Get What You Need in 1 Click: Wine Making Equipment List For Beginners

Are you ready to start making wine? Let’s dive into the best wine making equipment list for beginners. You will not want to miss these!

After working in a winery in Napa Valley, I learned the best ways to make wine on a large scale. But returning home and approaching wine making on my own is vastly different.

The ideas are the same, though the fruit source, the pressing, the equipment, and the aging process will look different.

Here you will learn the best wine making equipment for beginners. At the end of this post there will be an option to go to the Amazon cart with all equipment listed where you can add all, or some, to your cart to purchase!

This post is all about a wine making equipment list.

The Best Wine Making Equipment List

Are you wondering what on earth you need to start making wine? Well here I lay out all the necessary, and not so necessary, equipment to start making some yummy wines!

1. One gallon fermenter or five gallon fermenter

The most important part is the bucket where the wine is actually made. You can choose between a one-gallon and five-gallon bucket. Most wine kits will make a five-gallon recipe.

At the stage of my ferments, I currently do one gallon ferments at a time. I find them easier to manage and handle. It produces plenty of drinks!

You can get a one gallon fermenter here, and a five gallon fermenter here.

The five gallon fermenter comes with TWO buckets. This is for when you are going to bottle, or rack your wine into secondary fermentation.

2. Airlock

The airlock is the fermenters best friend, so obviously we need that! It ensures that no oxygen will get into the fermentation. Keeping oxygen out of a ferment keeps the contents sterile and prevents contamination of bacteria, other yeasts in the air, and insects!

Yes, insects! They love the sweet liquid and you will have plenty of gnats and fruit flys flying around without an airlock!

You can purchase one right here!

Depending where you get your fermenter from you may get an airlock with it already. Be sure to check that!

3. Wine Fruit Press

The fun part is the press!! A good fruit press extracts all the amazing juices and sugars from the fruit to move on to fermentation.

You can get various sizes, depending on your desired production. Alternatively, pressing fruit with your hands works, though it is time-consuming (and labor-intensive).

A fruit press works quickly, saving you time and energy. Plus, it’s fun to use!

You can get a fruit press here!

4. Siphon Hose

A siphon hose helps move wine off the sediment into clean fermenters. This brings more clarity to the wine and racks it off the sludge.

When I worked in Napa, we did this quite frequently. Every batch of wine would move into a new vessel at least twice. The process involved an industrial-style siphon!

Siphoning is super easy, especially the one linked below because it has a pump that you pump a couple times and the liquid will flow. It really is that easy and will make your wine 1000x better!

You can purchase a siphon hose here.

5. A bottle filling wand

I absolutely love this little piece of wine making equipment! It makes it SO easy to fill bottles. It has an automatic stop function when you are not filling up bottles.

You simply press down on the bottom of the bottle you are filling and then release when it is full. This way you do not make a mess with your siphon hose and spray wine everywhere!!

There is an option to buy this wand WITH the siphon hose, which is what I would recommend.

You can purchase that set here.

6. Star Sans sanitizer

I am a huge proponent for cleanliness during any fermentation whether that be wine, beer, soda, cider etc. It is SO important to keep your equipment, hands, and ferment clean.

When working with fermentation you are creating a great environment for growth. That also means bacteria! Many people will make homemade beer or wine for the first time and it gets them sick. That is because they did not take the precautions of cleanliness!

This specific product is so easy to use. It is industrial style sanitizer so it does it’s job very well. Here is your one stop shop to cleanliness!

You can purchase the sanitizer here.

7. Wine Bottles

When you are complete with the fermentation process, you guessed it! You bottle your wine.

When it comes to wine bottles you have options. Whichever one you want is based on your personal preference, your aesthetic, or what is easiest for you!

Here are your wine bottle options for wine making equipment:

#1: (Recommended) The cork and cap-style bottle. These are great to be able to cork but without using a handheld capper.

You can check these out here.

#2: Regular wine bottle, and you use a capper with corks: The most traditional style to bottle wine.

