Both, and at different stages. One gallon of hedgerow wine needs two vessels: a five litre food grade plastic bucket with a lid for the first fermentation, where whole crushed fruit ferments vigorously for about three days, and a five litre container fitted with an airlock for the longer second fermentation, which can be a glass demijohn or simply a second bucket. Add kitchen scales, a siphon tube and some bottles and the list is finished. Our Hedgerow Wine Making Kit supplies the ingredients rather than the equipment, so this is the shopping list that goes with it, and most of it you buy once and use forever.
Why a bucket for the first fermentation?
Because the first fermentation is messy, crowded and lively, and a demijohn is the wrong shape for all three.
At this stage the crushed fruit is still in the liquid. You need to get it in, stir it, and eventually get it out again, and a narrow glass neck makes every one of those jobs miserable. A bucket has a wide open top, so fruit goes in by the bowlful and comes out with a straining bag or sieve.
The first fermentation is also the vigorous one. Yeast working on fresh fruit throws up a thick foaming cap, and you need headspace above the liquid for it to rise into. A five litre bucket holding a gallon leaves exactly that. Fill a demijohn to the shoulder at this stage and you will find the foam in the airlock and the wine on the floor.
Make sure it is food grade and that it has a lid. An old builder's bucket is not suitable, and a bucket that once held anything strongly scented will pass that on to the wine.
Why a demijohn for the second?
The second fermentation is the opposite: slow, quiet and long, with the fruit gone and only liquid left. Now the enemy is air rather than foam.
A demijohn is the traditional answer because its narrow neck gives the wine the smallest possible surface in contact with the air above it, and because glass lets you watch the wine clear, which is genuinely useful when you are deciding whether to rack or wait. Glass also does not scratch, and scratches in plastic are where stubborn bacteria hide.
That said, a second bucket with an airlock fitted in the lid does the job perfectly well and is lighter, cheaper and much harder to break. If you would rather not lift five litres of glass, you are not compromising the wine.
What else do you actually need?
- An airlock and a bung or grommet. Fill the airlock halfway with water and push it into the bung in the demijohn or the grommet in the bucket lid. It lets carbon dioxide out and keeps air away from the wine, and watching bubbles rise through the water is the most satisfying part of the whole process.
- Kitchen scales. The recipe table works in weights, so guessing the fruit and sugar is the quickest way to an unbalanced wine.
- A siphon tube. This is how you move the wine off its sediment and later into bottles, without tipping and stirring everything back up.
- Bottles. Reused screw top wine bottles are ideal and cost nothing. Swing tops look smarter if you are giving a bottle away, and corked bottles work if you have a corker and fresh corks.
- A large spoon, a funnel and a straining bag or sieve. All things most kitchens already own.
Two optional extras earn their keep. A stick-on brewing thermometer costs very little and takes the guesswork out of keeping the wine in the range the yeast likes. A hydrometer is the only way to know the strength of a finished wine, and it also tells you whether a slow fermentation is genuinely stuck or simply finished.
What size, and why five litres for a gallon?
A gallon is about four and a half litres, which is six standard bottles, so a five litre vessel gives you the wine plus a little room. That headroom matters more in the bucket, where the foam needs somewhere to go, and less in the demijohn, where you want the wine reasonably close to the neck to keep air off it.
Resist the temptation to scale straight up to something enormous on your first attempt. The recipes scale directly, so bigger batches are perfectly possible, but it is worth making one gallon of a new recipe and finding out whether you love it before you commit twenty litres to it.
Keeping it all clean
Every piece of equipment that touches the fruit or the wine gets sterilised, every time, using the steriliser in the kit, which is sodium metabisulphite. That means both vessels, both lids, the bung or grommet, the airlock, the spoon, the funnel, the straining bag, the siphon tube and the bottles. Do it in one session before you start rather than in dribs and drabs.
The two most often forgotten are the siphon tube, which spends the longest in contact with a wine you have waited months for, and the airlock, which sits in warm damp air for weeks. Keep the steriliser and the stabiliser tablet away from children, and if either is swallowed, even diluted in water, seek medical advice immediately and take the packet with you so the active chemical, sodium metabisulphite, can be identified.
Keep the wine somewhere with a steady temperature between 22 and 27 degrees Celsius, away from direct sunlight and cold draughts, and it will be ready in eight to twelve weeks. The kit's allergen line is contains sulphur dioxide and sulphites, every ingredient is listed on the pack, and if you have an allergy question, email hello@sandyleaffarm.com before ordering. Wine making is for adults aged 18 and over.
Wine making equipment FAQs
Can I use a demijohn for the whole process?
Not comfortably. The first fermentation has crushed fruit in the liquid and foams vigorously, so it wants a five litre bucket with a lid and some headspace. Move to the demijohn once the fruit is strained off.
Can I use a bucket instead of a demijohn for the second fermentation?
Yes. A second five litre bucket with an airlock fitted in the lid works perfectly well. The demijohn simply exposes less wine to the air and lets you see how it is clearing.
What size demijohn do I need for one gallon?
Five litres. A gallon is about four and a half litres, or six standard bottles, so five litres holds the wine with a small amount of room to spare.
Do I need special bottles?
No. Reused screw top wine bottles are ideal, provided they are sterilised. Swing tops suit a bottle you are giving away, and corks are fine if you own a corker.
Does the kit include the bucket and demijohn?
No. Our hedgerow wine kit contains the winemaking ingredients and the recipe table, and you supply the fruit, sugar, water, vessels, airlock, siphon and bottles.
Got the buckets and need the rest? Have a look at our wine making kits.
