ambient temperature

[redlover]

I live on long island and the temp in the basement where i want to ferment my kit is around 76-80 pretty much staying at around 77 most of the time. Is this too Warm? should i wait until September when it is a little cooler or am i good to go?

 

[smurfe]

Around 70 is ideal. Your temps are pushing the high limits. Most recommend 75 as a top temp. I am surprised the temps are that high in a basement. When I lived in Illinois my basement stayed at a fairly constant 65 degrees year round. You can ferment at 77, you would just need to keep an eye on it and realize it may ferment faster than normal but you ought to be OK.


I just wish I could have one here. If I were to have a basement we would call it an indoor pool. The water table is about 3 foot down here where I live. Of course I do live in a swamp.

 

[masta]

The higher the ambient temp the faster the fermentation and more exothermic it will be and this can be a real issue.


See this post it will provide more info and ways to deal with it:


http://www.finevinewines.com/Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3259

 

[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 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. The garage stays close enough to reasonable temps the rest of the year so I don't need to use it.


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