Wine making equipment

[Satu11]

Can anyone help me ... what is equipment needed for wine making. My HOD says lot of glassware, beakers,etc. I have never done this prac before. We are in process of planning for next year. I would like to make resource list for this prac. I would really appreciate if someone could send me any information regarding wine making and equipment needed. My email is skaur32@eq.edu.au

[nickykinz]

We do cheats wine. We use something called Oztops (google it or I can PM you the details). You get yeast and these special lids that fit on juice and soda bottles. So you buy bottles of apple or grape juice then add the yeast and put the lids on. The students can do things like adding extra sugar to change the fermentation. This year we didn't have enough of the lids that fit the juice bottles so I collected some empty soda water bottles from another prac we do and we were able to use one large bottle of juice transferred into a few smaller soda bottles instead.
For the testing you would probably need a couple of hydrometers, vinometers and refractometers (depending on how many in the class) but most of our testing is done by titration.

[nickykinz]

P.S. As we do it in the lab we do not let anybody taste the wine we make. We don't take the quality of the wine we make too seriously, we aren't going for a medal winning wine at the Ekka!

[smiley]

We did this with all the lab glassware etc the first year and it was a royal pain. Then I got smarter. We bought loads of air-locks from a home brew shop - the type that fit into a milk bottle, either 1 or 2 litre. We also bought brewing-friendly hydrometers, plastic stirring rods, and a bottle of their liquid sterilizer (until I worked out that it was just 4M NaOH). Then I just bought plastic measuring jugs in a couple of sizes, a bunch of plastic buckets from a hardware store for kids to make their mixes in. Oh, and we cut the recipes down. In a 1L milkn bottle, the kids need no more than 600mL of liquid, to allow for head space.

Kids make fruit wine, but we use white sugar and ordinary baker's yeast to keep that as a standard. Then the kids have to alter one variable - i.e. either the amount of sugar OR yeast - and chart the effect that has on the brew.

The aim of the prac was to look at the process, and for the kids to discover that there was an optimum balance between sugar and yeast - not to produce anything drinkable.

[nickykinz]

We are starting our wine EEI and one group want potassium bicarbonate (potassium hydrogen carbonate). I can order it but they were hoping to get started tomorrow which doesn’t give me enough time. So options are beg, borrow or buy from somewhere local (SW Brisbane/Ipswich area) or substitute for sodium bicarbonate. Our wine doesn’t get drunk at all so we thought it may not matter if we substitute. The aim of their experiment is to change the pH of their wine.
Does anyone know if this would be ok to do?
I have googled and phoned some of the closest home brew shops but no where seems to have it.

[lada]

Nicky, if in doubt, just substitute.I think it is the HCO3- that is the active ion. (Just my opinion)because I do not know what potassium bicarb is used for in wine making.
Good luck
Lada

[smiley]

Yes Nicky, from memory, it's just to change the pH, and since they aren't drinking it, go with Sodium Bi-Carb.

[nickykinz]

Thanks all. Managed to beg some from a local school in the end so all good.