Every supply, dialed in by 200+ batches.
Free, printable, vendor-agnostic shopping lists for every stage of home winemaking. Walk into any homebrew shop with one in your pocket and walk out with exactly what you need — nothing missing, nothing wasted.
Pick your moment.
Three lists, three stages of the winemaking arc. Use one, use all three.
Russ's Day-One PicksBeginner Supply Shopping List
The exact 15 items Russ hands you when you say 'okay, I'm actually going to make wine.'
Three Months LaterBottling Day Shopping List
Bottle, cork, capsule, label — the assembly line, in the right order, with nothing missing halfway through.
Twelve-Month PatiencePremium Red Aging Shopping List
Built around an Amarone or Cab kit you plan to age 12+ months. Get the oak, the SO2, and the corks right.
The boring halfCleaning & Sanitation Starter Shopping List
The $40 shelf that saves your batch. Cleaning is not sanitizing — you need both, and this list spells out which is which.
Harvest seasonFresh Juice Pail Shopping List (Fall)
When you skip the kit and ferment a 6-gallon pail of California juice, this is what you add to your beginner setup.
Russ's Pick #2Big-Batch Mass Production Shopping List
Four batches a year, forty pounds at a time. The upgrade gear that makes scale work without losing your mind.
Crisp & coldWhite & Rosé Summer Shopping List
A lighter setup for whites and rosés you'll drink within a year. Cooler ferments, synthetic corks, less oak, more refreshment.
Get seriousTesting & Measurement Upgrade Shopping List
Stop guessing. Hydrometer, refractometer, pH, SO2, acid — the instruments that turn a hobby into a craft.
It's a giftGift Bundle Shopping List: For a New Winemaker
What you actually buy a friend who said 'that sounds fun.' Enough to make wine, not so much it scares them off.
The list philosophy
Every shopping list at Backup Wine answers four questions before it earns the painters tape.
Curated, never exhaustive
Every item earned its spot across hundreds of batches. If we don't reach for it, it's not on the list.
Vendor-agnostic
Works at Adventures in Homebrewing, Northern Brewer, MoreWine, your corner shop. We list what to buy, not where.
Stage-specific
Beginner gear, bottling day consumables, premium aging chemistry — the right list for the moment you're in.
Built for the shop floor
One printable page, real checkboxes, grouped by aisle. Fold it, walk in, walk out in 20 minutes.
How a list earns the painters tape
We've spent twelve years figuring out which gear actually matters and which gear is just shop wall decoration. These four steps separate them.
- 01
Start from a real batch
Every list is reverse-engineered from a kit Russ has actually finished — not a generic equipment chart copied from a supplier catalog.
- 02
Cut the dead weight
Refractometers. pH meters in batch one. Decanters. The stuff beginners overbuy and never reach for. Gone.
- 03
Group by store aisle
Fermentation, transfer, cleaning, bottling — so the list mirrors how a real homebrew shop is laid out.
- 04
Pressure-test on beginners
We hand the list to a first-time winemaker. If they come home with the right pile of stuff, the list ships.
Which list do I need?
| If this is you… | Grab |
|---|---|
| I've never made wine and I want to start. | Beginner Supply |
| My batch has been clearing for 8+ weeks. Time to bottle. | Bottling Day |
| I bought a $130+ kit and want it to drink like $40 a bottle. | Premium Red Aging |
| I'm gifting wine equipment to someone serious. | Beginner Supply (then Bottling Day three months later) |
The list is step one. Here's everything else.
A shopping list gets the gear in your basement. These get the wine in your glass.
The 4-week vs 6-week timeline
Side-by-side day-by-day plan from juice to bottle. Pin it next to the carboy.
Step-by-step how-to guides
Sanitize, pitch, rack, stabilize, bottle — every step with the gotchas Russ learned the hard way.
Compare prices across vendors
Every item on the lists has a product page with current prices at the major online shops.
Quick questions
Are these lists really free?+
Yes. Drop your email, get the PDF. We'll email you the occasional winemaking tip from Russ — unsubscribe any time. No upsell, no paywall, no 'pro version.'
Why no prices on the lists?+
Prices change weekly and shops vary by region. The lists are intentionally store-agnostic so they work whether you're in Detroit, Denver, or Devon. Our product pages have current price comparisons if you want them.
Will this work at my local homebrew shop?+
If they sell winemaking supplies, yes. Every item on every list is bog-standard gear — buckets, carboys, airlocks, sanitizer, corks. Nothing exotic.
Do I need all three lists?+
No. Start with Beginner Supply. Grab Bottling Day three months later when your wine is clear. Premium Red Aging is for after you've finished a couple of batches and want to step up.
Print one. Take it to the shop. Make wine.
That's it. That's the whole pitch. Pick a list and grab the PDF.
Browse the lists