You can check out this set here.

#3: The bottle and twist cap. This style is number three for a reason! It can be great just simply to screw on the cap when you are done bottling. However, if you want to age your wine, the cork will be very important so as to not spoil it.

You can purchase those bottles here.

Lastly, if you plan to age your wine or keep it in your cellar for a long period then look into waxing your wine bottles.

Waxing prevents leakage and protects the wine and the cork from damage, moisture, oxidation, and more. Plus, it looks really elegant!!

8. Thermometer

For wine making, a thermometer is good to measure the temperature of the fermenting must to ensure it is at proper temperature for the yeast.

Some home winemakers will measure their wine’s temperature everyday to ensure it is not overheating or cooling too much. In the Napa winery, we measured the temperature (and BRIX, which is explained below) twice a day: once in the morning and one in the evening.

You can purchase a thermometer here!

9. Scale

I love my scale, I use it for everything! Measuring out yeasts for batches other than 5 gallons, measuring out ingredients, clarifying agents, etc.

A scale is highly recommended, but if you are just fermenting with kits at the moment then you don’t necessarily need one. However, once you graduate from wine making kits, a scale will be you BFF.

You can get a scale here. This is the exact one I use and it works great for only $14!

10. Hydrometer

A hydrometer is what you use to measure the ABV (alcohol by volume) of your ferments. It also allows you to know when fermentation is slowing down, and when it is over so you can move your wine onto the next process.

This hydrometer goes hand in hand with the wine thief below!

You can get a hydrometer here!

11. Refractometer that measures BRIX

Ok, here is the technical part of wine making… A refractometer is a fancy tool that measures the amount of light that passes through the wine/must/juice.

That alone can tell us the BRIX, which is how much sugar is present in the liquid. When working in Napa we used the refractometer twice a day to check the BRIX.

However, it is somewhat unpopular to use the refractometer at home, a hydrometer can do the job!

If you are looking to get technical with wine making then a refractometer will be great! Otherwise, sticking with a hydrometer will also work just fine.

You can purchase your refractometer here.

12. Small oak barrel for aging

A small oak barrel ages your wine and creates a lovely oaky flavor. This is optional in this wine making equipment list, but can yield some great wines!

wine brewing ingredients — Barrel room in Napa Valley winery.

This barrel is also small and won’t take up too much space in your house or cellar!

You can purchase a one-gallon oak barrel here.

13. Wine Thief

The wine thief is essential if using the above oak barrel. It allows you to grab a small sample of wine from the barrel to taste it, check the temperature, and check the BRIX.

The wine thief also works best for the hydrometer reading!

You can purchase a wine thief here.

14. Camden Tablets

Camden tablets are important for preventing issues, and avoiding top wine making beginner mistakes.

Camden tablets top benefits:

Removes chlorine (which creates a plasticy flavor)
Sterilize juice or wine must before fermentation to kill ALL bacteria, specifically Acetobacter.

Acetobacter is a bacteria that creates acetic acid which basically turns your wine into vinegar! It is easy to prevent, but almost impossible to get rid of once it grow

Lastly, camden tabs anti-oxidize wine when transferring from primary into secondary or when bottling.

You can get camden tablets here.

15. Argon Gas

Argon gas displaces oxygen in the wine’s fermenter, barrel, or bottle. It helps decrease oxidation issues and keep it fresher.

They have small handheld gas sprayers for this reason!

When I worked in the large scale winery, we used argon gas twice a day on our partial barrels and tanks.

So, when you begin making wine, you can use this:

In your fermenter if there is headspace.
In your bottles before bottling.
Even in your bottles once you open them.

You can get argon gas here!

BUY ON AMAZON!

That sums it up for the wine making equipment list for beginners!

Below is the link to the wine making supplies Amazon cart of all the items. You can add all, or some, to you cart and be on your way to making wine at home.

It includes the cork-and-cap style of bottles that is recommended (not all three types of bottles), and includes the 5-gallon fermenter set up. The cart does not include wine bottle wax.