Home Brewing (Wine, Beer, Hard Cider)

Just wondering how many of us on here actually do this at home. I'm sure quite a bit as drinks always pair well with pipe and/or cigars.
I'm just getting into the hobby of home brewing myself. I have a 5wk batch of Merlot that has 4wks to go, a batch of Hard Cider (made with Allen's Apple Juice and Cooper's Ale yeast) that is in it's settling/clarifying stage. And I also have a batch of Apfelwien brewing along in anoter pail. All my batches are 3 gallon as I'm using 4/75 gallon pails. I have never done anything like this before and I thought there was more to it but there itsn't it is SO simple to make great tasting drinks at home. This fall I will be starting a traditional wine (no yeast, just juice and sugar)from fresh grapes or fresh pressed unpasturized juice. Living close to Niagara Region I have the option of several different kinds of quality grapes and juices.
Of course a post on this forum rarely goes without a few questions attached to it :P

I'm just wondering if anyone on here does wine in the old fasioned way of fresh juice/grapes and what is involved with that aspect of wine making. There isn't alot of info on the net about traditional wine making that explains any troubleshooting or failure rate of doing it that way but there's enough to give someone 'the bug'. Basically I don't want to spend a couple hundred bucks on juice/grapes only to have it turn into vinegar.

So if anyone could school me, guide me or maybe hint at a few tricks and tips that would be great. I'm not one to delve into something and not follow through or not follow instructions. If I do something it's 100% or not at all so don't worry, any words and wisdom will not go to waste
Also any info about home brew grain beers would be awesome too! Being German background I love beer and wine and espically hard ciders and apfelwein.

I work in a very busy and large volume sausage factory. Cleaning and sanitizing are no problem as it is routine with anything we do at work. Making the wine from the kit wasn't that hard. It took about 20min start to finish including cleanup. I've read and studied the instructions so I know the steps to take with this particular kit. I have just been craving natural, raw wine for almost two yrs now. I don't know anyone who makes it like that anymore but I know where to get juice and grapes
I was looking at fruit wines and sparkling wines as well (parent's request). I have my next kit picked out. A Riesling Ice Wine and a maybe a Sauv Blanc to add some variety to the 'cellar'. It's so easy it's dangerous to get carried away.. Kind of like pipes ::

I've heard of that book and I'm currently devising a list of books I want to read or at least glance through for some additional information.

I'm looking at making small batches of beer (2.5 - 3 gallons) so I would be brewing more often and that allows me to make different batches without worrying about storeage or having beer go bad from not consuming it in time. I have all the basic equipment already (primary, seconday, syphon, hydrometer, airlocks and bungs, and one 3Gal carboy)

I use a bleach solution of 1/3c to 1 Gallon of water and all my equipment is triple rinsed before using.

Ice Wines and Port wines appean to me too! LOL!
The kits are about $100 for 3 gallon of finished product. That's pretty damn good considering a basic bottle of Vidal or Riesling Ice Wine sells for about $20. It won't be exactly the same but it will give some satisfaction to a craving for the taste.

my first batch of hard cider did throw in about half cup of raisins I chopped up and boiled in half cup of water. I have forgotten to mention I did add sugar to hard cider (1kg bag of brown sugar) and I added a 2kg bag of white sugar to the apfelwein and I used champagne yeast for that one. First batch is clearing nicely and second batch is starting to slow down on the bubbles. It has been a full week since I started the Merlot and apfelwein. I'ts been three wks since I started the hard cider. I must say, I have had hard cider and apfelwein (both homemade by friends) and I enjoy the apfelwein moreso than the cider. I followed the direction of my firends who make apfelwein to add sugar to get it up to 18-21% ABV to give it that authentic kick. The predicted ABV when I checked original gravity was 22.5% I will see in a few days when it stops bubbling and I pull a sample. I want some strong, flavourful wine to drink like I had when I was Germany. If it isn't I'm damn sure going to keep trying because the little tastes I've had over the last three wks from mine and past couple yrs of friends' batches has given me a serious itch for home brewing lol!

