# Upgrade a Starter Kit?



## iamdave (Mar 7, 2011)

Hi everyone. I'd like to put some money into upgrading my operation a bit. The only equipment I have is from a starter kit. I'm looking for suggestions on where to start. I was thinking maybe some small stainless steel tanks or something? any input is welcome. Thanks!


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## Runningwolf (Mar 7, 2011)

WOW, you're going to get a lot of suggestions because no one person is going to remember everything and no two people are going to agree on everything. I would suggest additional carboys and plenty of 1/2 and 1 gallon jugs. Do you have a floor corker?


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## roblloyd (Mar 7, 2011)

Floor corker and carboys. Buono auto filler, bottle drying rack and sulphinator squirter thing.
Vacuum pump.


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## Tom (Mar 7, 2011)

Why dont you tell us what you have and what you would like to make or do with what you dont have. You plan on kits, fresh fruit, grapes or concentrates??


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## Flem (Mar 7, 2011)

Vacuum pump/filter, pHtester, sulfite tester, carboys, floor corker, etc., etc., etc.


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## Wade E (Mar 7, 2011)

What are you making as far as wine? Kits, juice buckets, or from grapes. If either of the first 2 then tanks really makes no sense at all. Some or all of the stuff above is a good start, as Tom said, what do you have and we can tell you how to improve.


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## iamdave (Mar 7, 2011)

Telling you what I have would make sense, wouldn't it. Should have thought of that. lol

I have a 6gal plastic bucket with a spigot and two 6 gal glass carboys in the way of containers. I also have some plastic hose, a thief, an auto siphon, a bottle rack, the thing that squirts sulfite solutions up in the bottles and a wand for filling bottles.

I have only used juice so far but I'd like to learn how to start with grapes. My experience so far has been that the carboys work fine but the plastic bucket could stand to be improved upon as well as the hosing and siphoning systems. Thanks!


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## Wade E (Mar 7, 2011)

Well to get involved in grapes youll need to step up to a Crusher/destemmer and a press and thats a big investment. It would also help to use and have a knowledge of some test equipment when making wine from grapes like a PH meter minimum. AQ primary fermenter is something youll always need so the buckets will always be buckets but will get much bigger once you start going grapes. I am selling pumps and filtration units for the pumps so you dont have to lift thedse big bulky carboys and buckets if your interested in that, I have a bad back and lifting 6 gallons of wine is not smart. You can rack from floor to countertop with a pump. If interested go to the Home page and scroll down to our classifieds area and look under used or new pumps and also whole house filters. I sell everything to set up a system like the dble drilled rubber bungs, hoses, racking canes.


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## Tom (Mar 7, 2011)

Boun Vino Bottle Filler is a "must"!
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jluELgr3Emg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jluELgr3Emg[/ame]


Auto Siphom
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiQI1O1hNQ4&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiQI1O1hNQ4&feature=related[/ame]


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## mxsteve625 (Mar 7, 2011)

Nice video, Which it was that easy!!!

Jsut kidding


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## roadwarriorsvt (Mar 7, 2011)

Tom said:


> Boun Vino Bottle Filler is a "must"!




[Three Stooges Voice]
Oh, wise guy.....
[/Three Stooges Voice]


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## iamdave (Mar 7, 2011)

Wade E said:


> Well to get involved in grapes youll need to step up to a Crusher/destemmer and a press and thats a big investment. It would also help to use and have a knowledge of some test equipment when making wine from grapes like a PH meter minimum. AQ primary fermenter is something youll always need so the buckets will always be buckets but will get much bigger once you start going grapes. I am selling pumps and filtration units for the pumps so you dont have to lift thedse big bulky carboys and buckets if your interested in that, I have a bad back and lifting 6 gallons of wine is not smart. You can rack from floor to countertop with a pump. If interested go to the Home page and scroll down to our classifieds area and look under used or new pumps and also whole house filters. I sell everything to set up a system like the dble drilled rubber bungs, hoses, racking canes.



Interesting. A filtration system is definitely something I have thought about it to eliminate the sediment in the carboys when bottling. I will look into this.

When you say a crusher/destemmer is a big investment, how big are we talking? I like to do things right. The expense is less important.

Thanks for all the input so far!
Dave


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## iamdave (Mar 7, 2011)

I looked up some crusher/destemmers at finevinewines.com and they seem to be around the $1000 mark. This is something that I am going to need at some point but I may not be ready for it yet. I still have plenty to learn about the process and I will probably continue using kits or juice for a while yet.


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## Runningwolf (Mar 8, 2011)

Dave you mention you would like a filter to eliminate the sediment in your carboys. This is actually best done when carefully racking from one carboy to another. Filtering will then remove any fine sediment and clear up your wine. This way will filters will last longer and you'll be able to do larger batches without the filters plugging up.


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## WeLoveCab (Mar 8, 2011)

I would go with a floor corker, the bottle filler Tom posted the video of, and a vac pump that wade mentioned. If you don't invest in the pump you'll want to get a quality degassing wand. 

More carboys also, bulk ageing will be your friend.

Oh and BrewTrax... great software!


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## iamdave (Mar 8, 2011)

Thanks for the continued input! I plan to look further into all of these suggestions.


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