fridge for hot months?

[yoyo]

in the summer it gets hot and i don't have enough room to do it in my house, i am planning to use my shed outdoors.
has anyone used a fridge to make the wine to keep it at the right temp while your are making it/
just thinking of ways i can do this year round. anythoughts.

 

[myway22]

You can let your wine age in the fridge if you adjust the temperature, but the fermantation process needs to be done at 65 to 75 degrees. I don't know that you can keep it at that in a fridge. I guess it depends on the fridge. If you can get it to that temperature, I don't see why not.Edited by: myway22

 

[scotty]

time the fermentation process and age in the fridge till the cooler month arrive.

 

[yoyo]

what do you mean time the fermantation, i beleive i can put the fridge on a low setting for the whole process, if that is so i don't think there would be a problem, unless yall know something i don't

 

[grapeman]

If you try it in the fridge for the whole process make sure you have a thermometer to monitor the temp with. You will want to make sure the must is at about 68-72 degrees when you start it. The refrigerator may not allow for those high of temps.

 

[Wade E]

A typical fridge will not go above around 45*. I would buy a thermometer and see what yours will go up to on its lowest setting but Ive never seen 1 go near that high. You can buy a separate thermostat and plug it into that from what Ive heard though.

 

[myway22]

Wow, my first bit of advice that made sense

.

 

[andy123]

the fridge idea holds promise.i bought a brewers thermostat from johnson controls.the fridge plugs into it and a probe goes inside the fridge. 69' f on demand.before i got it i fermented in a unplugged fridge using milk jugs of ice to control temps,itrequires more attension.

 

[joeswine]

HI FELLOW WINO'S,I made strawberry wine with champain yeast under cold frementation,I used a standard fridg. raised it up to its warmest setting,and let it happen,the fermentation is very slow but under the right conditions its not that big of a problem,just takes a lot longer however it not only does ferment,it helps clear as well as stablize ,I do peach F/PACS the same way,place peaches (fresh) and simple syurp in a ball jar,let sit a room temp for a week with the lid not tight ,then place in frig, with the lid tight let it set a month then taste,you'll see the fermentation bobbles start as soon as you open up the lid replace it in the fridg. until you need it,remember ICE WINE is totally processed under cold conditions and then bottled,if I'am not mistaken

you beer makers have a tipocal process also

Edited by: joeswine

 

[Mark]

I'm in Southern California and don't have room in the house to make wine. So I stuck an old refrigerator in the garage (where it can go over 100 in the summer) and use the thermostat linked below to keep the temp wherever I want (72 for fermenting, 62 for bulk aging, 40 for cold stabilization). All it takes is a few button-pushes. This particular fridge undershoots by about 6 degrees, but it tends to come back up quickly to hover within a few degrees of the set point. Only disadvantage is that it'll only hold one primary or carboy at a time. It's a great way to keep making wine through the hot season.During winter the garageregularly goes below the 70s so I use a second thermostat connected to a carboy heating blanket taped to the inside of the fridge (similar to a brew belt but larger) to raise the internal temp. The combination of the two keeps it anywhere I need it to be with no babysitting. (Might be somewhat of an overkill but it works very well!) You can also splice an extension to the sensor so the thermostat itself stays outside of the fridge for easy monitoring of the actual temps. (I'll follow up witha picture tomorrow...)


http://www.luxproducts.com/thermostats/win100.htm

 

[andy123]

mark,that sounds sweet. sort of carboy central air.my johnson controls brewers thermostat is real similar,but not digital. its surprising to me that you need the carboy blanket. i'm in central fl and evenwhen 40'f nights on my porch the fridge stays at 68 from yeast activity.

 

[Mark]

I use the setup for everything from primary through bulk aging and cold stabilization, year-round. The carboy blanket keeps the temp up at night in the winter - when there's no fermentation going on it can drop below where I want it and the blanket fixes that.

 

[smurfe]

<a href="http://kegman.net/9025.html" target="_blank">




http://kegman.net/9025.html</A>


You can use one of these. This is what I use.See if George can get you one or search around. I paid less than that but I don't want to post links to other brew sites here that are competition.

 

[hannabarn]

I have that kegman on my pepsi cooler and it is keeping the temp at a steady 55 degrees. I paid about $50 for it someplace. Don't remember where!