Beginner Craft Making Guides

Wine kit with juice bag and ingredient packets
New: 23 Free Winemaking Guides for Wine Kit Makers
We turned our winemaking booklet into 23 free guides covering every stage of a wine kit: hydrometer readings, degassing, clearing, corks, bottling and aging. Read more...
14.5% Heavy-Bodied Crush Grapes (17 L | 4.43 gal) Wine Kits
Wine From Kits: What the Instructions Don’t Always Tell You
Our complete guide to making wine from kits: equipment, fermentation, additives, clearing, bottling, corking and aging, all in one place. Read more...
Wine Starter Kit Superior
How to Make Wine From a Kit: Step-by-Step Timeline
The full wine kit process from day 1 to bottling day, with the hydrometer reading that tells you when to move to each step. Read more...
Triple Scale Hydrometer (25 cm | 9.8 in)
How to Use a Hydrometer for Winemaking
How to read a wine hydrometer, what the specific gravity numbers mean, and the readings that tell you when to move to the next step. Read more...
Bordeaux Glass Bottle (750 ml | 26.4 oz)
Bottling Day Checklist
Bottles, corks, corkers, shrink caps, labels and the steps to bottle your homemade wine. Read more...
Wine Starter Kit Superior
What You Need for Your First Batch of Wine
The wine kit, equipment and bottling supplies you need to make your first 23 L batch of wine at home. Read more...
Wine Thief Touch Tip (45 cm | 17.72 in)
Winemaking Glossary: Wine Kit Terms Explained
Plain-English definitions of the winemaking terms you will see on wine kit instructions. Read more...
Oak Chips for Winemaking (50 g | 1.7 oz)
Oak Chips, Elderberries and Glycerin in Wine Kits
How to add oak flavour without overdoing it, and what elderberries and glycerin do in kit wine. Read more...
Wine Conditioner (500 ml | 16.9 oz)
How to Sweeten Homemade Wine (Back-Sweetening Kit Wine)
How to soften or sweeten finished kit wine safely, and how much wine conditioner to use. Read more...
Auto-Siphon Wine Thief with Tubing and Clamp Pack
How to Rack Wine: Siphoning Without the Sediment
How to siphon wine from one container to another and leave the sediment behind. Read more...
Carboy Glass (23 L | 6 gal)
Primary vs Secondary Fermenter: Pails, Carboys and Airlocks
What each fermenter does, which sizes you need, and how to set up an airlock. Read more...
Plastic-Coated Steel Wine Racks
How to Store and Age Homemade Wine
Where and how to store homemade wine, and how long to let it age before drinking. Read more...
Gold Shrink Caps Pack of 100
How to Apply Shrink Caps to Wine Bottles
Why shrink caps are worth adding, and the easiest ways to apply them at home. Read more...
Siphon Valve Fillers Spring Loaded and Valve Filler
How to Fill Wine Bottles: Fill Level, Headspace and Tips
How full to fill each bottle, how to avoid oxidation, and what to do with the bottles after corking. Read more...
Bellissima Green Bottle 12 per Case (375 ml | 12.6 oz)
Wine Bottle Guide: Shapes, Colours, Sizes and How to Clean Them
Bottle shapes, colours and sizes, plus how to clean used bottles and get the labels off. Read more...
Floor Corker Portuguese Single Lever (17 1/2 x 15 1/4 x 27 in)
How to Cork Wine Bottles: Preparing Corks and Using a Corker
How to prepare corks for hand and floor corkers, and how to avoid corks that leak, push out or shred. Read more...
Agglomerated Cork #8 Short (38 mm x 22 mm | 1.5 in x 0.87 in)
Which Wine Cork Should I Use? #8 vs #9 and Cork Types Explained
Cork sizes, lengths and grades compared, and how to choose the right cork for how long you plan to keep your wine. Read more...
Filter Pads #2 Fine Solid (19.8 cm x 19.8 cm | 7.8 x 7.8 in)
How to Filter Homemade Wine: Filter Pads #1, #2 and #3
Which filter pads to use, how to set up a manual or electric filter, and how to avoid the most common filtering mistakes. Read more...
Bentonite (250 g | 8.8 oz)
Why Is My Homemade Wine Cloudy? How to Clear Wine
The common reasons wine stays cloudy, and how fining agents, temperature and time clear it. Read more...
Complete Add Pack for Winemaking Kits (86 g | 3 oz)
Wine Kit Additives Explained: What Each Packet Does
A plain-English guide to the packets in your wine kit: what each one does and when it goes in. Read more...
Campden Tablets (250 g | 8.8 oz)
Sulphites in Homemade Wine: Allergies, Headaches and the Facts
What sulphites are, why nearly all wine contains them, and how sulphites, histamines and tannins differ. Read more...
Potassium Metabisulphite
Potassium Metabisulphite vs Campden Tablets: Sulphites in Winemaking
What sulphites do, the difference between potassium and sodium metabisulphite, and when Campden tablets make sense. Read more...
B-Brite 3 in 1 Cleaning Powder (454 g | 1 lb)
Cleaning vs Sanitizing Winemaking Equipment
Why cleaning and sanitizing are two separate steps, and how to do each one properly. Read more...
Yeast Nutrient (250 g | 8.8 oz)
Is My Wine Kit Fermenting? How to Fix a Stuck Fermentation
No bubbles does not always mean a problem. How to tell if a wine kit is really stuck and how to get it going again. Read more...
Fizz-X All-Metal Wine Degassing & Mixing Drill Attachment (38.1 cm | 15 in)
How to Degas Wine (and Why It Matters)
Why carbon dioxide has to come out before bottling, and the easiest way to degas a wine kit. Read more...
Vinometer (13 cm | 5.11 in)
How to Calculate the Alcohol Content of Homemade Wine
Three ways to work out the alcohol content of your homemade wine, with a worked example. Read more...
Craft Distilling Turbo Yeast Extreme Alcohol Kit (405 g | 14.29 oz)
Beginner’s Guide to Turbo Yeast Craft Fermentation
Turbo yeast makes it easy to prepare a clean, high-alcohol sugar wash for craft fermentation. The Alcobase Extreme Turbo Yeast kit includes the yeast, carbon, and clearing agents needed to... Read more...
Crafted Series Cider Making Kits
Beginner’s Guide to Craft Cider Kits
Craft cider making is simple with a cider ingredient kit. The kit includes the cider concentrate, yeast, flavouring, and sweetener needed to make approximately 23 litres of cider. Cider-making equipment, dextrose,... Read more...
Crafted Series | Passport Series Beer Making Kits
Beginner’s Guide to Craft Beer Making Kits
Craft beer making is simple with a canned beer ingredient kit. The kit provides the malt extract and brewing yeast needed to make approximately 23 litres, or 5 US gallons, of... Read more...
13.5% Heavy-Bodied (16 L | 4.22 gal) Wine Kits
Beginner’s Guide to Craft Winemaking
Craft winemaking is easy with a complete wine ingredient kit. The kit includes the grape juice concentrate, yeast, stabilizers, and clarifying ingredients needed to make approximately 23 litres, or 30 bottles,... Read more...