To kit or not to kit?

[hedgerow]

After being on the forum for several months now and after 25 years of home making wines , I would like to ask a question, from what I can see and read from the forum many people use or make wine kits to produce a similar wine to a shop brought version. Is it just me that does not do kits or am I a billy no mates??


I normaly make around 50 to 75 gallons of wine a year all of it from ingrediants I have collected or grown, so things like fruit and veg and berries of any sort, I love my wine and making and playing with the wines but I dont realy get into grapes and there wines as its not what I prefere. Are most of the new starters or evan old hands of a more modern view of trying to produce wines which they can buy but of a home made better quality, or do people produce them to suppliment there country wines.

just before I get hung drawn and quartered, I am not against kits, some of which are way out of my price , its just when and where I was curropted/ trained into wine, it was a club of country wine makers so kits where never used as we could buy sugar and collect the ingrediants for free,

what are your opinions on kits and country wines is there a class issue or even a kit issue?

[ms67]

I never made a kit until i was lacking red wines after a poor year of berry collecting. Lots of folks were talking about them, high end, low end and in between, so i took the plunge with a mid range (beaverdale). Results were ok, some bottles were v nice, others were not right. Still works out less than 1/2 the price you would spend on something similar in the supermarket.

So for me it was to make up for lack of what i prefer to brew, like you from foraging and harvesting what i have grown, or ingredients bought in when fruits etc is cheap.

I'm ding one this year again, only half the volume tho, and partly because the second run on the lees using cheapo supermarket grape juice was so good. This year i'm trying the cheapo version with my own choice of yeast and oak chips bought in the HBS for comparison. The results will determine whether i repeat the kit brew in future.

just to add, i enjoy taking recipes and altering them a little to suit my/our tastes. something i wouldn't try with a kit. And the wines that went down best of last years brews were not the kit, tho one was the second run on the lees. The others were all country wines.

[NorthernWiner]

...from what I can see and read from the forum many people use or make wine kits to produce a similar wine to a shop brought version. Is it just me that does not do kits or am I a billy no mates??

No, it's not just you. I make very few kits. I've made one in the last 2 years, though I have a "special edition" kit on order to arrive in February.

I've made 170 gallons so far in 2009 (we have a 200 gallon limit in the US). Of that, I would estimate that 95% was from grapes, and the remainder being country wines.

[Rich]

what are your opinions on kits and country wines is there a class issue or even a kit issue?

Not a class or even a kit issue. It's all down to personal taste. I make both, and enjoy drinking most of what I make.

Top end kits are good if you can afford them, and let them mature long enough. Foraged wines are good, and give a remarkable sense of achievement when drinking. It makes me feel good when others like my wine, and even better when I like it and others don't (more for me)

Maybe, if you're happy with what you're making, that is all that matters really.

[hedgerow]

Its interesting that you have limit on your production, what happens when you go over it ?
is it 200 gallons in production and bottled or just producing, I see you also have as many friends as i have aswell!!

[NorthernWiner]

I believe it's a 200 gallon production limit per household per year. But there aren't any wine police that go door-to-door to enforce the rules, and I don't know of anyone who has ever been prosecuted for exceeding the limit.

To be honest, 200 gallons a year is probably twice as much wine as our family drinks.

[hedgerow]

if i have realy good year we could proberly kill around two or three bottles of wine in the week and another four over the weekend say one gallon per week so we only need 52 gallons of wine for the year with a few extra for christmas. its just i have alot of friends at times and they take up the surplus plus we also do beer as well and theres 5 gallons per month as well on top, so 200 is well out of my league.

it was interesting that the people who did answer the question tonight and there views on kits. I never got into kits purely because we could not afford them when we started as apart froma bag of sugar we could collect every thing we wanted for free, maybe kits work for some people because they are unable or maybe thier palates prefere the differant taste, it is very interesting tho

[kampervan]

did 4 kits in 2008 when i started have not done any this year and have made over 60 gallon. most country wines but a few supermarket juice.

[goldseal]

I find that mid-range white kits allow you to make whites on a par with mainstream supermarket-type whites. So far I have been a little disappointed with mid-range kit reds - I guess I was expecting a bit more body and, well, oomph

I make a variety, but my ideal mix would be mainly grapes, a few kits to keep things ticking over, a few fruit juice wines for cheap quaffing, and a couple of country wines for experimentation.

[alcopop]

Only ever done one kit, and that was given to me not last but the fathers day before.
The wines that I make are mostly berries or fruit juices, I have done a Cucumber and a Beetroot but find that both are at the moment not to my taste (only a year old). Next year I want to start a Rhubarb and a Parsnip. I think that there is more satisfaction in doing your own thing a not blindly following instructions. (Just my opinion)
We/I drink about one bottle a day on average so have to work hard to keep up with production so that is just under 61 galls per year without what is given away.
I have just got my first 5 gall glass fermenter so can now hopefully increase my stock should have got a 5 gall betta bottle or/and a 5 gall tub as well as racking is hard with only a three gall tub a 1 gall DJs. Running before walking comes to mind.
Sorry to have rambled on a bit but you did ask. Need a large glass now as it is almost 5 and that is when I start for the evening.
Terry

[goldseal]

I think you are right - making something completely from scratch is more satisfying, but kits serve a purpose - you have a good chance of producing a known product quickly and relatively simply.

However, I equate kit wines with kit cars - the quality of the finished product has a lot to do with the expertise of the person building it (there are plenty of sheds out there).

Grapes, fresh fruit, tinned fruit, fruit juice, kits - they all have their place IMO.

[dogsbelly]

Its Personal!

Kits get the thumbs up for me, just seem to be better quality, but ive only recently (last few months) started from scratch, and i like the results but still dont seem to be the same quality as kits (yet!) I like both, and get satifaction from making from scratch. So . . . my answer is i like both 50/50!
Kits for easy use, scratch for satisfaction!

[grandmawoods]

I haven't made a kit yet. Maybe someday. I like the country wines that I make. When I want a "real" wine, I go to the store and buy one.

[Paulwales]

In the 4 months I've been making wine I havent tried a kit yet I cant say I'm keen to either, but I'm sure I will one day but they will be high end kits that are strongly recomended by you guys.

for me foreging and the living the dream country wines is more satisfying and technical than kits... as for grape wines I hope by next year to get involved with the Grapfest

however beer / lager kits do fill the empty glass ..... and I have lots to learn before I move on to all grain brewing

[ms67]

one of my in-laws only makes kits (as far as i'm aware), and it only seems to be one kit that he imports from germany or somewhere in scandanavia. In terms of component parts it seems to be similar to wine number 1. Its nice wine.