Now I've Done it! The pressure is on!

[grapeman]

OK Jobe, here is a picture for you of the wines cooking. I love the assortment of colors in all the different wines. There are extras of some of the wines and they get condensed down at racking to fill the headspace when done fermenting. The wines include:
LaCrescent, St. Pepin, Prairie Star, Sabrevois, St. Croix, Petite Amie, NY 76.084.24, Frontenac Gris, Marquette and Frontenac.

 

[Goodfella]

Ummmm......ummmmmmm....... I guess I'm speachless!!!

 

[Tom]

A true rainbow of colors !

 

[AlFulchino]

Rich, how are you heating this area? what is the square feet of it? and what temp are you able to keep it at?

 

[Wade E]

Since I was there yesterday I can answer some of this for him. He has a small baseboard heater in there and the rest is heated by everything fermenting! Id say the room is about 200 sq. feet approx.

 

[grapeman]

The room is 18 x 15 feet or 270 sq ft. It is insulated some, but I need to redo the insulation. It stays about 65 degrees until it gets really cold. Like Wade says, 15 fermenters going at once generate a fair amount of heat. When I start mlf, I kick the heat up a notch to try for about 70 degrees.

 

[AlFulchino]

great.....is the baseboard heat an electric model?

i am going w an electric unit and was told to expect $1 per day in heat/electric costs

 

[Wade E]

Get yourself a Hydroelectric as it will save some money. It has a special fluid in there which will retain the heat like an old cast iron heater does. It doesnt cost that much more up front and will save you money with the heaters staying warm for awhile unlike a plain electric baseboard does. I bought ours for our basement at HomeDepot and they work great.

 

[Dean]

I use oil filled electric radiators like this one

They work awesome and are cheap to run.

 

[grapeman]

I have two of those Dean that I use around the house and office. They do work great.


The heater I use in the winery is an oil filled baseboard heater also and also works very well. I'm not looking to replace it at this time.

 

[xanxer82]

wow! that's a lot of carboys. Are they all glass or do you use better bottles too? Currently I have two 6 gal. better bottles.
I got a cheap gallon of merlot that i'm using to cook with. (mm mmm venison stew) and i plan to use the just to ferment a concoction i'm working on.
That is a great array of colors there too.
Good luck on your endeavor! Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[grapeman]

I am working with the project to make 10 carboys of wine. 1 each of 10 varieties from the cold hardy trial are being made to compare to ones made in the lab winery at Geneva. These are all glass. The extra ones are just the beginning of my own. I make 30+ carboys of my own. All but 6 of them are glass. I can transfer with a vacuum that way.

 

[Wade E]

He does have a few Better Bottles though, I seen them on the shelf!

 

[grapeman]

That's right. The six that aren't glass are Better Bottles! You can't use vacuum on them- they flatten.................. I much prefer the glass, they are just slippery when wet. I don't care for the new Italian carboys. They got me ten for the Willsboro Wines. They are taller and narrower in diameter. The bottoms are more rounded and make it difficult to handle them without handles.

 

[xanxer82]

I'll be sure to avoid the italian carboys. They sounds like a hassle. I've been wondering about vacuum racking and it's gotta be less messy than the human powered suction method. it took a little practice to clamp the tub so i could resanitize the end before putting it in the carboy and still hold the siphon action.

 

[Tom]

I'll be sure to avoid the italian carboys. They sounds like a hassle. I've been wondering about vacuum racking and it's gotta be less messy than the human powered suction method. it took a little practice to clamp the tub so i could resanitize the end before putting it in the carboy and still hold the siphon action.

Now you dont have a choice. The Mexician ones went out of business. So, the Italian ones are the only ones available.

 

[AlFulchino]

"the new Italian carboys. They got me ten for the Willsboro Wines. They are taller and narrower in diameter."

the point of them being narrower..is more space on yourshelf.

 

[grapeman]

"the new Italian carboys. They got me ten for the Willsboro Wines. They are taller and narrower in diameter."

the point of them being narrower..is more space on yourshelf.

That's right and they do. I just wish the bottom wasn't as rounded- oh well, gotta live with them.

 

[xanxer82]

I'd be really upset to have a glass carboy slip on the wedges because it's too rounded. Perhaps I can find a used one somewhere. Craigs List is proving fruitless (hehe) I did find a nice press but it's out of my budget right now.

 

[grapeman]

Don't worry about that. They aren't like a ball or anything. I have jsut handled so many carboys with the slightly flattened semi-rounded edges that the new ones seem different.