Winemaking Equipment – from fermentation to finished bottle

Equipment for making wine at home: fermenters and silicone bungs, hydrometers and wine thieves, degassers, finings, wine corks, corkers, wine bottles and bag-in-box. It suits both first-time wine kit makers and those using their own grapes, with a Grifo grape crusher and plate filters.

How to get started with winemaking

New to winemaking? The winemaking starter kit contains 33 and 23 litre fermenters, an airlock, a silicone bung, a hydrometer with test jar, a brewing spoon, The Whip degasser, an auto-siphon with bottle filler, two stick-on thermometers and Chemipro San sanitiser.

If you already brew beer, your fermenters, siphon, hydrometer and sanitiser all work for wine. What sets winemaking apart is usually the degasser, which removes CO2, and corking instead of capping.

The equipment step by step

Fermentation: 23 litre PET fermenter, which fits the D47-55 silicone bung, and an 11 litre glass carboy for smaller batches and ageing.
Measuring: Hydrometer with SG, Brix and potential alcohol scales (0.990–1.160) and a wine thief for sampling.
Degassing and clearing: The Whip from Fermtech removes CO2, plus bentonite, Super-Kleer K.C. and pectinase.
Filtering: Grifo plate filters in hobby and professional versions, with filter pads from 11 down to 0.5 micron.
Bottling: Green wine and champagne bottles, natural corks, synthetic corks, shrink capsules and champagne corks with wire cages.
Storage without bottles: 4 and 10 litre bag-in-box, and Fermtech's 6 litre aPour dispenser.
Your own grapes: Grifo manual crusher and destemmer, handling up to 1000 kg of grapes per hour.

Choosing the right wine cork and corker

Cork	Size	Suited to
Fastcork, synthetic	23 × 38 mm	Wine drunk within one year
Medium, synthetic	23 × 38 mm	Ageing up to 30 months
Supercork, synthetic	23 × 38 mm	Long-term ageing
Tapered natural cork	21, 22 or 23 × 40 mm	Wine bottles
Natural cork	24 × 44 mm	Wine and champagne
Champagne cork, natural	30.5 × 48 mm	Sparkling wine, with wire cage

The corker must match the cork: the Enolandia bench corker takes corks up to 25 mm in diameter and bottles 23–33 cm tall, while the Ferrari floor corker takes natural corks up to 30 mm and champagne corks up to 30.5 × 48 mm.

Frequently asked questions about winemaking equipment

What do I need to make wine at home?

You need a fermenter with airlock, a hydrometer, sanitiser, a siphon, a degasser, and finally bottles, corks and a corker. The starter kit covers everything except the last three, and the ingredients come as a wine kit.

Why does wine need degassing?

Fermentation leaves CO2 dissolved in the wine. Left in, it can make the wine taste prickly and clear poorly. A degasser such as The Whip stirs out the gas before you add finings.

Which cork should I choose for homemade wine?

For wine drunk within a year, Fastcork is enough. Medium is intended for up to 30 months of ageing, Supercork for longer. Store bottles on their side so the cork does not dry out.

Do I need a filter to get clear wine?

No, most homemade wines clear with finings and time. A plate filter gives a brighter wine and suits larger volumes – the Grifo FCH10 handles up to 250 litres per hour.