simple to use. Check out this article for more information on using a syphon. Purchase by the metre for a few pence. A racking cane is also a good idea as the rigid tube will allow you to syphon from the very bottom of your vessel and stop sediment from being syphoned.
Bungs and Airlocks
Bungs fit in the opening of you demijohn to seal it off and the airlock is a small device to allow CO2 which is created during fermentation to be emitted from the wine but for no air to get into the demijohn. These are a few pence online or from your local home brew shop.
Bottle BrushBottles are difficult and a chore to clean, a brush just makes the job easier and less hassle.
Campden Tablets or Sodium MetabisulphateNot technically equipment but most recipes will require you to use them. In a nutshell they are used to sanitise your fruit and remove any unwanted wild yeast or bacteria. I will explain more about them in a dedicated post. These are again available online or from your home brew shop.