I haven't tried mead yet but I'm thinking about it. There's a few honey farmers around here so finding it isn't a problem. I want to do more research (and try some if possible) before I try it out. If I make it I'm worried I might run the risk of not liking it. But knowing me I probably will.
I just racked my Merlot into secondary today and had a little taste from what was in the hydrometer test tube and it was pretty good! Now I wait another 22 days and I can bottle it or rack it into another carboy for bulk ageing for up to 2mo. I'm not sure what I want to do yet.

I work in a very busy sausage factory and cleaning and sanitizing is second nature with everything we do there. I've always been a neat freak so I don't think I will need to worry about infections or bad batches. I use supplies I purchased along side our cleaners at work (pink food grade soap and sanitizer we use on our machines/parts). Everything gets washed with the pink soap first then rinsed with HOT water (mine is about 130F) then I spray it with the sanitizer and rinse again with hot water. Wife and daughter say (it smells like a hospital when I'm washing my stuff)

Wine kits can make some very decent wine. Don't be afraid of them. The quality of nearly all the ingredients we have now is a huge leap from 20 years ago.

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I've heard that line probably a dozen times or more in the last month or so and it's so true. I had first taste of my Merlot this morning before I put the last clarifying agent in (chitosan) and it tastes amazing! I remember one of my highschool girlfriend's mom used to make home made wine and it tasted like dust sometimes or watery fruity alcohol. Wasn't very tasty but it did the trick for a couple 15yo lol.
My first batch of 'hard cider' is in the fridge. I had a half gallon last night and it's pretty damn good I must say so myself. I used Cooper's Ale yeast and let it ferment 15d then stopped fermentation with K-Met. Cleared it with wine clarifyers (kielselsol and chitosan) then bottled into (washed and sanitized) plastic 1Gal jugs that previously had apple cider in them from a local farm. Speaking on such topic of fresh pressed juice, I have access to fresh pressed cider, but not juice. I want to make apfelwein from fresh cider rather than Allen's Apple Juice from No Frill's grocery store. I know the farmer very well (I hunt his land to help control the deer in and around the orchard) and I'm sure he wouldn't have a problem with me sticking a couple 5Gal pails under the spout in exchange for a couple bottles of apfelwein or regular wine or half a days work on the farm. I shall see in the fall.
As for now, I'm letting my current two batches of apfelwein do their things for the next 5mo or so then they are going into 1Gal glass jugs to age until Oct(ish) before I bring them out to drink. In the mean time I will be making more apfelwein as my first batch turned out pretty good (for not knowing what I was doing) and I've tasted the difference between the two (ale yeast vs champagne yeast) and I much prefer the champagne yeast batch, it tastes so much like the apfelwein I had when I was in Germany (Possmans if I remember correctly) and I have been wanting a wine like that ever since asnd nothing compares to it here.
I'm thinking about doing beer but I want to get a better feel for it. I'm going to talk to the guys at the local HBS (Home Brew Store) and get more info as to what's involved with all grain brews and everything that goes along with it. The HBS is only three blocks from my house and they are super friendly and very cheap prices. They always have supplies in stock and have the best prices within a 50km radius of me so it's very convienent.
To give an idea of my cost to make apfelwein here's a little break down for someone thinking of getting into it: 12x 1L cans of Allen's Apple juice was $13. 1x 7g packet of Ale yeast was $1, a 3Gal glass carboy was $25. To buy a 6 x 344ml bottles of Grower's "hard apple' is about $14 at the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). That's 2L (or half gallon) for about half the price I made 3Gal for. The wine kit of Merlot was $45 and it will make 15 x 750ml (25.36 Oz) bottles. A bottle of 2013 Merlot from the LCBO is about $14-18 depending on country of origin. It is hell of alot cheaper to make my own compared to buying it, and paying 30% tax on every bottle and it will only have ABV that's allowed by LCBO and government regulations. The ABV of my apfelwein is about 15- 20%, the hard cider is about 8% (only 5.5% at LCBO) and my Merlot is sitting about 17.5% (no more than 13% at LCBO). I'm not looking to get smashed or become a raging alcoholic I just want to save some money when I have guests over or want to have a bottle of wine one evening. Not having to drive somewhere to get it and pay top price for it is what drew me into the hobby of home brewing.