Wine making at wilkinsons

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Wine making at wilkinsons
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2steps

Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 5349
Location: Surrey

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 05 2:04 pm Post subject: Wine making at wilkinsons
While looking for a thermometer in town today I found that wilkos have a good selection of brewing stuff including kits and tins of various juices. People may already know but I thought it'd be worth posting

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18415

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 05 2:10 pm Post subject:
Well, I didn't know. Good, 'cos there's a Wilko in Carlisle (nothing like going abroad to do one's shopping !) I stopped homebrewing for years after Boots stopped selling kit(s). Only started again when I discovered dedicated homebrew shops in cities I sometimes go to.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 05 2:15 pm Post subject:
The one in Swindon has a small range, but it is pretty lame really.

2steps

Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 5349
Location: Surrey

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 05 3:48 pm Post subject:
gbst, I went to boots when I started this year as I remembered seeing equipment in there years ago but they had none. In the end I bought my stuff online apart from the demi john that we already had

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 05 3:51 pm Post subject:
Years since Boots had anything. Wilkinsons ain't bad for the basic equipment.

Mat S

Joined: 07 Nov 2004
Posts: 282
Location: Leicester

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 05 7:53 pm Post subject:
There are still a few independant chemists selling homebrew kit.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 05 8:44 pm Post subject:

A small Boots where I work has two large displays of diet foods and no home brew equipment, shocking. I've used independant shops I tracked down but my biggest success in the recent shop local campaign is finding a local homebrew shop.

(Thanks to OH's friend).

I've looked before but not found a local one and checking tonight it's under "Brewers' Equipment" in Yell rather than "homebrewing". I may send them an email suggesting they change this.

Rachel

Joined: 26 Aug 2005
Posts: 27
Location: Northampton

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 05 8:34 am Post subject: Winemaking at Wilkinsons
Morrisons supermarkets sell a range of beer and wine kits, sterilising powder, labels and corks. No bins or demijohns or tubing but well worth a look if you have equipment and just want a kit. Their basic red wine is a good standby, mine came out tasting rather like Rose D'Anjou which was nice (then my teenagers discovered it one half term evening so it did not last long )

giraffe

Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 272
Location: Nottingham

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 05 8:55 am Post subject:

yep I use Wilko's for home brew stuff because they have a good range and it's not a bad price at all. Apart from specialist shops, it's the only place near me which even sells demijohns! Disgraceful! I went into the kitchen department of a very big department store - you know the kind of place which sells special grapefruit knives and microwave egg boilers

and the guy didn't even know what a demijohn was!

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 05 11:14 am Post subject: Re: Winemaking at Wilkinsons

Rachel wrote:

Morrisons supermarkets sell a range of beer and wine kits, sterilising powder, labels and corks. No bins or demijohns or tubing but well worth a look if you have equipment and just want a kit. Their basic red wine is a good standby, mine came out tasting rather like Rose D'Anjou which was nice (then my teenagers discovered it one half term evening so it did not last long

)

This must only be in the larger stores.

2steps

Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 5349
Location: Surrey

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 05 12:04 pm Post subject:

giraffe wrote:

I went into the kitchen department of a very big department store - you know the kind of place which sells special grapefruit knives and microwave egg boilers

and the guy didn't even know what a demijohn was!

same thing here! yesterday I was trying to buy a thermometer, (you'd of thought they'd be easy to buy.....) and they didn't have one, though they had many special ones for mesuring the temperature of cook meat, poultry and fish but no standard everyday one

Forager

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 144

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 05 3:01 pm Post subject:
Boots pulled out of the homebrew market a couple of years ago sadly. The market has collapsed really, it's certainly a shadow of what it was and as such it probably wasn't sustainable for them. Maybe Wilkinsons/Morrisons have spotted a niche they can fill.

Mat S

Joined: 07 Nov 2004
Posts: 282
Location: Leicester

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 05 3:30 pm Post subject:

Forager wrote:

Boots pulled out of the homebrew market a couple of years ago sadly.

But not before they had killed off just about all the independant specialist homebrew shops.

Forager wrote:

The market has collapsed really, it's certainly a shadow of what it was and as such it probably wasn't sustainable for them. Maybe Wilkinsons/Morrisons have spotted a niche they can fill.

Maybe nobody wants to open up homebrew shops because a) people have given up brewing because they can't buy the kit or b) they fear Boots will kill their market again. Bitter, me?

Wilkinsons sometimes has homebrew stuff, it's far too useful for my local Morrisons to stock. I'd still go to the chemist anyway.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 05 3:33 pm Post subject:

Forager wrote:

Boots pulled out of the homebrew market a couple of years ago sadly. The market has collapsed really, it's certainly a shadow of what it was and as such it probably wasn't sustainable for them. Maybe Wilkinsons/Morrisons have spotted a niche they can fill.

I'm not arguing, but where is the evidence the market has collapsed?

marigold

Joined: 02 Sep 2005
Posts: 12458
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 05 4:12 pm Post subject:
I'm not a home-brewer (don't drink), but there IS a home-brew shop very near to where I currently live, so presumably there is a market for their products here. Maybe it's an idea for a little downsizer business in some areas? Or another product line for a farm shop or similar?

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