Fancy doing some wine making? What do you need to get going? How much will the wine making equipment cost? Where do I get this wine stuff from - do I need a wine press? Are there any tips to good wine making practises? Is temperature important in fermentation? These are just a few of the wine making questions we regularly get asked by our new wine makers

Let's have a closer look at wine making.

You will need the following wine making equipment, but before you buy, you will need to decide what volume of wine you want to make. Wine making equipment comes in 2 standard sizes; to produce 5 litres and to make 25 litres. The equipment needed is the same for both volumes. The first item is a fermenter (this can be glass or plastic) for fermenting the grape juice.

We will also need to have a bung and airlock (which should be half filled with water) which will go into the top of the fermenter. Fermentation takes about 3 weeks depending on the wine making equipment and type of wine you are making.

When the fermentation has finished we will need a siphon to transfer the wine into a new wine making vessel. This should really be glass. This will allow us to store the wine and give it time to mature. We can bottle it any stage.

Wine making is not a science but temperature during fermentation is really important. There are several types of heating equipment from heat trays to temperature controlled immersion heaters which can be programmed to keep your wine at just the right temperature. Cleanliness is also important in wine making as poor sterility can lead to the wine becoming infected and this will mean your wine will go off. Wine making books therefore recommend sterilising all equipment. You can get the equipment from good specialist wine making shops. These shops have been around for many years although there are not as many as there used to be.

A lot of the products needed are available on the internet as well, although it's great being able to visit and touch the items you need. There are however enough wine making shops to cover the country. The likely cost of your wine making equipment for the large packs will be £20 to £50 and the equipment for the small packs will be about £15. This is a rough price for the wine equipment and is only a guide.

These wine making shops will advise you better as to the type of equipment to achieve the success you are looking for and will depend on exactly what you are producing. When you are making wine you have lots of choice from many different kits or you can go back to basics producing from fruits and grapes that can be picked. The choice is yours.