First question is what wine making equipment do we need to start producing our own wine? The item is a 25 litre fermenter or bucket with lid assuming we are making 30 bottles of wine.

If we want to make just 6 bottles then a 5 litre fermenter is required. This can either be plastic or glass. The second item of wine making equipment is the bung and airlock which will fit into the lid of the fermenter.

The next item of equipment is some steriliser for either the 5 litre or 25 litre containers. We then want a siphon tube (preferably fitted with a "U" tube which will prevent us drawing up the sediment) which is an essential for racking of the wine. It would help if we had a further piece of wine making equipment which we could transfer the wine into like a second fermenter or bucket would be ideal.

Wine making equipment comes in all shapes and sizes and varies in price depending on exactly what you want, so we can't be too specific, check out all the products in your local homebrew shop. The best wine making equipment is available from wine and beer making shops. These shops are all over the UK and luckily are quite well spread out so there should be one not too far away from where you live.

The other essential piece of wine making equipment you will want is bottles to store the finished wine and allow it to mature. Wine bottles can be found anywhere, and second hand is fine provided they are thoroughly cleaned and sterilised prior to transferring your wine. We don't really count bottles as they come for free and lets be right we are doing our bit in the recycling world. available from a specialist brew shop. The corks and shrinks to go over the bottles can also be purchased from these same shops also need the labels to finish off the job.

The people who run the home brew shops will be able to help with the purchase of the equipment because they are very knowledgeable on the subject of just what wine making equipment you will need. We do suggest a visit to the shop as you will be surprised at just how much wine making equipment they will carry. The range of has changed considerably over the years. People are importing large quantities of wine making equipment from Canada, where there is a real growing industry. This is now the largest market in the world, and these products are so readily available. It has therefore the largest choice of equipment as there are more wine makers there.

The choice of wine making equipment is vast. Most of the equipment is now available in the UK so don't worry you don't have to go to Canada to buy your wine making equipment!