celler

[kaizen]

My celler is the garage. We were at 100-110 temp for the last
week. I don't want to think what the inside of the garage
was. What is the affect of the high temps for the wine in the
carboy.



Any tips on how to keep the wine at a reasonable temp for fermenting.
No basement and my wife doesn't want all the carboys in the house.



Although I might have to pull a coup and get everything into somewhere.

 

[MedPretzel]

Soak a towel in cold water and put it on your carboys. It gets the temp down a little, but not much.


The effect of high temps are usually seen at fermentation (either goes a lot faster than "normal" or it doesn't do anything at all). I don't know from first-hand experience, but this is what I have heard.





Using some logic, though, if you start a must with fresh fruit, the higher temps probably encourage spoilage of the fruit. But again, just my logic, not proven.





Well, try the wet-towel trick. I am sure it will bring it down a few degrees.





Hope this helps,








Martina

 

[Hippie]

You wines will age very fast if kept too warm, but probably not in a good way. A coup is definitely in order.

 

[geocorn]

You really need to keep your wines under 80 degrees.

 

[kaizen]

a coup it is.

 

[cbwenger]

might be easier to put the wife in the garage, and make room for the carboys!!!

 

[kaizen]

Nay, I have too much time into training her. Don't want to lose
my investment over something that I can get away with. (Somehow
the wine found its way into the office closet. Weird, cause I
did't do it -- at least nothing anybody can prove)

 

[geocorn]

I could not agree more with Kaizen! Good wifes are worth keeping happy. Happy wives let us make more wine for them.

This may be giving you a bad idea, but I converted my office closet into a wine cellar.

Now, nobody complains.

 

[cbwenger]

more bad ideas.... i was looking through wine books at Barnes and Nobles, and there was a home wine cellar making book and wine racks, and they actually showed how to convert a closet into a climate controlled (refridgerated basically) wine area... looked fairly simple, especially compared to some of the other projects they had... it was good just to look through for different ideas (and to dream) ... smart decision w/ the wife, if you tried the switch, you probably would be sleeping on the couch in the garage, w/ the wine....hhhhmmmm, that gives me an idea

 

[Waldo]

I Edited by: Waldo

 

[kaizen]

My beautiful wife "talked" me into building a 8x10 shed in the backyard
to use as cellar storage and cold fermation. Been checking into
how to insulate and what cooler to use. Anybody have expirence
with WhisperKool?

 

[Maui Joe]

Aloha Kaizen!


You can save alot of money by just using an A/C unit. For an 8x10 size cellar, all you need is a unit around 5,000 btu. Try and get one with a remote control. Radio Shack sells a "thermo control" that you just place beneath the temp control element and you can "tweak" the a/c to 55 degrees easily. I checked into all those expensive "wine cellar" coolers and no need to go there!


Mine has been running for almost two years 24/7 without problems. To keep the humidity up as previously mentioned, just keep an open container of H20 in the roomwith a humidity/temp gauge and you got it! Radio Shack also sells an "indoor-outside temp unit that will show you the temps without even opening the door to check. Total investment under $150.00

 

[cbwenger]

no experience w/ whisperkool, but for that size area, a small AC unit for $70-80 at lowe's or wal-mart will be adequate for cooling, might not give you the astetics that you are looking for though, also in Winemaker magaize from march/april (i think) they talk about going about making a wine cellar... although that article is intended for adding on to a basement, the insulation might be of some help, also, a book i saw in Barnes and Nobles talks about building many different types of wine cellars that will give you lots of different perspectives... can't remember the name of the book, but it's in the Wine and Spirits section, which is small, and the only main feature book there on wine cellarsEdited by: cbwenger

 

[Hi In The Pines]

I dont want to seem dumb, but what is the purpose of having a cool place to store wines, including humidity? Cold Fermentation?

 

[cbwenger]

its best to have wines stored in appropriate temperatures, ideally around 60-65 degrees, for the aging process.... if they get too warm, they will cook and lose a lot of their good qualities, not to mention, if it gets too hot, the wine will expand in the bottle and push on the corks.... if temperature is sporadic, then the wine will expand in heat, detract in cold, and this moving in and out will pull oxygen into the bottle and thus cause oxidation and ruin the wine... and don't worry about being dumb, a question is never dumb, what i did wine last night, now that was dumb... (see long story, if you didn't read already), everyone has a waysto go to top that!!!!

 

[Cove Cottage]

Robb, after reading yourpost and all thecomments aboutwhere to store carboys, Ithought I would share our solution.


We can definitely relate to the carboy storage problem! Since we live in a 2 bedroom cottage in <?amespace prefix = st1 ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficearttags" /><?:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 /><ST1:STATE><ST1LACE>Florida</ST1LACE></ST1:STATE> where outside storage is not feasible, here’s our solution. We call her “The Lady in Black” and we keep her in the corner of our small dining room.Ya gotta be creative when you don’t have much space. Besides it keeps the wine out of the light and it’s a great conversation piece when company drops by.

 

[cbwenger]

gives Darlington a run for her money (for you NASCAR fans)


is she single, cause i'm sure she looks awfully good when you get her undressed!!!!!

 

[Cove Cottage]

Aye, single she is.But I gotta tell you ...she has lots of suitors.

 

[PolishWineP]

I think she's even prettier than Stinkie's Polly!

 

[MedPretzel]