The economics of homebrew - equipment

Once you've acquired the equipment, the cost of wine can be incredibly cheap but will depend on whether you're making 1 or 5 (or 6) gallons, and the type of wine such as from kits, country wine and carton juice wines.

N.B. You need additional equipment to what's listed here, but the cost of that that will be constant whether you make a few gallons p.a. or hundreds.

1 or 5 gallons?

The main saving is on equipment costs as five glass demijohns (DJs) @ £4.80 http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories equipment/wilko-demijohn-container-glass-45l/invt/0022556, and 5 airlocks & bungs @ £1.20 each http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories equipment/wilko-airlockrubber-bung-2pk/invt/0240201 and a siphon tube @£2 will cost £32, whilst a 25L Fermentation Vessel (FV) @ £11.20 with just one airlock/bung @ £1.20, but requiring a 2 piece 'Latstock' long siphon from a homebrew shop/online will cost a few pounds more, but around less than £20 in total.

One 25L FV occupies a much smaller footprint that 5 x 1 gallon DJs, but isn't as easy to shift up and downstairs.

If using specialist yeasts @ £1.25 per sachet, only one is required for five gallons of wine in a 25L FV, but one in each gallon DJ.

And it's proportionately much less work making 5 gallons as one.

But you can cut down on the cost of new, glass DJs by converting 5 Litre water bottles as I described here

P.S. 25 Litre FVs can hold 6 gallons, but it's advisable to hold back on 1 gallon of water/sugar solution equal to the Original Specific Gravity of the wine recipe and add that after the initial ferment dies down otherwise half a gallon of CO2 propelled foam could come spurting out the airlock.

 

Charity shops and recycling centres often have equipment and don't forget Freecycle.

 

DIY DJs as described above @ £1.12 each are normally far cheaper than car boots. My nearest recycling centre is asking over £2 each (if and when they have them and many aren't proper DJs and have dodgy neck sizes) and I've never managed to get a single DJ from Freecycle in over 20 years. Plus you don't need a bung on one of those DIY DJs, saving you another 30p/DJ if you buy packs of airlocks without bungs.

 

I'm still using the same funnel that I bought from Boots homebrew section in 1977, so once you've got the kit it'll usually last until your ex mrs has it away with it.

 

My Boots old stuff has mainly disintegrated into shards of glass, the exception being their old plastic hydrometer, whilst virtually all my modern glass hydrometers have smashed into shards of glass - bring back plastic hydrometers!



But the main point should be that if you acquire it cheaply as possible, it will pay for itself many times over.

 

My Glass Vinometer bit the dust recently too

 

A reminder that all Wilkos homebrew stuff has about 20 to 30% off at the moment and that may not last forever, plus that if you order online to collect instore you can get 4.2% cashback http://www.topcashback.co.uk/wilkinson_plus/ that can be exchanged for Clubcard Points with a 10% bonus, so for every £1 spent online via TCB can get you 4.62 points.