Cold weather brewing

[maxwell_smart007]

I live in the frozen north, and I bought a pinot noir kit from FC ((french collection). It's a juice kit, not a concentrate.

Just after I bought it, winter set in, and now it's 15 degrees upstairs. It's about 12 degrees (C) in the basement where it'll be brewed.

Can I brew in this temp, or should I wait until spring. I have a brew belt, but I'm not sure if it's going to warm the wine up enough for the yeast to work.

Suggestions?

Andrew

 

[Craig]

Use a brew belt or a heating device to raise the temp of your primary and later secondary fermenters. A cool temp when starting the ferment may delay or halt fermentation. Raise the temp of the primary to between 21 C (70F) and 24 C (75F). I find the a lower temp for the secondary is OK (so far). For aging 12 C will work well. I'm in Winnipeg, it's cold here too!

 

[xoltri]

15!? My wife would die.

But what you could try is fill a fermenter with water of the proper temperature (21-24) and then leave it for a day with the brew belt on. Check it after 24 hours and see if it holds the temperature required. Then you know you should be OK...or not.

 

[Wade E]

When starting the kit get the temp up to about 80* when adding the yeast by using hot water and then keep the brew belt on until your wine is fermented and degassed and clear. If you start that warm the yeast take right off and the brew belt will keep the temp within range. Keep the carb oy off of the floor or the bucket or crboy will draw the cold temp from the floor and cool it down.

 

[KSmith3011]

It is not for everyone but I built an insulated closet in my unheated outdoor shed. I made two chambers, each can hold 6-6 gal carboy's with airlock. In the bottom chamber I have a small temperature controlled electric space heater. The bottom chamber is maintaining 79*, the upper chamber is about 60*. It was a weekend project and cost about $150 US for the whole thing. With something like this you can have the flexibility to make wine all year.

 

[FishNiX]

It is not for everyone but I built an insulated closet in my unheated outdoor shed. I made two chambers, each can hold 6-6 gal carboy's with airlock. In the bottom chamber I have a small temperature controlled electric space heater. The bottom chamber is maintaining 79*, the upper chamber is about 60*. It was a weekend project and cost about $150 US for the whole thing. With something like this you can have the flexibility to make wine all year.

and freeze you a** off while racking and doing other work on your wine

 

[cpfan]

I live in the frozen north, and I bought a pinot noir kit from FC ((french collection). It's a juice kit, not a concentrate.

Just after I bought it, winter set in, and now it's 15 degrees upstairs. It's about 12 degrees (C) in the basement where it'll be brewed.

Can I brew in this temp, or should I wait until spring. I have a brew belt, but I'm not sure if it's going to warm the wine up enough for the yeast to work.

Suggestions?

Andrew

Personally I would wait for warmer weather, but then I suspect that I wouldn't survive in those conditions.

BTW, French Collection is a 23 litre 'no water-to-add' kit made from juice and concentrate. The manufacturer is Advintage.

Steve

 

[buddy]

I also built a fermentation chamber for my wine. I used a large cardboard box that was used to ship metal castings. The cardboard is 1 inch thick so it has a good insulation value. The box is large enough to fit 5 carboys inside.
I made two doors by making a vertical saw cut in the middle of one of the sides. This created two doors that pivot at the corners of the box. Above the doors is a viewing window that pivots upwards. The doors and window close up nice and tight when they are not being used. To heat the chamber I bought an aquarium heater from E bay like his one http://cgi.ebay.ca/200W-Tropical-Aq...557?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a0c21228d It fits inside one of my carboys that I have filled with water and K-meta. It has a very good temperature control so that the temperature inside the box never varies by more than one degree Celsius.
To monitor the temperature I use an indoor outdoor thermometer like this one http://cgi.ebay.ca/Indoor-Outdoor-D...623?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ca7c40aaf The nice thing about this thermometer is that it also records your minimum and maximum temperatures as well as the current temperature.