A friend of mine and I were sitting around the table today at dinner while some other friends were over and we started discussing wine brewing. Keep in mind, we are not of legal age to drink it, we just want some extra money and some fun. So, a friend says we can have her grapevine. Now a few questions arise…Where do we go from here? Is it legal for us to brew wine? Is there any money in it?
What’s the Dope on amature wine brewing?
`Brilharma
Legality depends where you are. Here in Aus, it’s legal to brew for personal consumption, but you can’t sell the stuff. Not that anyone would buy it, at least none of the stuff that I’ve brewed so far!
You might want to look into amateur beer brewing instead. Beer is a bit more forgiving than wine, and there is a large community of amateur beer people on the web.
If you plan to sell it, you will need all sorts of licenses and stuff.
Thanks for the advice, but I can’t believe this is the sum total of people that have knowledge about amature brewing on this board.
We thought about beer, but it doesn’t have the prestige wine does. Plus, who doesn’t want to squish a bunch of grapes for money?
`Brilharma
Well…
I have done both extensively. Right off the bat I can tell you that
a. it is illegal for you to do in any way, as you are not of age.
b. you are going about it completely wrong.
Your friend’s grapes won’t make a good wine, and you will get a really crappy yield from the vine. Unless you have a source for good fruit, stick to vintning from extract. Try a Google search for amatuer wine-making. There a ton of books available.
In any case, try to sell it, and you will be commiting a FEDERAL crime. Not a good idea.
I made my first still when I was 16…yeah I know not legal
It is legal to make wine for your own consumption IF you are of legal age…you are allowed to produce a certain amount before any rules kick into place about it
But as for using your friends grapes? You COULD make wine out of them(you can make wine out of any kind of fruit) but it might not be as good as you hope
Anyway AFTER you are of legal age buy a book on various recipes and experiment…my favorite is dandelion wine…yummy
BTW all your equipment should be totally sterilized otherwise you will be making vinegar not wine…oh yeah I mentioned this in the thread about stupid things you have done too but your very first purchase when beginning is buying the plugs(that let the gas produced out but don’t let any nasties into the bottle) so the bottles don’t explode or you end up with vinegar
you won’t make any money, and it only might be fun. There are a gazillion details required in making wine (wine is not Brewed, btw). You will probably just end up spending a lot of money.
Well, my friend’s dad makes wine from the grapes on the vine, so I don’t quite see what’s wrong with them. We knew it’d be illegal for us to sell right now, but who sells wine immediately after it’s made? And since neither of us especially likes wine, personal consumption isn’t enough of a incentive. So, seems like the general sentiment is that this is a bad idea. Rats.
You will not make any money. You will spend lots and lots of money for sub-standard product. If you do it, do it for the right reasons (love of wine, hobby, whatever)
Get your supplys here, or at any of the other many, many suppliers online. Cheers!
this is more of a GQ thing but i was wondering today and since someone put a question like this here I may as well post it that, I wonder if it’s possible to make wine out of grass? If so, that would go a long way to solve world hunger.
Uh oh, I guess I sort of revealed my current state of wine-ness there 
Does one brew wine? Whiskey is distilled [after cooking]and beer is brewed[since cooking is involved] Wine isn’t cooked, just fermented. Is there a word for what a vintner does to get his product?
For all your technical wine-making questions rec.crafts.winemaking FAQ
Is this not an oxymoron “amature wine selling” ?
Wine making (at least from kits) is a fun and inexpensive way to get lots of ok wine in my hands, and mouth.
I’d suggest trying homebrewing first. You can make brews that are just as good, and in many cases better, than commercial beer. Defenitely start by brewing ales. The fermentation takes place at room temperature, so you don’t need any refrigeration, and any off-flavors are much more easily masked than with a lager beer. Plus the beer is ready for drinking in less than a month. The start up costs are amazingly small. You can buy a decent starter equipment kit for around $60-$70 that includes good quality equipment that you can also use to ferment wine as well, when you’re ready to try your hand at that. Also start with ingredient kits before you start designing your own recipes. These include the malt extract (get the liquid, rather than the powder), hops (both bittering and aroma), usually some crushed specialty grains, and the yeast, all conveniently shipped in a single box. If you follow the instructions and are careful about sanitation, you are pretty much guaranteed something drinkable at the very worst, pretty darn tasty most of the time! Most kits are between $20 and $25 and make 5 gallons of beer (usually around 48-54 12 ounce bottles). All that’s left to buy are the bottles. You can reuse store-bought beer bottles (no twistoffs though!) or buy a couple of cases from a homebrew supplier. You’ll also need a brew kettle, something that holds at least 2 gallons of liquid, preferably 5 gallons. I used to use an old enameled canning kettle, but I just upgraded to a 5 gallon stainless steel pot, basically the ones you get with a turkey fryer. I purchase all my stuff through Midwest Homebrewing Supplies www.midwestsupplies.com. Their equipment kits are great. They have about 50 different recipe kits, even a bunch that try to clone commercial beers. I wouldn’t worry about brewing if you’re underage, just don’t do anything stupid like try to sell it or give it to some friends that will get drunk and end up causing a car accident.
To take away from the intellectual depth for a moment, if I may, I thought this was about amateur wife beating and just popped in to say, “Hey…”