New Range Of Custom Made Wine Kits From HomeBrewWest

[HomeBrewWest]

We are going to sub contract the manufacturing of our own wine kits. We will have full control over what goes into them; essentially the more varietal grape juice / concentrate, the better the quality.

We have already brought great value to a massive range of goods, with prices dropping by up to 30% here in Ireland and this is set to continue over the coming months with new wholesale deals from new manufacturers. However, we have identified a gap with quality wine kits (think Cali Con, Beaverdale, and Kenridge kits).

We are confident we can manufacture quality kits and set great value RRPs for them here in Ireland.

The thing is that we will have to manufacture huge quantities, so initially we want to run with a popular red and a popular white.

We are thinking Merlot and Pinot Grigio initially?

What do you guys think?

[LordEoin]

sounds like a good plan.
I generally keep away from wine kits because of the cost.
Cheaper kits would probably get me buying wine kits again

i dont drink white wine, but merlot would be the red i'd buy/drink the most

[Greg2013]

As Eoin alluded to the cost of wine kits puts off a lot of people so i think whatever ye choose to start with if ye have to make a lot and thus sell a lot then an average 35-40 euro per kit that i have seen on a fair few sites here and in the UK will stop a lot of customers from buying a kit to begin with. Then again thats just my opinion.

As for the white i would go with a medium to sweet white as i reckon it would appeal to a wider clientele.

[HomeBrewWest]

Wow, must say I am surprised about the price comments. I've been telling people for years that the wine kits are better value than beer kits. Works out at less than a euro a bottle for many wines (e.g. DOCs on sale at the moment), and only about 2 euros a bottle for a top quality kit.

Beer can often be found really cheap in supermarkets, and is good quality. But a cheap wine is still 6 euros a bottle and usually tastes poor.

We were thinking along the lines of a Cali Con / Beaverdale equivalent, but up to 20% cheaper. This would still leave the price in the 45 to 50 euro bracket though !

[Greg2013]

And therein lies the problem. No good saying that it works out cheap per bottle for say 30 bottles if its still going to cost 50 euro to buy it in the first place. What i was trying to say above is that initial cost is often forgotten about when shops are pricing,cheap per unit finished product not really the issue tbh.

This is just my opinion but if you want to sell a lot, quality being a given, then you are going to HAVE to offer something in the same price range as the beer kits, otherwise you are fighting a losing battle.

Not comparing like with like but why do you think that people are buying lidl grape juice and brewing their own "inmate" wine ? I have nothing against your shop,actually i am expecting a delivery from ye in the next few days

Look guys like me on a budget are never going to pay more than 20-25 for a kit regardless of whether its wine or beer. If i could get a wine kit for 20 quid i would have several on right now

[HomeBrewWest]

I suppose the problem is that with beer, you probably make 23 litres of 4 to 5% ABV; whereas with wine, its 23 litres to 12 to 14% ABV. I guess its just not possible to make quality wine for the same price.

The funny thing is that we did launch iBrew wine kits which make 15 bottles (so cheaper per kit), but not as successful as we had hoped (probably because equipment is usually designed for 6 or 30 bottles, and the iBrew equipment although excellent is expensive).

The only way we can get into the 20 to 30 euro range with decent quality 30 bottle kits is with the special offers we secure from HB every now and again (e.g. DOCs, and Magnum Ultimates).

[LordEoin]

The thought of 30 bottles of wine hurts my liver in advance.
If you launched a nice 6 bottle (gallon) kit it would be the one I'd buy anyway.
Judging by the amount of out-of-stock 6 bottle kits here, others might think the same.
After all, you could just use a couple of 5L water bottles (€1.29 each in Lidl, 'spring water' included) as FVs if you don't have the equipment.

[HomeBrewWest]

Point taken. And its a good one. We have been a bit sloppy with the 6 bottle kits because we are waiting for a whole new range to be announced. More info after HB get here next Saturday (23rd). We will be offering great value glass based starter kits too since we are shortly going to be announcing a new wholesale deal with Italian suppliers.

So, in summary, all should be fixed in about 4 weeks of so.

[JerryMcC]

Any update on this?

[HomeBrewWest]

HB are focusing on their new 3 to 4 Kg beer kits, their new 6 bottle wine kits are next on the agenda but still a couple of months away    Our custom 30 bottle kits are also going to take some time as we will have to sample several iterations to get them right, so probably late summer.

We have just placed an order with Italian manufacturers for a 20 ft container of goods, more detail to follow as soon as we have a final inventory and details on when it will all arrive.

Needless to say, we can see some great value equipment on the horizon. 23 litre carboys are hard to ship, so we won't be seeing huge savings with online orders there. But we do expect to launch a new 6 bottle wine equipment kit based on glass demijohns at a very competitive price.