Your first wine kit, start to finish

Mix your sanitizer (we use Star San — one tablespoon to a gallon of water) in a clean spray bottle and a small bucket.

Spray or dunk every single thing that will touch the wine: primary bucket, lid, airlock, spoon, hydrometer, thief, and your hands.

Don't rinse — sanitizer foam is harmless and dissipates on its own.

Snip the corner of the juice bag and pour the entire contents into the primary bucket.

If your kit includes an oak pack, skin pack, or bentonite, add it now per the instruction sheet.

Top up with cool, clean water to the volume marked on the bucket (usually 6 gallons).

Stir vigorously for a couple of minutes to make sure everything is fully mixed and oxygenated.

Sanitize your hydrometer and the test cylinder (or wine thief).

Draw a sample of must, drop the hydrometer in, and read the line at the surface of the liquid.

Write the number on a strip of blue painters tape and stick it to the side of the bucket. This is your starting gravity.

📏 Starting SG ~1.090

Open the yeast packet and sprinkle the entire packet across the surface of the must — don't stir.

Snap on the lid and push the airlock into the grommet. Fill the airlock halfway with water or sanitizer.

Move the bucket somewhere it can sit at 65–75°F, undisturbed, for the next week.

Within 24–48 hours you should see the airlock bubbling steadily. That's CO₂ — exactly what you want.

Don't open the lid. Don't peek. The CO₂ blanket is protecting your wine.

By around day 7–10 the bubbling slows to roughly one bubble per minute. Time to rack.

Sanitize the carboy, the siphon, and the tubing.

Set the bucket on a counter and the carboy on the floor. Start the siphon and let gravity do the work.

Stop just before you pull up sediment. Top the carboy up to the neck with cool water, attach a sanitized airlock, and move it to a cool dark spot.

📏 Should read ~0.996

Add the potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate packets from the kit.

Attach the degassing whip to a drill and stir in short bursts. The wine will foam — go slow.

Keep degassing until no new foam rises. This can take 5–10 minutes total.

Stir in the clearing agents (usually a two-part chitosan + kieselsol).

Re-attach the airlock and leave the carboy alone for at least two weeks.

When you can read a newspaper through the carboy, it's ready to bottle.

Sanitize 30 wine bottles, the bottle filler wand, and your corker.

Siphon the wine from the carboy into the wand. Press to fill each bottle to about an inch from the rim.

Cork immediately. Stand the bottles upright for 24 hours, then lay them on their side.

Label with a strip of blue painters tape and a sharpie. You can get fancier later.

Drink one tonight to celebrate. The rest go on their side somewhere cool and dark.

Reds noticeably improve with 2–3 months of bottle age. Whites are usually ready sooner.

Open one a month and take notes — that's how you learn what your kit can do.