Scott

$70 – starter kit of equipment – cost is spread out over the life of making wine.

$50 – wine kit = 30 bottles!

Get wine bottles from friends or from your own consumption, or buy them for $10 for a dozen from the wine making stores. To clean out dried wine, let an inch or so of water soak in the bottom overnight. If that doesn’t do the job, drop in some lentils and swirl around vigorously. That takes care of all but the most stubborn goop. (Those I just recycle). Now I rinse all my bottles immediately after they’re empty to avoid that.

You can get fancy by applying labels and shrink caps, which add less than 50 cents total to a bottle of wine.

If you want to save money on buying bottles, you’ll need patience, time and elbow grease. To remove labels from commercial bottles, fill with water and submerse in water for several hours to soften the glue. I’ve used the back of a butter knife to scrape off labels, but some slide off easily. To remove glue remaining, spray outside with WD-40 and scrub off, or use nail polish remover, then wash with dish soap and water.

The wine kit stores can provide direction on applying labels and shrink caps.

Since May I’ve made merlot, syrah, chardonnay and zinfandel and am now making apple wine from scratch (not a kit). I likely won’t make wine in the winter because we keep our house at 15C overnight (13-14C in the basement) to save on heating bills – which is too cool for fermentation, even with a heat belt on the wine container.